Research into existing products - Foo Fighters, The Pretender.

Context: "The Pretender" is a song by the alternative rock band from America, Foo Fighters. It was the first single from their 2007 album "Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace." The single was released on 21st of August 2007 with their label RCA (part of Sony Music Entertainment). The music video itself was directed by Sam Brown, who is a director and cinematographer famous for his work with James Blunt and James Morrison. He was nominated for Best Director for Foo Fighters “The Pretender” at the MTV Awards and has won 2 MTV Awards for his work on James Blunts video "Beautiful".

Genre: The Foo Fighters are known for producing music of the hard rock / alternative rock genre, and this video is no exception. The instruments used here are typical instruments of the rock genre and the track is obviously rock due to the sound of it and the angry / soulful element of shouting the chorus. The way in which the band goes against the controlling Riot Officers in this video also symbolises the way in which rock music originally went against society and the way it acted.

Style - Textual Analysis: The video begins with a high angle long shot of an empty warehouse which is highly artificially lit, we see a few amps and guitars lying around along with a drum kit and a big red screen behind it all. As Dave Grohl walks across the warehouse to the microphone near the instruments, the warehouse gets brighter and we hear the introductory guitar to the song. There is then a low angle mid shot of Dave from behind as he puts his guitar over his shoulder. A jump cut leads us to a high angle close up of Dave putting on a hand wrap like boxers do, possibly meaning theres going to be a fight.

There is then a low angle close up on a black line painted on the floor, this becomes more prominent later on in the video. Next there is a mid profile shot of Dave as he sings into the microphone for the first time which zooms closer to him. From this we see his bandmates emerge and walk to their instruments at mid to long shots. The jumps between shots are quite fast, going from a close up of a guitar to a close up of Dave singing to a mid shot of Chris Shiflett putting on his guitar. Theres then a mid shot of the drum kit as we hear the drums begin in the track.

As the song speeds up there is a quick series of long shot pans and close ups of Dave as he performs. There is also quick jump cuts between close ups of the drums and the different guitars as they're played, adding to the performance. A low angle mid shot turns into a close up as Dave sings to the camera.

The main focus in the video is Dave and most of the close ups are of him singing into the microphone while the other band members only get long or mid shots. There is a big use of zooming during the video, as a long shot of the drum kit zooms in to create a mid shot, there is also a big use of pans, often the camera pans vertically from the floor to the ceiling or horizontally from one side of the warehouse to the other. As the camera zooms out from the band we see a high angle aerial shot looking down on the band which begins to pan to the right, it then blends into a pan of a close up of Dave.  There is also a big use in different angles in the video, one minute there will be a low angle shot of daves legs and guitar, then there'll be a high angle shot of the band which transforms back into a mid shot. The exchange between the shots is very fast and jumpy, giving a sense of action.

The juxtaposition in the video also changes, one minute we're looking at Dave from the front, then from behind. Then that changes into the band being on one side of the shot and not the other, so there isn't much consistency apart from Daves close ups singing at the camera.
As the song speeds up, so does the editing and there are suddenly many more shots and many more jump cuts between them. At one point there is a long shot of the band which takes more time than usual to zoom in before turning into another shot, suggesting that this part is building up to something.

Then we see a mid shot of a Riot Police officer from behind as he approaches the band, this point is where the chorus begins and can be heard and the shots of the band become more fast paced. We then see an aerial shot of the Riot Police officer walking towards the black line painted on the floor, then we see him still approaching the line in fast horizontal pan behind Daves legs. A low angle horizontal pan of the line shows the officer getting closer.

We then see a close up of the officers face, looking stern and focused as he faces the band. This turns into a close up of Dave shouting the lyrics, looking extremely angry into the microphone, the shot jumps back to the stern face of the officer who pulls the visor of his helmet down. There is a series of quick close ups of the band then a long shot where Dave sings at the single officer on the line. At a high angle shot we see the officer take out his baton as his face grows more furious. The officer then screams but we can't hear him. A shot of Dave singing the chorus again and lifting his arm at a mid shot turns into a long shot horizonal pan of the warehouse as many riot officers appear holding riot shields.

We then see a point of view shot from behind Dave so we can see the full extent of the amount of officers which pans to the left. There is then more close ups of the band, and more close ups of the officers face. There is then a horizontal pan down the line of officers, all their faces stern and angry. There is then a high angle shot where we see all the officers against the band, almost like there is a stand-off between them both.

