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Jay z – 99 problemsHip hop analyses

Target audience

• The target audience of the video is very specific, its main target audience is men who are having women problems as throughout the song the lyrics are “I got 99 problems and a b**** aint 1”

Genre Characteristics The key characteristics of the hip hop video is the performance element of it. Throughout the video there are no music instruments being played but there are a majority of visuals of the artist on screen rapping which is the performance element. There are also break dancers revealed on screen throughout the music video with medium close ups to bring main focus

onto what moves they are doing. There are also females revealed onscreen at specific times doing there dance moves as well.

Relationship between lyrics and visuals

• Goodwin’s theory states that there will be a relationship between the lyrics and the visuals. This relationship can be amplifying, contradicting or illustrative

• This is a illustrative video. This is revealed when jay z is represented on screen saying the chorus “I got 99 problems and a b**** aint 1” the video reveals 3 female women dancing in with revealing clothing on which is going against the lyrics and is revealing dancing which desirable for the male audience, this reveals exactly what jay z is trying to promote in this music video which is that to him women are not an issue but same time attracting the target audience of men to engage in the video.

• Goodwin reveals that throughout a music video the lyrics and the footage should always play a huge part together and relate. Throughout this hip hop video there are not many but when rapping about police and the law it revels him being pulled over for “doing 55 in a 54mph” zone. There he is clearly revealing discrimination towards black males.

Relationship between music and visual

• Throughout the video the relationship between the music and visuals is illustrative. The cutting pace of the video is very quick which works well as the music pace is relatively fast as well.

• The music video also has many performance elements as it has little groups of people throughout the video dancing at the pace of the music which complements with the video. This reveals how music and visuals relate together to create a perfect video.

Demands of record label

• Demands of the record label are done in the video as it consists on close ups of jay z to sell the artist, also the record label ‘rock nation’ is reveled with a triangle symbol which is revealed on screen by the crowd of audience and also the character in the video holding up a triangle. This is a representation of rock nations record label.

Voyeuristic treatment of female body

• Throughout the video women are not really revealed in the video but with the few glimpse of female characters they are revealed on screen in a pleasurable way for its target audience of men to watch. these shots are done with medium close ups and long shots to have a clear view of the female body on screen. This helps keep the audience engaged in the video and not being sidetracked and makes it enjoyable. The voyeuristic treatment of women in hip hop videos is common but in this case it has been minimized. Most hip hop videos base there videos around the female body. It is usually a typical convention but not in this case which is not very common.