Analysis of student music video - Macklemore // can't hold us

Analysis of student music video

Macklemore – Can’t hold us

Genre

The genre of this student music video is Hip hop I would say and the artist is the same. Hip hop generally contains fast paced editing and lots of transitions. A hip hop song called ‘2 chainz – no lie’ has connotations of hip hop genre music videos as it contains lots of cuts, montages of camera shots, follows the characters occasionally which is what is seen within the student video as well.

Narrative

The narrative for this student music video is quite a simple one, however it does have some elements within it that are quite hard to understand. The piece starts off with a business man sat down at a café with his bag and then two old school robbers sit with him and then the business man walks off with the wrong bag. This sets up the music video nicely as you have an understanding of what is going to happen. They end up going on a wild goose chase around London trying to get their bag back as the whole idea of it is they have stolen something, most likely money that’s why they are dressed up as thieves. However, as you get towards the end of the piece they is a massive surprise as when the business man opens the bag, a hen appears which is a nice twist to the video as the audience were led astray by the use of mise-en-scene which was the clothing they were wearing. I would say this narrative links to Todorov’s theory as it does throughout however at the end it is completely different but if I were to say it links to a theory then I would definitely say Todorov’s theory suits the narrative.

 

 

Technical codes

Within this music video, there are a number of different camera angles/shots and editing techniques that make it stand out from the rest. I noticed that throughout the piece that the camera actually helps to tell the story. This is because the camera follows the actors as they are trying to find the business man, the use of the camera movement enabled the audience to follow the piece and engage with it.  Moreover, another shot which was clearly thought out was an establishing shot of the three actors, it was effective as they added a cartoon effect to it to make it look modern and it had some originality about it. Furthermore, throughout the piece there was a constant us of fast paced editing. This enhanced the music video because it kept a constant pace throughout which showed consistency and meant that the audience didn’t get bored at any time because the pace didn’t slow down at all.

 

Audience

The target audience for this music video is young people. This is because the video has different elements that connote it’s for the younger generation. The video is also very fast paced which fits in with the genre of the song and stereotypically, that’s associated with young people who like to go out and party. Also, they filmed within a park for one of the scenes which is typically associated with very young children or teenagers/youths who hang around in parks. All of these signifiers connote that this is targeted at the younger generation along with the fact that the song is actually modern and targeted at young people also.

 

Visual codes

The video is set in a number of different locations and for this video especially because it follows the actors around; there is not a specific location where they are always situated. However, the video is predominately set within the centre of London. Also, they film in a park, a café, a house towards the end they film within a house. Moreover, there are written graphics in this music video, however they aren’t a major part of the video, they are there to tell a story like the one below. Body language of all characters is very upright and upbeat as the song possesses a very fast pace meaning all characters have to be on par with that otherwise it wouldn’t look right.