As Dave sings a slow verse, there is an extreme close up on his eyes. It flicks to a close up of the police lowering their visors on their helmets, this shows that something big is going to happen. As Dave repeatidly screams "Who are you?", the officers scream back and lean down ready to run.
The sequence then turns into slow motion images of the officers run, such as close ups on their legs and faces as Dave sings a slow part of the song.

As the guitar and drums kick back in, there is a long shot of the warehouse in which the red screen at the back explodes into red liquid that covers the officers and the band as they continue to play. This could be a symbolism of their anger against the Riot Officers, which has finally exploded; which could relate to an anger at society and the way its controlled. The sequence then becomes low lit and there is a lot of liquid which causes poor visibility, but we see the officers in mid shots struggling against the liquid holding their sheilds, these shots are also in slow motion.

We then witness Dave covered in liquid singing into the microphone as the officers struggle. There are also close ups of the band getting soaked in the red liquid but still performing, these slow motion shots give an excellent view of how the liquid moves off the instruments and the sheilds. During the last 20 seconds of the song, the shots speed up and are very jumpy with flashes of bright purple lights inbetween them.
As the song ends, we see the red liquid stop and Dave falls to his knees on the warehouse floor.

Form: Due to most of the video focusing on the bands performance, the video is obviously in the performance form, but there could also be some narrative because there is a stand-off between the band and the Riot Officers, but the narrative isn't very clear other than theres anger between the two groups.

Audience: I believe the audience for this track is anyone from the age of around 15-35, this appeals to teenagers as the song itself was sold to the popular game, Guitar Hero which appeals to a teenage audience, showing that they want teenagers and young people to listen to the track and be involved in their music. I also believe that the audience could be adults as when asked in an interview about the video with XFM Dave Grohl said that it's mostly about being deceived, and that he feels a lot of people are being deceived right now (this could easily link to the idea of the population being lied to by politicians or people in power and this could be symbolized by the Riot Police). The video has got 39,078,054 hits on Youtube! Making it the most popular video that I have looked into.

Target Audience Research using Social Media.

This is my initial research into my chosen target audience for my music video, which is 16-25 year olds.
The way in which I conducted my research was using the social media, which is widely used by my target audience, so I thought that this would be an ideal place to begin my research into what my audience wants and expects from a rock / alternative music video.

During this research I used 16-25 year olds as my participants and I contacted them via my Facebook account. This was possible as I sent out a mass questionnaire to all of my chosen 30 participants asking them to answer the 11 questions by chosen from a range of multiple choice answers.

This is a screengrab from the original message that I sent out to my participants, using it as an online questionnaire. The only issue I had using Facebook for my research is that they don't have an option in which you can create multi-question polls, so I had to create one myself via creating a message.
Here is a copy of the questions that I sent to the participants and the muliple answers they could have chosen from:

1. What do you expect from a rock / alternative music video?
- Use of instruments.
- Narrative relating to lyrics.
- Themes of rebellion and angst.

2. Which type of music video do you prefer?
- Performance.
- Narrative (story).
- Abstract.

3. How would you expect an album cover for a rock artist to look?
- Dark colours, featuring the artist.
- Bright colours, featuring the artist.
- Detailed artwork.

4. How do you view music videos?
- Internet.
- TV.
- Mobile phone or games console.

5. What setting would you expect for a rock music video?
- Countryside.
- Urban inner city.
- Studio.


6. What is your favourite rock music video and why?


7. Who is your favourite rock/alternative artist from this list?
- Nirvana.
- The Killers.
- Paramore.
- Green Day.


8. Is there anything you'd find inappropriate in a music video?
- Violence.
- Discrimination.
- Crime.
- No.


9. Do you think music videos are important in the music industry?
- Yes.
- No.


10. How would you expect a magazine advert about the music video to look?
- Like the video (same colours, font etc).
- A poster of the band / artist with the song title.
- Pictures from the video itself.


11. How would you expect a rock band / artist to look?
- Messy, grungy, unkept.
- Professional, suits, ties etc.
- In casual clothing, band shirts, jeans etc.

Here is 2 examples of sets of answers that I received from some participants giving their chosen answers to the set questions listed above.

Research into existing products - Nirvana, Heart Shaped Box.

