Music video Genre Analysis

Truth Hurts - Addictive
In the following paragraphs we will discuss how the video fits typical conventions of its genre.

 Observation One:  ‘The club scene’
Like various other Hip Hop/R’n’B songs that we analysed a club scene or party scene were often displayed in the video. In the early 2000’s videos of this genre were almost expected to have scenes like this. Even though the lyrical context of these songs didn't always have something to with parties, the producers obviously felt the club scenes were a necessity in reinforcing the songs Hip Hop/R’n’B genre.

• Bow wow ft Omarian – Let Me Hold You (2005)

 Bow Wow is a young Hip Hop rapper who made this song alongside R’N’B singer Omoraion. Majority of this song in set in a house party even though the content has nothing to do with party. This is a prime example of when videos of this genre have party settings when the content doesn’t relate.


    •    Kelly Rowland – Can’t nobody do it like me (2002)

 This video by former destiny child member Kelly Rowland is a song about another girl not being able to satisfy her boyfriends like she can. Although the club scene in her video only takes up a small section it’s still present and has no correlation to the lyrics of the song

    •    Kelis – Bossy (2006)

 This being the most recent example shows that the use of party/clubs scenes was not a short phase in the r’nb and hip hop trends. Kelis’s video more than any of the previous exampls mentions partying in her song , however the main message is about her claiming to be a ‘boss’ which then doesn’t  have much to do with the choice of a club venue.

Observation Two: Use of a rapper ‘Rakim’
 Truth Hurts –The song ‘Addictive’s’ video uses Hip Hop/R’n’B conventions that was often used in the early 2000’s. This is the feature of having a rapper in an R’n’B singers video or vice versa. Although females were sometimes used as the rapper it was often male rappers featured in the most songs .This was due to the rappers often taking the role as love interest to the female R’n’B singer. The following is a list of examples where videos of this genre have used this same feature:

    •    Blu Cantrell Ft Sean Paul – Breathe (2003)

Sean Paul a well-recognised dancehall rapper was used in this video as the love interest. This song was about Blu Cantrell telling Sean Paul she thinks they should take things slow but Sean Paul disagreeing saying things are ok how they are.

•  Aaliyah Feat Timbaland – We need a resolution (2001) 

 Timbaland is a rapper/producer and is used in this video also as Aaliyah’s love interest.  In this song they are both putting forward that they have relationship problems and that things need to change

    •    Christina Millan Feat Joe Budden – Whatever you want  (2004)

 In this video Joe Budden is used as Christina Millan’s love interest however it’s a more light-hearted subject matter in contrast to the others.  In this song the two both talk about mutual feelings of wanting to have fun and get to know each other.


    •    Keyshia Cole Feat Kanye West – I changed my mind (2004)

 This is video is different to the others with the way it uses its rapper. Kayne West doesn’t actually have a rap in the video and is not portrayed as her love interest. The fact he’s just in it shows they believed just having a rapper in the video would be of relevance


Observation Three: ‘The use of Bhangra beats mixed with R’N’B songs’
Prior to our research and analysis of videos we were naïve to the fact that this song was not the first song to mix Bhangra and R’n’B beats. We found when researching on our song that a producer Timbaland had used this collaboration with a few songs. The collaboration was often used in the same time period of when addictive had been made. So the idea that this mix challenged its normal conventions actually turned out to confirm to them instead. Examples of other songs:

    •    Erick Sermon Feat Redman – React (2002)
(Also used in one of our analysis)

•  Timbaland and Magoo – Indian Flute (2003) 

•  Panjabi MC Feat Jay-Z (2003)

All the artists that featured in the songs with bhamgra mixes have been male hip hop artists so a challenge put forward could be that in our video it will be a girl R’N’B singer as oppose to a male

 Observation four:  The use of ‘backup’ dancers
The use of back dancers for female R’N’B artists in videos was very common in this time period and    still is now. For Hip hop videos it was more the use of many women in the videos without routines wearing revealing clothing dancing about. In truth hurts video they she has a round five backup dancers used for her, some of the following examples we will show are of more recent videos:
   

•   Beyoncé – Singles ladies (2008)

 This video was used as Beyoncé’s comeback single for 2008 , the whole video is a on-going routine with her and two backup dancers. Although backup dancers are a convention for R’N’B videos , she challenged the methodology their normal used in , by having the whole video as her dancing with them and no other scenes. This would have been very intensive and challenging to do.

    •    50cent – In the club (2003)

 This video released from 50Cent was when he first came out is an example of an early 2000’s Hip Hop video.  Many girls wearing revealing clothing is in this video as opposed to a few numbers of dancers with routines that aren’t de-individualized like in Beyoncé’s video

    •    Ciara Ft Missy Elliot – 1, 2 step (2004)

 This video is an example of an R’N’B video that uses routines again with the leading singer playing the main dancer. This one conveys to its genre more than Beyoncé’s single ladies because of there is a use of other clips and the routine is not on-going