Dance Routine
(Chris Brown) (Usher)
There is a majority in this video that the relationship isn't strong between the lyrics and the visual's; however there are some instances where the lyrics and visuals work in sync. Overall though the visuals and the lyrics don't work well together. One of the few example's of the lyric's working together is about half way through the video when Usher storm's into his loves trailer and say's to her 'Tell her I'm your man, your my girl, I'm gonna tell it to the whole wide world.' In the video we actually see Usher say these word's to her as he move's closer to her an embrace's her. His love reply is also another example of the visual and lyric's working in harmony, the girl's reply goes like this 'I'm your girl, your my man, promise to love you the best I can' as the girl say's this Usher's voice is co-ordinated to say this in place of her voice as her mouth moves. Over all the relationship between the lyrics and visuals are pretty weak for example after it is revealed that Usher never went to his lovers trailer and is just walking through the street he walks past poster's showing his lover whilst singing the word's 'It's too bad that you can't se. That you got it bad......hey.' Clearly there is no open relationship between the two the only relationship is that his got it bad for her and that she is the women in the poster. However if you take the time to think about it then that particular example show's there is no relationship between the lyric's and visual's. Furthermore another example of no relationship between the lyric's and visual's is at the beginning when Usher is on stage with no one around just singing the chorus, there is no relationship between the lyric's and standing on the stage singing to no one. However in that example there could be a relationship if you look deep enough the reason that Usher is standing alone on a stage singing the chorus (which talks about having it bad for someone) to no one could be interoperated that he is telling her and only her how he feels. Print screens of these examples are below.
Example of the visual's and lyric's working togethafter it is revealed that Usher never went into his lovers trailer and is just walking through the street he walks past posters showing his lover whilst singing the words ‘It's too bad that you can't see. That you got it bad...hey’ Clearly there is no open relationship between the two the only relationship is that his got it bad for her and that her is the women in the poster. But unless you take the time to think about it (and most people will not take the time to do that unless there analysing the video) then that particular example shows there is no relationship between the visuals and the lyrics. Furthermore another example of no relationship between the lyrics and visuals is at the beginning when Usher is on a stage with no one around just singing the chorus, there is no relationship between the lyrics and standing on the stage singing to no one. However in that example there could be a relationship if you look deep enough the reason that Usher is standing on a stage singing the chorus (which talks about having it bad for someone) to no one could be interoperated that he is telling her and only her how he feels about. Printscreens of these examples are below.
Example of the visual's and lyric's working together:
Example of the visual's and lyric's not working together:
The relationship between the visual's and lyric's is a complicated one on the surface it would seem that there are a few examples of there being a relationship between the two but underneath it looked at and scrutinized there can be seen a relationship between the visual's and lyric's.
A love song where the lyrics tug at the heart strings of people who are in love and lost their love, a boy who was in the process of transitioning into the sexual icon that he is now know as, throw in a dance routine and thats how the record company are looking to sell this record. This video sharply contrasts with songs from his previous albums, which are called Usher and My Way, for example in Usher's first album Usher his image is one more of a sweet innocent boy singing only about the happiness of love. This is shown in the song Think of You in which Usher is shown as no more than a baby with his chubby cheeks his youngness is further illustrated by his baggy clothes making Usher seem no more than a innocent teenager. By the time his second album My Way came around in 1997 this image of Usher had slightly progressed from that of a baby to a late teenager/early adult. The mid, long and close-up shots make usher seem not so innocent as well as the hint of a six pack and the lyrics. When USher's third album 8701 in 2001 U Got It Bad showed a total change in the image of Usher , no longer was he the fresh faced boy he was now a sexual icon singing about the pain and heartbreak of love. The close-up and mid shots of his face and chest help to further his change in image as well as the lack of clothing he wears in this song. However before and after his image change one thing remained the same Usher is always the main character in the video he is always the audience see the most of.
