The next video I am analysing is the video for the song 3005 by Childish Gambino. The video for this song is very unique and challenges a lot of the common conventions of a rap music video. The video uses almost no common features of a typical video of the rap genre.
The lyrics are illustrated through the way the shots progress over the video. The lyrics of the song are about being with someone for a long time and staying with them through whatever. During the video, the artist is pictured sitting with a teddy bear at different points in time. The ferris wheel turning represent time passing and as time passes, the bear and the artist become older. This age is shown by the bear getting worn and scruffy between shots of the artist and the bear. The video is also set during the end of the world which helps to represent the artist sticking with the bear through hard times.
This is very unique for the genre because the vast majority of rap music videos do not follow any narrative and use purely performance shots.
The video does not cut to the beat of the song, mainly because the video does not cut at all. This is very effective at representing the passing of time in relation to the lyrics and the theme of the song. During the chorus parts of the video, the camera stops fixing on the artist and the bear because the artist is not lip syncing in this section of the video. The camera turns around slowly showing the ferris wheel from different angles and shows off scenes of a burning city and then turns back to the seat of the ferris wheel to show the artist and the bear in a worse condition. These shots are used to help represent the change in pace of the song.
This video is part of a series of videos from the same album that have a continuing story throughout them where the artist becomes infected his double and starts to take over the world. The teddy bear has become his only friend because his previous girlfriend was taken. This is shown in this video by the burning city and the teddy bear because fans of the artist will recognise that they are in the video because of the other videos before this song. This helps to get the viewers of the video interested because it makes them think about the story and gets them interested. This will help to sell the record because people will want to watch the video for the story as well as the song. This video also helps to create an image for the artist that shows him as a rapper who is different to the stereotypical rappers who have videos with money and sexualised images of women. This then also helps to make the video appeal to slightly younger audiences.
This video is a combination of narrative and performance based visuals. The video takes primarily a narrative aspect because of the way it is part of a continuing story between videos. However, throughout the whole video, the artist is lip syncing to the words of the song which gives the video a performance side to it. This also allows the viewers to keep an interest in the lyrics rather than purely the narrative visuals.
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