Textual Analysis

1) Music videos demonstrate genre characteristics (e.g. Stage performance in a metal video, dance routine for boy/girlband)

The main genre characteristic in this video is the females dancing. This is a typical specific feature of videos within the hip hop industry. The girls dancing connotates this idea of the males being the superior sex and dominating the females. This idea of male domination is also a typical feature of the male hip hop industry.

For the audience this is highly attractive as it is a common feature they make connections between this and the hip hop industry and so want to continue watching the video.

2) There is a relationship between lyrics and visuals. (Either illustrative, amplifying and contradicting

The relationship between the lyrics and visuals in this music video continuously vary between being illustrative and contradictory. For example when one of the artists say ‘light up’ this is illustrative as on screen we see fire. Then the same artist says ‘kids up in the block so things get Lego’ this is contradictory as on screen we see fire again. Also as one of the artists says ‘hi, hello’ the relationship goes back to being Illustrative. However this isn't for long as the relationship becomes contradictory when the artists says ‘phone out’, this pattern continues throughout the video.

The variation between the relationship keeps the audience on their feet about what's going to happen next and allows the audience to always be surprised and want to carry on watching.

3)There is a relationship between music and visuals

The relationship between the music and visuals remain contradictory throughout. There is no particular editing pattern, however some of the time the flow of the cuts do follow the lyrics. This contradictory relationship is a good thing as it keeps the video original.

As this particular relationship is very rarely on its own, to have it on its own causes the video to stand out amongst others within the idustry as a very originally edited video and causes the audience to want to carry on watching.

4) The demands of the record label will include the need for lots of close ups of the artist and the artist may develop motifs which recur across

their work (a visual style)In this case the close ups are used for the majority of the music video. Not only are the

range of close ups, medium close ups, extreme close ups and low angle close ups used to introduce the artists but they are used to allow the audience to feel this personal connection with the artists and also to again connotate this male dominance on screen.

Male dominance on screen is a key factor of a hip hop music video especially when there are females in the video.

Having specific identifiable features within music videos allow the audience to make comparisons between hip hop videos an want to carry on watching because they identify it as something they have previously liked.

6) There is often intertextual reference (to films, TV programmes, other music videos ect)

Intertextual reference is a key common feature within hip hop music. The artists from this video are diverse within different genres of music however one thing they are known for are their cleaver intertextual references/word play.

As being known for this feature they do not fail to disappoint in this video. Examples of intertextual references/word play are: ‘Kids on the block, so tings get Lego’, ‘I beat Meg and Cleo, Renault’, ‘Sneakbo showed you the wave’ and ‘phone out, got the PIN like we're wrestling.’

Fans love this feature about these artists and so by continuously satisfying the needs of their fans they are drawing in new audiences from fans word of mouth and also current audiences will continue to watch their videos and listen to their music.