R&B/Rap Music Video Analysis

Tinie Tempah feat. Eric Turner- 'Written in the Stars'

I am going to analyse Tinie Tempah feat. Eric Turner - 'Written in the Stars'. This music video involves fast paced shots and a frequent change of location which include cityscapes and urban studio locations. There is a use of panning shots to establish the locations. The genre of this music video is a hybrid of performance and narrative.The artist features in the music video and performs his song in between a narrative that runs throughout the duration of the music video.


There is a use of colourisation such as in the corridor shots where it looks run down and has a yellowy tint. The whole music video has quite a dark urban/ city-like feel to it. There are no bright colours or gradual change of colour. 

In this music video there is a reverse shot of the artist where he brings his hand down in a dance move and the shot is then reversed on itself to look like he is bringing it back up again more quickly. This looks ike one fluid movement.The only effects which are used in this music video is slow motion as well as speeding up shots like below.

 

 

There are lots of close-ups of the artist through out the music video with lots of tracking shots which follow the artists movement. There is also a wide variety of different shot types used at different angles to keep the audience interested and keep the artist the main focus of the music video. The low angle shots show the artist authority and power over 'the city'.

The editing is to the beat and the fast cuts work well with the R&B music genre. The framing is also interesting such as below when what we see as the main focus of the shot is the young boy in the background, who is in focus, and the basketball player is blurred. This shows the young boys isolation and vulnerability.

The lighting is mainly natural as most of it is shot outside apart form the corridor and studio shots. 

                                     

This music video is aimed at teenagers and young adults, because of the styling of the music video and the music genre of R&B is popular with this age group. The lyrics link to the visuals on screen and the different city and run down locations fit the music genre well. The key lyrics of the song are 'Oh written in the stars a million miles away' as it it the title of the song, 'seasons come and go but I will never change' and ' Look im just a writer from the ghetto like Malorie Blackman' These lyrics mean something to the artist and are highlighted as meaningful showing that it is hard to become a recognised artist.