Usher in his first, second and third album:
Usher is clearly on sexual display in this video the costumes or lack of costumes he wears portrays this. In about 80% of the video Usher is either nearly naked or is in clothes that are stuck to him from the rain. The camerawork helps to intensify the felling of Usher being on display for example at the end of the video Usher is lying on the bed in only a pair of boxers from the birds eye shot we see the whole of Ushers chest. How can this be anything other than Usher being on sexual display? Moreover another example of Usher being on sexual display is when Usher is in the rain and the mid shots shows the rain dripping down Ushers face and making his shirt cling to his body. Even through Usher’s dance routine on the surface makes him seem like his on sexual display as it plays into the female fantasy of a man soaked cause of the rain. The fact that Usher is dancing alone is significant as it is unusual for this time video for an R&B video where the artist is dancing with no backing dancers, this has been done to illustrate further the fact that Usher is alone. I have placed screenshots below to strengthen my argument.
Example of Usher on sexual display:
This video does have intertextual references but not in the usual way not to a film or another music video but to his real life relationship. ‘Chilli’ from TLC stars in this video but also to as Usher’s girlfriend in real until they split shortly after this video was made. The intertextual references are to things that have happened in their relationship, such as arguments, conversations and the video footage at the start of the video of Usher and the girl together as a couple in real life. These intertextual references are used in the video to give the video more of a sense of credibility to make the song and the video seem more realistic.
Whilst this video is partly performance based the majority of it however is narrative based. The narrative fits both into the Classical Greek Theatre and into the Standard Hollywood Narrative structure. It primarily fits into the Classical Greek Theatre because it has a opening, where Usher is reminiscing about the break up, a conflict, the horrible decision Usher has to come to does he go and get his love or leave her and finally the resolution where by Usher decides to leave her be and wallow in his pain. However it does go into the Standard Hollywood narrative as it is a single diegesis-the storyline of Usher and his love, the events are governed by the actions of Usher out of the multi-strand. The events go in a non-linear line as it flashes back constantly to when Usher was with the women that he loved which in turn makes the audience emphasis with both Usher and the women. Lastly the video fits into the pattern of enigma as Usher has the dilemma of what to do about the women he loves and the resolution when Usher decides to leave her be. The video is furthermore narrative based as it fits into the unrestricted narration as at the start of the video when the audience are being told that the two split we are told through a news bulletin on the TV that Usher is watching. Unfortunately the narrative doesn’t really fit into Propp’s theory on characters in the sense that the characters are not clearly defined it’s all up to the audiences interpretation. For instance on person might think that the villain could be Usher whilst another person might have the opinion that the villain id the girl. The fact that the characters can be interpretated differently goes against Propp’s theory which is that the characters are establishers to increase the understanding of the audience. On the other hand U Got It Bad does fit into Levi-Strauss theory as binary oppositions run constantly through the video for example heart vs. head does Usher listen to his heart and go after the women that he loves or does he listen to his head and leave her alone. Another binary opposition is the past vs. present as Ushers past has been decided but his future is still undecided. However there is some performance based concept to this video as in between the narrative Usher performs whether it be on a stage of dancing in the street. The ratio between the narrative and performance is very slim with the performance bit being shoved in between the flashbacks and the real time of the narrative.
Example of performance based: Example of narrative based:
From this video I can deduce firstly that the lyrics are from Ushers point of view as he is the main character in the video and this tells me that he singing about himself and his girlfriend the constant close-ups and mid shots strengthen this opinion. However instead of feeling detached and merely like a spectator I get the sense of personal relationship with the artist as the close up shots consequently mean me looking into Usher’s eyes. Although the relationship between the lyrics and visuals are poor it does not mean that the overall quality of the video is poor far from it. The video has a lot packed into, it shows the flashbacks of the storyline furthermore it actually poses a question to the audience many might of faced-do you let someone go that you love go and the video comes to the conclusion that you do. The narrative in this video is running throughout the video, the video switches from the past to present to the past again and the future as well making it a most enjoyable and video to watch. Lastly I have placed a link below to the music video I have just analysed.
No comments:
Post a Comment