Analysing and decontructing a music video part one (Mac Miller - Kool Aid & Frozen Pizza)

Name of Track: Kool Aid & Frozen Pizza Name of Artist: Mac Miller
Features to look for:	General Example:	Detailed Example:
Genre	Hip-Hop, electro pop, comedy	Mac miller is a hip hop artist who rapes but has a style which represents chilled music.
What is the relationship between lyrics and visuals?	There is link between showing mac miller as a teenager as his age is representing the type of stereotypical teenager shown in the film KIDS	Being 18, he is represented as the type of stereotypical teenager shown in the film KIDS. For example he is shown walking around with a gang of young youth his age, this is because he is represented as the leader being in front.
What is the relationship between the music and visuals?	The type of music being hip hop is represented in poverty areas which gangs are most likely to be hanging around, for example he is shown in New York	In the lower areas of New York and Los Angeles, we are confronted by gang members of a younger youth which hang around in their local towns, from this we understand that this is a intertextual reference from the movie KIDS. Carrying around a boom box takes the video back in time to the era of the film
Are there Close-ups of the artist and star image motifs?	There are close ups of the artists	As the Artists goes around these areas we are constantly following him by being in front as having him walk towards us constantly, this shows we are tracking the artists
Is there any reference to the notion of looking?	There is no notion of looking	Because the camera is always focused on the artists. From the editing of the camera style he is viewed as the leader because he is always in front of the crowd.
Are There Intertextual References?	Intertextual References of The 1995 drama film ‘KIDS’ written by Harmony Korine and Directed by Larry Clark	Film is About skateboarders and teenage gangs who roam the streets of New York City with a unrestrained behaviour towards drugs and alcohol during the era of HIV in the 90’s. The original song was by Lord Finnesse –  Hop 2Da Game
Is It Performance- Based, Narrative-based or Concept-Based? How Much Of Each?	This Film is Concept based as it comments on teenage society	This also comments on how teenagers grew up to be and reflects that kids don’t stay nice forever. Teenagers wanted to explore things that only adults could do. Point of growing up to quick. Mac Miller Represents himself as Leo Fitzpatrick who is the main actor in the film.

Essay Form:

The Video I am analysing is Called ‘Kool Aid & Frozen Pizza’ by Mac Miller. Rostrum records, Rex Films and TreeJTV made this video and music happen, in 2010 Mac Miller brought out the album KIDS which had 17 tracks on there, number 14 is this song which talks about his life and how he is progressing through his career of being a Hip-Hop artist.  

The relationship between the lyrics and the visuals is that the Visuals have been made to be a imitation of the film KIDS where Mac Miller is representing himself as the main character of the narrative.  Being at the age of 18 when he created this album, he is representing himself as part of the society of the film because KIDS talks about how young teenagers explore the world in various ways which are through drugs, sex and violence. This is what his life would have almost been like because when he was younger he would not go to school and practise his music career at home instead.

The relationship between the music and the visuals has made the video fit with the type of music played. The video cuts clips to the beat of the song where a new verse is made will be another clip of Mac Miller in another location For example at the end of the verse “running off adrenaline” is the end of a line in a verse after that the clip changes and goes to another line of the verse.

The close up of the artists show us that he has a star persona, The use of the fact that he is wearing a ‘snap back cap’ is a symbol towards the character he is, as he always wears them for most of his other videos. Mac Miller is mainly focused on in the video being in front of everyone else showing that he is the leader of the people and that people listen to him is given the idea because as he is rapping, people follow him.

In the video we do not see any notion of looking as we are represented as being in front of him watching him as of a concept and performance based video. He knows that we are the audience because of how he mainly looks at the camera. I think that this type of editing was used because the song represents his way of living and as a leader of people who listen to his music they are shown at the back but we wish to focus on Mac Miller and therefore at the front because it makes it feel he is coming for us.

Many Intertextual references are used in this music video and the music itself, The original song was made by Lord Finesse but Mac Miller took the song and put his own new lyrics in and called the song ‘Cool Aid & Frozen Pizza’ two simple contents of food and drink kids enjoy. The idea of kids come from the fact that Mac Miller is still a young in youth and could be stereotyped as the teenagers  from the movie ‘KIDS’, Mac Miller has made his album cover similar to the Movie cover for Videos and DVD’s for the film. The title of the album and DVD are the same with the style of writing and the outfit of the characters on the covers are similar towards what teenagers of America in the 90’s.

This video is concept based because it is commenting on society and how teenagers actually socialise especially in the 90’s of America, We stereotype teenagers as causing trouble and a lot of it is true but looking at the film 'KIDS' that has been made Postmodern where the story has been made more dramatic then what teenagers of America are actually like.

Mac Miller’s ‘Kool Aid & Frozen Pizza’ is a comment on teenagers and what we actually can become, it is a comment on his life and what he has done to get to where he is and looks at what he wants through his success.

This is the album for the music track ‘Kool Aid & Frozen Pizza’. The name of this album is called KIDS, from this example we see that the name of this album is the same title and style of font as the movie KIDS. This is because they share the same idea of what teenagers are possibly like in the world especially of the 90’s where technology wasn’t as vast as it is now and more children would have been doing something outdoors socialising with friends rather than being indoors. We can understand that from the props in the album cover that this is meant to be set more in the past because for example there is a boom box which was mainly used in the early 90’s to play music. Mac Miller wanted to present himself in more with the past because of the way he lives he feels that is how we wants to be and wants to bring back the styles which he grew up with based in the 1995 movie. The colour scheme used in the album is the same as the movie, For example the colour of the title is the same as KIDS the movie, K is red in both the album and the movie. The clothing which Mac Miller is wearing is made to be the same as Leo Fritzpatrick, for example Mac Miller is wearing a white t-shirt and beige shorts/trousers. This is because the album has been influenced by the movie and because Mac Miller is representing himself as the main character of ‘KIDS’ and is using the same props to make them seem alike.     Mac Miller’s music is based on old school Hip-Hop culture which he possibly was brought up with; from the front of the album we can identify this from the use of font. For example the words Mac Miller is written is old school graffiti. This is because he is reinforcing the point that he is trying to bring back the time period he grew up in and the writing does this to go with the other props.

In this Video we see Mac Miller in New York where skateboarders are using the area in to skate in, Mac Miller used to skate in his younger years. This is a good way for me to reflect my Artist profile because we can then see the kind of fashion and style of the character. If I created my Artist based around the fact he was a skateboarder we understand that companies that create skate wear would be appropriate for the pops.

There is a pause in the music; Malcolm McCormick approaches 4 young women on a set of swings. He shakes their hands and gives one a kiss; from this we understand that this video shows he has the interest in women and that the women are interested in him. A intertextual reference in this video is that sings represents children and if we look back at what the album relates to swings relate to the film 'KIDS' because the film is about young age teenagers and would hang in parks. I would like to do use the same technique but in a different situation.

Humour is added towards the end of the video where we see Mac Millers Fellow man holding in front of him a boom box hiding from the camera but in a humorous way. The video I wish to create would be humorous and even show mistakes to the video recording which films use because Audience enjoy to see the clips where they need to be retaken because of errors.