Context: 'Heart-Shaped Box' is a song by the infamous grunge band, Nirvana from Washington, America. This song was written by lead vocalist and guitarist Kurt Cobain. The song was part of their final studio album, released on September 13th, 1993; titled In Utero, this album was released with their label DGC records. When it came to directing the music video, Nirvana used Anton Corbijn, who is a Dutch film and music video director; he has worked with many other bands in the alternative / rock music scene, including Metallica and The Red Hot Chilli Peppers.

Genre: Nirvana are famous for breaking the mould of rock music, creating a rougher sound compared to other bands. The use of instruments in the video such as the electric guitar again suggest that it is the genre of rock / grunge music because the instruments used in the video are the instruments typically used in rock music. The bands grungy, unkept, 'rock n' roll' image again relates to the genre of rock music because the main focus is usually the music.

Style - Textual Analysis: The video begins with a black screen, fading in to see an aerial shot of a room, with an old man in a hospital bed and the band members of Nirvana sat at the end of his bed. Immediately the non-diegetic sound of the guitar comes in and the song begins to play. The room is empty, grey, boring with only a tiny part of natural light creeping in through the curtain. We can see a big black cross painted on the floor, crosses will become a key part of the music video as it progresses. There is then a jump cut to a long shot of the band members still at the end of the hospital bed, as a bright light flashes; the shot turns into a mid-shot of the band members, looking contemplative in their chairs.

Another bright flash of light transitions the shot into a long shot of a field full of poppies, this is said to be a reference to the poppy field used in the Wizard of Oz. The shot is very colourful, with a bright blue sky, red poppies and yellow hills. We can see an old frail man, the same one on the hospital bed, picking up poppies, whilst wearing a Santa hat. We see another cross, a solid one made of old wood, with a ladder leading up onto it, to the left of the shot. We then see a mid low angle shot, that’s blurred, of the old man picking poppies.

The old man eventually reaches the cross, a bright flash turns the shot into a point of view, mid shot looking to the brightly lit cross with crows on top of it. The man climbs the cross as the shots get closer, from long shot, to mid shot, to mid close up. He then ties himself to the cross, relating to the religious imagery. The Santa hat he's wearing could be making fun of religion or to cover up the true meaning of the song and confuse people, nobody knows why it's there.

This climbing of the cross could refer to the meaning behind the lyrics, there can be many interpretations from the lyrics and nobody knows the true meaning behind it. But my interpretation of it is that Kurt is talking about his relationship with Courtney Love, this is relevant for many reasons. The lyrics as the man climbs the cross are; 'I've been trapped inside your heart shaped box, for weeks', refers to the fact that Courtney trapped him in the relationship as time went on, so he became passive like Jesus did with God, and gave himself up. We see close ups of the frail man’s ribcage, relating to the fact Kurt may have felt weak at this stage in the relationship.
We see close ups of artificial crows pecking at the cross, this may have linked to the idea that the crows were the media, with Nirvanas new found fame they were ready to expose every detail of Kurt and Courtney’s relationship.

The lyrics 'I've been drawn into your magnet tar pit trap, I wish I could eat your cancer when you turn black.' appear next, which show the audience that Kurt is addicted to Courtney like he is to tar, and that he wishes he could take away her pain and anger when things turn bad between them.

The next jump cut leads us to a long shot of the band playing instruments in the poppy field in front of the cross, while the sky is now red behind them; this shot then fades into a close up of Kurt Cobains face moving away from the camera, with his hands against his face, singing the lyrics. This makes the video a performance style video as the band is performing to the camera. As the chorus comes in, more distorted, slightly blurred images of a close up of Kurt’s head moving backwards and forwards appear, becoming more fast paced, just like the chorus itself.  Kurt is dressed in a metallic shirt and scruffy patched jeans, much like the Tin man and Scarecrow characters, again a nod to the Wizard of Oz.

The following scene is a mid-shot of a small girl dressed in what appears to be a Klu Klux Klan outfit, standing in front of a tree in the poppy field, the tree has plastic foetuses hanging from its branches. A jump cut leads the shot into a long shot of her looking at the tree.
We hear the non-diegetic lyrics 'Meat-eating orchids forgive no one just yet', meaning that carnivorous orchids are beautiful on the outside but deadly this is exactly what Courtney is to Kurt at this point, he was lured in by her beauty but trapped by her nature.

