G324: Real Media Texts - Music Video 1

Music Video no.1 - Eminem - Not Afraid (Rap)
 

Narrative - The narrative of this music video, as of many of Marshall Mathers' songs, is that of his life. In this song he is saying about how he was feeling depressed but he was able to pull himself out of his slum and he's telling a story of how he did it. He knows he will never have it fully figured out. "This black cloud still follows me around" he knows it will always follow him around but instead of it getting the better of him he is going to fight it when he gets out of his slum and is less insane. I think the main narrative of this song is him getting back on the road after being addicted to drugs and living in a slum and I feel that he now wants to make a difference with his life and not be depressed all of the time.

Settings - The predominant setting for this music video is on the streets of New York and this was shown at the start with the establishing shot, we can also see the Brooklyn Bridge in the shot this reinforces my idea that it is set in New York. Another setting is a house that looks tatty perhaps derelict.

Number of Shots - There were 213 shots used in this music video.

Transitions Used - Most of the transitions were just cuts. One transition which was good was where he was walking up to the bus as it was passing then the shot cross fades/wipes into another shot but it looks good.

Representations Seen - This song "Not Afraid" is a good example of a modern day rap video I think because it has most of the generic conventions of rap videos. As with most of the rap videos of this day and age, they are mainly trying to get a message across and this one is saying about if you go down the road of drugs then if you are lucky you will get the chance to rebuild your life but it isn't easy to do. There can be negative views against this genre because there is a lot of swearing, people taking drugs, blinged up men and women and cars being driven  erratically and these are typical of a rap genre music video. This can have a negative impact because some children watch these videos and try to recreate what is happening and that obviously has a negative impact on a lot of things. Especially because rappers like Eminem are role models for children and if they are doing them things then children will want to live up to their role model. Like with all media representations this music video has a purpose and an audience. The purpose of this music video is to make children realise what Marshall Mathers went through in his life and how he wants to sort it out and ultimately telling the children to not go down the path that he took as it is hard to get out of. The target audience of young teenagers will listen to this music because they feel that they can relate to the message being sent.