Music Video Essay

 “Music videos reflect the social and cultural context in which they were made” Discuss this statement through a comparison of the two music videos you have studied. One mv from list A (CBR) and one from list B (DG)

Music videos in general often reflect some social and cultural aspects to them, trying to promote a message or convey an opinion they strongly believe. Both David Guetta’s ‘Titanium’ and Corrine Bailey Rae’s ‘Stop Where you are’ communicate strong opinions and messages about bullying and individuality. 
In ‘Stop Where you are’,written by Corrine Bailey Rae and released in 2016, addresses the idea of Carpe Diem or seize the day and to not judge a book by its cover. This is all a popular social topic in todays society as in a world with a lot of technology people can often hide behind screens and not make the most of their life
The video starts with a medium close up of Corrine Bailey Rae herself singing to the camera and looking very angelic, due to light from behind her purposing that she is almost ‘God-like’ and is watching over all the hate in the world and trying to make things right. Contradicting this point, the camera angle being slightly lower than her face and therefore looking up at her. This conveys the idea of her being a more upper class persona and looking down on people. Additionally,  she is wearing a bright orange/red dress which typically has connotations of Desire, love, danger and passion, suggesting that she feels strongly about conveying this message and therefore is feeling strongly about it resulting in wearing a red dress.
After that is almost a montage of all the different types of people that get judged and discriminated even down to a dog (due to being a pit bull which is considered a controversial breed). We see a tattooed man with his hands on his head clearly stressed out about something as well as a homeless woman and a un identifiable person (presumably a child). All of these people have their own stories and consequently feel isolated because of what’s happened to them. The main person that sticks out is the homeless woman, the lighting is darker and the camera is looking down on her. Furthermore, creating the idea of judgement as we being the audience are judging her just by assuming she’s homeless. Overall, in ‘Stop Where You are’ There are many cultural and social messages conveyed and how Corrine Bailey Rae is trying to help by sending the message in a song.
Like ‘Stop Where You are’, ‘Titanium’ (written by David Guetta Feat Sia, released in 2011) also promotes a lot of social and cultural context and ideas. The lyrics suggest the idea of  not letting bullying get to you. “You shoot me down, burg I won’t fall, i am titanium”. However, the music video suggests that people do not want to accept individuality and people who are more ‘diverse’ feel that they have to hide. This is mainly shown when the boy (Ryan Lee) i walking through the woods and being hunted by the polices almost like an animal. The lighting is very day due to being in night time and therefore is more scary and frightening consequently making us feel a lot of sympathy for him.

Ultimately, both music videos have a lot of social and cultural context and messages which are addressed in their own different ways. ‘Stop Where you are’ uses a lot of different camera angles to show different hierarchy’s where as ‘Titanium’ uses different concepts and lighting in order to convey their messages.

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