Music Video Analysis By Connor Davidson

Comment on the following aspects in relation to your music video choice. How will these techniques appeal to the target audience needs?

Target Audience & Needs

The music video I am analysing is Chipmunk & Stormzy – Hear Dis ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j3xUloTrYA0 ). The genre is grime music, which is a genre that has boomed massively over the last 12 months. The target audience for this music video is most likely the younger generation, for example young adults and teenagers around 16 or over. It wouldn’t be suitable for people younger than that age as there is a very bad language throughout the song. It suits this audience as they could relate to the lyrics more. For example picking up girls and rapping is more relatable to the age group. This song isn’t targeted for older people, as they probably wouldn’t understand the meaning of the song and find it quite disrespectful. Grime music is a lot more popular in the UK than anywhere else in the world, however there are grime artists in the US too, but it isn’t as popular. Grime artist represent the working class people, who aren’t as privileged as some and like to rap about every day difficulties, such as being homeless, unemployment and crime. This is also why this genre, in particular this music video is aimed towards younger people, as it is a message to them, to not grow up and resort to crime etc.

Lyrics (Meaning Implied?)

As most grime songs are about relatable stories to them or even just people they know or as the same social class, the lyrics mean more than just ‘spitting bars’. Most grime artists are working class individuals who didn’t grow up with a lot of money. Some have even spent time homeless or committing crime to get money to pay for food. For example, grime artist Stormzy, grew up in the working class area of Thornton Heath in London and started ‘MC’ing’ on street corners and at his local youth club, at the age of 11. Here are some lyrics from the music video I decided to analyse. “When my brother gets home, I pray to god he don’t do time again”. This is showing he grew up in a troubled family as it sounds like his brother is in jail a lot of the time. This shows lyrics which are about real life problems for the grime artists. The track was also created as a ‘dis’ track. It was aimed at someone or people who don’t like or have been talking about the artist. A lot of the lyrics talk about this person/people.

Tempo The tempo of the song means the pace or speed at which a passage of music is being played. Music will be played at different tempos depending on the subject or story in which the song is portraying. For example, the tempo of a song about a death or a sad story will most likely be a slow tempo rather than a faster tempo. Whereas this song is more upbeat due to the genre of music and the message. The movement in the video represents the tempo of the song. There are lots quick paced movements. The tempo of the song often dictates the rate of editing.

Genre The genre of this music video ‘Hear Dis’ is grime. This is a genre which is close to rap, but doesn’t usually tell the same messages within its lyrics. The genre is frequently reflected in the types of mise en scene used and also the style of performance etc. The use of camera and the way its edited and also common themes show one genre from another genre. For example, the people in the

Music Video Analysis By Connor Davidson

video moving around dancing, this helps show the genre of music. The costume and style also helps show a genre. For example, in a pop music video, the costumes will be bright and colourful rather than dark or dull. However this would be different for a rock music video. As this is a performance video, there aren’t many props within the setting. The whole of the music video is set in a skate park, with just 1 person riding a bike around it. Stormzy and Chip are the only other 2 people there. This means the use of mise en scene is quite small, as there are no added props, it is just the setting.

Camera Technique The majority of not all of the camera work is handheld. This makes it feel like the audience are there with the performers and can experience what they’re feeling. This can also help the audience relate to the performers and their lyrics. This would also make the overall cost of the music video less, as they don’t need to buy or hire as much equipment; this is a big thing in the grime industry, artists prefer to make their videos with a low budget as it represents their background, which Is working class. As the camera movement is very quick there are lots of different camera angles used, however the most dominant one is close ups. This is common in the grime genre, it helps make a statement from the lyrics and show the artists mean it. There are other camera angles such as worm eyes view (to make the artists look bigger and more dominant) and also medium/long shots.

Editing The editing for this music video is quite quick and straight to the point. There are no fancy transitions within the video; it is either straight cut from 2 scenes or no cuts at all. The reason the editing is so quick may be so the audience don’t quite grasp what is going on, meaning they’ll have to watch the video again, which means they will hear the song again. There also weren’t many fancy effects added into the video, it is mostly just the 2 performers walking around the setting with a few added edits such as filters and words. This makes the video low budget and easy to make.

Use of Digital Effects As this music video is a performance video, there isn’t much use of digital effects. The digital effects are usually used to enhance the editing that is performed on the video and also to add to style or the audience’s experience. Within the backing track, there are some extra added sounds which will have been created after everything else. For example, police noises and other high frequency noises were added on top of the backing track; this is a digital effect. The volume of the singing is also altered throughout the video, but there aren’t many digital effects used because it is a low budget video which is based on performance.