Monday 28 December 2009

Summary of Artist





Nneka was born 24 December 1981 and is a Nigerian-German hip hop/soul singer and songwriter. She sings in English and her traditional language of Igbo.
She is the daughter of an Igbo Nigerian father and a German mother. Nneka relished the experience of singing from an early age in her school and in the church choir. After relocating to Hamburg, Germany, at the age of 18, she pursued a career in singing alongside a degree in Anthropology.

Even though Nneka sings more than raps, she names hip hop as her primary musical root and most important source of inspiration, while citing artists such as Fela Kuti and Bob Marley as well as contemporary rappers Mos Def, Talib Kweli, Mobb Deep and Lauryn Hill as key influences in her own pursuit of musical recognition.

Her lyrics reflect much of her history and life in Nigeria as well as her time spent in Western Europe. Her songs stress the issues of capitalism, poverty and war and are often loaded with moral and biblical messages and references, with some music commentators comparing her to Erykah Badu, Neneh Cherry and Floetry.

Since 2003 Nneka has been working closely with the hip hop beatmaker DJ Farhot, a producer living in Hamburg. As a young singer she first gained public attention in 2004 while performing as an opening act for dancehall reggae star Sean Paul at Hamburg Stadtpark.

Sunday 27 December 2009

Summary of Original Video


When listening to the song, you would imagine that the video would reflect the heartache and love of the artist. However, it doesn't at all. It is set in Africa and the majority of shots were of Nneka performing on the streets of her home town where we see ordinary people walking the streets. Other scenes include Nneka at home with her friends laughing and doing everyday things.The video basically reflects everyday life and creates a sense that it is somewhat a home made video. Overall, the video didn't make use of the forms and conventions of what a music video should be, although there were close-up shots of the artist to allow audience recognition.

Saturday 19 December 2009

Target Audience

The genre of music that the original artist is known for is hip hop/soul, therefore the target audience would have an interest in the hip hop and soul genre. However, as we have used the Chase & Status remix for the song 'Heartbeat' which has more of a harsh tempo and a rock feel to it, the target audience would also have an interest in the rock genre. In addition, as a group we have decided to incorporate the forms and conventions of a rock video into our video, therfore the target audience would mainly favour the rock genre. With this in consideration, the age group that this genre would mainly appeal to would be 16-25 year olds.

Annotation of Lyrics


By Danny Antoine

Props and Locations



These images are of the room that we will use in the music video.These images are taken by Danny. This is a good location for our music video as it full fills what we need to complete theses particular scenes and create a scence of reality.






This location is Albert Gardens Tower Hamlets, London E1, UK.


This is one of the locations we used to shoot the music video.
This location is Arbour Square Tower Hamlets, London E1, UK.
we actually used this location for the first couple
of scenes in our music video.

By Siham Allali

Wednesday 16 December 2009

Synopsis

The song is about the pain and heartache that a female(protagonist) goes through; this is reflected in the video through her vulnerability at the beginning and anger towards the middle. At the beginning we see a male and female as a couple walking through the park. She suddenly breaks down and cries; tries to confide in him, but he doesn't want to hear it and walks off. We then see a shot of her singing to him as he walks away. The following scene we have the boy at home trying to turn the TV on but i doesn't work until he hits it. after a while he goes off to sleep but keeps on having nightmares of his girlfriend who turns into having an obsession with him and generates an anger toward him which he see in his nightmare. Throughout the video we see cut back clips of him tossing and turning constantly in his sleep; flashbacks of the couple together are seen in this stage. Midway we see a complete different side to the artist (the girl) as she turns devilish and completely crazy to the point she follows him home and looks into his window while sleeping. Towards the end we see her crawling towards him up his bed whilst he is sleeping and then he wakes up to find she isn't there and that it was all a nightmare.

By Heather Aromin & Siham Allali

Tuesday 15 December 2009

Tuesday 1 December 2009

Textual Analysis-Real Music Videos 2



The second video I have analysed is 'Rockstar' by Nickelback; it was directed by Dori Oskowitz. The genre is alternative rock/post-grunge; the characteristics of the video include: a band(performing on stage), instruments such as electric guitar, bass and drums, band have the typical rock image and the topic of the song is one that society can relate to.

The lyrics are illustrated by the visuals in many ways. For example, the lyrics 'we all just wanna be big rockstars' is illustrated using several different shots of celebrities and non-celebrities miming the words. There is also a shot of Billy Gibbons miming his lines from the original version to this song. The lyrics 'driving 15 cars' is illustrated by someone miming that they are driving.

At the beginning when the pace of the song is slower, the shots are longer. When the pace and tempo of the song becomes faster and more upbeat the shots are shorter; this is effective as it complements and emphasizes the song. In addition, the celebrities and non-celebrities are also moving their bodies to the beat and this accentuates the beat.

'Rockstar' is the fifth U.S. single (although later re-released) by the Canadian rock band Nickelback from their 2005 fifth studio album All the Right Reasons. It was only released in the U.S. and Canada, and has since been re-released worldwide. The image of the band is what you would expect from a stereotypical rock band, the lead vocal, Chad Kroeger is known for his long messy blonde hair, which is very typical of the genre. Although the image of the band is of the rock genre, I think their style and in particular the song 'Rockstar' is very mainstream as it can and does appeal to everyone hence the video features all different types of people.

Throughout the video, there are several examples of reference to the notion of looking. For instance, the people featured in the video all look directly at the camera and this creates a sense that they are singing to an audience; the idea of a live performance. In addition, at the end when the band are seen performing on stage, the camera looks towards the audience from the band's point of view.

Intertextual reference is used throughout the song. For example, the lyrics 'we all just wanna be big rockstars' contradicts the band's image, as they are already rockstars. Also, the celebritites/non-celebrities mime the lyrics that they can or do relate to. Furthermore, Billy Gibbons who is from the band ZZ Top; sung the original to 'Rockstar' mimes the lyrics that he sings in the original version.

The video is performance and concept based. Throughout the song the celebrities and non-celebrities perform by miming the lyrics and dancing around; at the end the band are seen performing on stage. The concept of the video is that everyone wants to be rockstars hence the lyrics; this is illustrated by the featured people.

Overall, the video is very effective as it illustrates the song well. It also creates a sense of reality, hence the lyrics are what people do dream about; by featuring ordinary people it shows this.