TEXTUAL ANALYSIS OF A MUSIC VIDEO

 

Plan B - Writing's On The Wall

 

In this music video, which is set in both a club and a household, there is a contrast between the main characters home life and his job as a performer. Connotations of these settings show the juxtaposition between a slightly more boring home life to an exciting night life as a singer. This may be to get the audience to understand the narrative and appreciate the storyline.

Use of the colour yellow in the woman's attire shows that, due to being the highest in the spectrum, Plan B's wife offers hope and cheerfulness. This however, when compared with the lyrics from the male characters perspective show her as naïve.

 

The shot of the wife character at the bottom of the stairs is shown through a birds eye view angle of the camera suggesting extreme vulnerability. This displays to the audience that she is not in a superior situation and that she is being mistreated.

This close up shot connotes how lonely and vulnerable, emotionally, the wife character actually is. The importance of this shot is because it displays to the audience that the relationship isn't going to get back on track, matching with the lyrics of the song.

 

This shot clearly shows Strickland Banks cheating on his wife with the women he met in the bar. This emphasises the lyrics of the song and displays why they can't get back together, perhaps he doesn't love her anymore. The bars in front of the camera connote a sense of crime, maybe not of the law, but infidelity being a crime against his wife.

 

There is a juxtaposition between the editing speeds from both locations. The editing in the scenes where Plan B is either performing or his character Strickland Banks is at the club is much faster than the scenes in which his wife is at home cooking for him or getting ready. This shows how much fun he is having by the speed of the editing representing the fast paced life he leads when compared to the slow more depressing lifestyle of his wife. Standard cuts are used to not distract from the heavy narrative because it can be hard to follow.

 

The genre of this music video is pop/soul. The artist is known for this particular genre as he has albums with songs which are similar in style. The narrative of this particular song is about a love story between the character 'Strickland Banks' and his wife/girlfriend. The character; Strickland, is out performing a show whilst his partner is at home waiting for him to come back. Plan B's album is a running story of his character Strickland Banks. Each song is another chapter in the story, as is each video. This narrative is part of a bigger narrative about how Strickland Banks is accused of rape and is called on trial for it. Due to the genre of the artist and music, this sort of in-depth narrative is expected in the soul music genre. Just like Sam Smith, the narrative is heavy and is a very important part of the video. Todorov's theory cannot be applied to this video completely because of the structure. There is no equilibrium because the video both starts and ends within the problem of the relationship failing. The video actually reflect the lyrics of the song quite closely.

We ain't over but the writing's on the wall
We keep trying just so we can say we gave it all
We ain't over but the writing's on the wall
This time next year, we'll be no more

 

The couple are still together which is obvious by the fact that she is making him dinner because they are 'trying'. They 'aint over' but it's clear it will end and by 'this time next year' they'll be 'no more'.

 

The star is sold in a negative light due to him playing his made up character Strickland Banks. Banks is cheating on his wife which makes the audience not appreciate his character. His record label would have wanted to create a controversy and do something never been done before to get Ben Drew (Plan B) into the limelight. Coming from an independent label like Cordless Recordings it is vital to try and burst into the music scene with something new like an album which tells a whole story.

 

Audiences for Plan B would be mainly males from ages 15 - 35 by my estimation. I think this because the lyrics are too 'adult' for a younger audience and past 35 I think people wouldn't appreciate the mixture of Rap and Soul. The video is also fairly intense with symbolic nature and a strong narrative which younger audiences may not understand. One of the main ways audiences would view this video would be on YouTube. With only just over 1 million hits on YouTube it isn't as popular a video as some others. The video markets the other videos from Plan B because of the fact they tell a story when put together. The Two-Step Flow would come into place here and also the fact that people would be interested in watch them back to back for the whole story. I also think women would be interested in this video due to the Uses and Gratifications theory. Men and Women around the world may have been cheated on and because of this can relate to the video deeply. This is one of the theories proposals; people watch media to connect with the text through personal experience.

 

Representations of women in this video are shown as weak almost as a prize. Strickland Banks' wife is shown to be very vulnerable because her husband is not with her and this has pushed her to drinking alone to cope.

This implies that she cannot function without a man and doesn't know what to do apart from get drunk.

Men are also shown as 'love-rats' because of Strickland being shown to cheat on his wife while out at a party. This represents him in a negative light but also showing he is dominant because he can do what he wants.

 

 The star plays a character in the video almost like an alter ego, just like Eminem's Slim Shady. He is playing a low level celebrity singer/ performer, perhaps references to what he himself as Ben Drew used to do before he was famous.

 

Doing this textual analysis has really helped me because I have previous said I want to do a music video for a soulful or relaxed song so I can create quite a deep, symbolic narrative. The narrative in this video is very cliché but it also displays how difficult it can be to create a believable storyline. I will have to work hard to produced a credible and professional piece of work which won't look too 'cheesy'.