Analysing and decontructing a music video part one (Eminem - My Name Is)

Name of Track: My Name Is Name of Artist: Eminem
What to look for:	General Example:	Detailed Example:
Genre Characteristics	Hip-Hop, Rap, Comedy	Eminem is one of the greatest rappers in the world, known for being one of the first white rappers to get famous in the industry of hip-hop. My Name is Hip-Hop genre based; the song reached #26 on VH1’s greatest 100 songs form the 90’s.
What is the relationship between lyrics and visuals?	The lyrics fit with the music video	When he is expressing himself he is showing situation of which he is talking about, “chased him with a stapler” is showing Eminem in a head teacher’s office trying to stab the headmaster with a stapler.
What is the relationship between the music and visuals?	The music is about TV and who is to be seen.	Eminem recreates himself on a television in the 90’s in front of a Stereotypical couple of southern America as Bill Clinton, Porn star and a puppet. Intertextual references such as ‘Leave It To Beaver’ Is Used in the Opening and ‘The Brady Bunch’ as classic TV shows.
Are there Close-ups of the artist and star image motifs?	Many close ups of the artists and some of other artists i.e. ‘Dr Dre’	Eminem has captured himself as a big icon and has a big star persona where he is representing himself as comedy to other artists where he imitates himself as other people.
Is there any reference to the notion of looking?	Yes but only as the couple watching the television where Eminem is showed on, so we are still represented as the audience.	We watch the channels flick through and we are focused mainly on the television as are the American couple finding it humorous
Are There Intertextual References?	There Are many Intertextual References which would be found on TV	Eminem’s videos are all about intertextual references on how he is taking views of television and making himself represent these icons, i.e. Bill Clinton and The Brady Show.
Is It Performance- Based, Narrative-based or Concept-Based? How Much Of Each?	Concept based	Because Eminem is Commenting on society and Television in what people watch and is making it a joke by showing Bill Clinton and ridicules there lifestyle.

Essay Form:


Eminem is one of the best artists in the world who has made a career as well as a change in music, being one of the first
white rappers to make it into the industry. One of the first songs which made him famous was ‘My Name Is’ distributed through A&M Records and produced by Dr Dre. Relating to the previous analysed song.  However, this is an older song and sold more because Eminem is a brilliant artist. The genre of this song adopts is Hip-Hop and comedy because Eminem is postmodern and uses intertextual references to taunt society.

The Relationship between the lyrics and the visuals is very basic because of presenting clips from ‘Chased him with a stapler’ actually is mimicking the words he says by showing Eminem chasing a head teacher around a desk in a Headmasters office. Comedy is often used a lot in this to make comedy turn into music.

The relationship between the music and the visuals in the video portrays classic television from America. This is presented in a stereotypical way.  The lyrics work with the music beat and therefore whenever an action happens in the visuals the music matches this change, not entirely with beat with it but the melody of the music flows with the action in what Eminem does. The music does cut with the visuals somewhat which makes the video seem more Hip-hop, because of the tempo of the cutting of the video.

There are many close ups of the artists to give a star persona. This is because Eminem wants to represent him to show who he is and through the use of imitating people can give the representation that Eminem is in everyone showing the use of comedy to make his video humorous.  The record Label is showing the consumers the artists involved in this video to attempt to sell possibly other artists who works with Eminem, for example Dr Dre is representing in this video which could be an indication to also try selling his reputation but Dr Dre is also a friend of Eminem and works beside him.

The idea that you see a couple watching “The Eminem Show” is angled in a way that you are part of that audience. This translates that Eminem is performing to us rather than to a camera. This eliminates the concept we are watching a music video, This is self reflexivity because Eminem knows that being in a Television he knows he is a piece of media text.. By doing the video in this way, it adds and could be seen as a great example of comedy music.  There is also a scene where you see the artists Dr Dre in Eminems eye; it then swaps over so you see Eminem in Dr Dre’s eye. By doing this scene it gives a close up on the artists and also helps with the convocation which is actually rapping between the two artists but influences it as a conversation.

There are many intertextual references used in this video, for example the use of Bill Clinton shows us the president of the Untied States and takes the mic out of him by just commenting on society. Other various Intertextual references used are Previous American TV shows such as ‘The Brady Bunch’ and ‘Leave it to Beaver’, this is because that he is on the television in the couples living room and therefore uses previous shows to make himself seem that he is everywhere by changing the words of the programme to his own, for example ‘The Shady Bunch’ is used and the word Shady is repeated in the Chorus because he wants to get his message across to get himself known in everyone who hears his music.

This video is Concept based and slightly performance Based because we are still watching Eminem through a television screen therefore it is putting on a show for the audience. It is also concept based because Eminem has commented on society and is expressing some of the incidents he has been through.

In conclusion this video is showing the consumers that his music and videos are both entertaining and is a great way to reinforce his performance and help sell his music. The video also helps with the fact that making music as a humour instead of having to use films and stands up to have a laugh we can have the same emotions through music.

These are the Albums which hold Eminem’s great hit through different time periods. The first single was the first release of the song, this was made to sell his music through a single album and then develop later in time to make the first album which would also sell this song.  From this the Single is straight upfront with the name of the song. Using this is great promotion because it still is a way to get his name across through using both his names. Artist name is used was Eminem but through the use of Comedy would change his Name to Slim shady, Slim shady was his alter ego where he would make another one of himself with a different attitude.  The red creates the sense of power and energy in a way that it makes this album sell well because people will want to buy this in the sense that Eminem is making his audience feel that this single holds so much. The first album to have this song on it is ‘The Slim Shady LP’ this is an album which holds two of Eminem’s personalities but still has the sense that it is not his real self and therefore call the Album under his Alter self. From this album the props and colour scheme gives us a very dystopian feel about it, For example the use of colour being dark purple with a white moon out has a creepy feel to it that the music contents inside is not going to be on a positive note, The picture shows us a Body hanging out the back of the car, this suggests that Eminem has killed someone, or possibly something such as Eminem.   One of his finial Albums was based on the fact that he would collect all of his best singles and put them into a album which would be made for the consumers as they where the best to sell. From this album we understand that Eminem is trying to perform his best by selling the greatest hits. In the Album we see the bottom half of Eminem dresses in a suit which suggests to the audience that this is a show and is coming to an end. After this Album we witnessed the disappearance of Eminem from the public and press.

 

In the opening of the video ‘My Name Is’ we sit down to a 90’s television with a stereotypical Married couple watching the Slim Shady show. For my opening of my video I would maybe consider taking some form of action like this where we use The ….. show’ to make this video seem more than just a music video. The way Eminem uses comedy in his video, the artist I want to create I think should use comedy because it makes the video humorous to the audience.  

 

Eminem in his videos demonstrates in what he is talking about in his lyrics. I would like to take this idea on because when I create the video I wish to have most of my video based on what the artist talks about and show what he means just to have a way of communicating to the audience the message I’m bringing across.