Music Video Analysis

In this Essay I will be analysing the music video to the Chris Brown song “Yo (Excuse Me Miss)” which was directed by Erik White and Chris Brown. The genre of this song is RnB. Traditionally videos from this genre largely feature themes of love; Heterosexual relationships and the majority of these videos contain choreographed dance routines. I will therefore be analysing this video and seeing whether it conforms to the traditional conventions of this genre of music or if it goes against its usual stereotypes.

The visuals in the video fit with the lyrics in this song in a very literal way. The narrative of the song is about a man trying to establish a relationship with a woman who has grabbed his attention. Similarly as to the lyrics the camera cuts to a close up of the female character that the artist sees. Slow motion editing is also used to bring emphasis to the woman in the video. This could be seen as an intertextual refrence towards old fashioned romantic movies as they used a similar technique. The visuals in this video are further mirrored by the lyrics as it shows the artist trying to impress the female character. He does this by pursuing her throughout the video to try and get her attention. This shows that the video has conformed to the traditional stereotypes that this genre of music has as he is trying to make an impression on someone of the opposite sex and is trying to establish an affectionate relationship with them. This further conforms to the stereotype of this genre of music as the artist tries to woo the woman on screen through his slick dance moves.

This video also conforms to Andrew Goodwins conventions used in the relationship between the music and the visuals. The video has been edited to the music so that the visuals cut when the music changes. Also as the artist is walking toward the woman a dance routine has been choreographed to keep in sync with the music. This makes the music and the video flow a lot smoother and makes the music and the visuals sync simultaneously. The music and the visuals continue to flow together throughout the video as shown towards the end of the song as the music begins to slow down so does the artist’s movements. The visual also cuts to a close up shot to show the emotion on the artists face. This is another way in how this music video conforms to the majority of music videos as it is typical for the record label to want a close up of the artist to show their image. It could be argued that every action in this video for example his dance has been choreographed to show what Chris Browns image is going to be as he is seen as a showman.  

In this video the director shows a number of closes up’s of the artist. This has been done largely when the music slows down to show the emotion of the artist as the emotion of the song changes. I believe the record label and the director of this video have done this to show a more innocent side of the artist. It has also been done to show a more accessible side to the artist to make him more likeable. This video is a direct contrast to Chris Brown previous video which was a more upbeat song. It could be argued that this has been done to show a different side to the artist whilst still keeping his core characteristics. This has been transferred on to the video as it still shows the artist’s dancing ability which is one of his trademarks but also shows a more serious emotional side.