The imagery from this strange 'tree of life' can also relate, meaning that life is a fragile thing not to be destroyed or played with, this is why when the little girl jumps, she cannot reach the foetuses, for she would she destroy them and take their lives like Courtney can do to Kurt because he's so obsessed and dominated by her.

We then see a long shot of an overweight woman with her organs painted on the outside of her body walking towards the tree but not getting any closer, this is because she may have taken too many 'fruits' from the 'tree of life' already, and she doesn’t deserve more. The painted organs mimic the album cover for In Utero.

During the video, the camera is mostly stable, there aren't many pans or tracking shots but in editing the shots are pieced together via jump cuts. The pacing of the video is also quite slow compared to various music videos; the shots are only sped up when the fast paced chorus occurs.
Sticking with the codes and conventions of music video, the video is in colour, has no diegetic sound and the lyrics / song / instrument dominate the sound of the video. With all the blurring that occurs in the video, it gives the video a distorted feel.

The lyrics 'Throw down your umbilical noose so I can climb right back' refer to Kurt’s longing to restart his life, as there is a really prominent theme of life, (such as the foetuses and the young girl), and death, (such as the man on the hospital bed) in the video.
We then see a long shot of the girl skipping through the field past the old man, then a high angle shot of the fat woman displaying her organs in the field, contrasting the young and innocent with the old and greedy. Due to all this random imagery with no real narrative behind it, it also makes the video fall into the abstract music video category.

At a mid-shot, we see the young girl’s hat blow away with the wind and land in a black pit (linking to the tar pit lyric earlier), her hat then soaks up the liquid at an extreme close up and turns black, then it moves out of the shot via the wind again. We then see a close up of some butterflies fly past the camera again showing the theme of life.

With a bright flash of light we see a long shot of the young girl stood in a black costume as she points like the grim reaper to the man in the hospital bed. We then see a close up of a foetus in the IV drip of the man in the bed, it could refer to the Wicked Witches hourglass in the Wizard of Oz which almost killed Dorothy, and the IV drip is the hourglass killing the foetus.

We then see the band members sat in a brightly lit room at a mid-shot as the background is blurred and only Kurt’s face remains clear as he sings to the camera. Suddenly there is a long shot of the room the band are stood in which looks like a box and on top of it is a giant black heart, relating to the idea of a heart shaped box that turns black with anger and pain. A jump cut leads us into a long shot of another brightly lit red room with a bed, desk and chair with the band members present, as Kurt rocks in a rocking chair while singing. Cutaway shots reveal the young girl sat on her own on the bed in this room at a mid-shot. The shots flick back and forth between the band and the girl as we see the girl opening a heart shaped box and then Dave Grohl holding it in another shot.

The video ends with the same aerial shot that started the video, almost bookending it with the same image, as the curtains are opened and light floods in to turn the screen to bright white.


Form: Seeing as the video is so absract in its imagery, such as the old man on the cross, it would be obvious to say that the music video is of an abstract style; but also the band perform during the video, playing instruments and Kurt singing, so the video is a crossover between a performance form and an abstract form.

Audience: I believe that the audience for Nirvana can range from about 16-30 year olds, this is because the song is still angry and rebellious for the teenagers, e.g. when Kurt screams the chorus which relates to the 'teenage angst label' that followed Nirvana since the release of Smells like Teen Spirit. Also when the song was first released the label sold it to college student radio stations and modern rock radio stations, showing that they wanted a young teenage audience to listen to it. I also believe that it's relevant to the 30 year old adult because the song talks about being stuck in a toxic relationship, and I feel that most adults at some point in their life will have had a bad relationship so they can relate to it, also the video contains some adult themes like dead feotuses that is inappropriate for anyone under the age of 16. The video has 20,860,481 hits on Youtube! Making it extremely popular after all these years.

Research into existing products - Jay Z, 99 Problems:

Context: This music video was for Jay Z's third single '99 Problems' from his 2004 album called 'The Black Album’.  The video was directed by Mark Romanek, who is widely known for his work directing music videos, including many famous music videos such as Nine Inch Nails 'Closer' video and Janet Jacksons / Michael Jacksons 'Scream' Video.

The video itself has received worldwide fame, gaining many awards such as 3 MTV Video Music Awards, winning the categories of Best Rap Video, Best Director and Best Editing.

The video is also famous for being very controversial, for example, feminists have said that some of the lyrics in the video and the way women are represented in the video is very disrespectful and derogatory. The video was also controversial as The Humane Society of the United States stated that in the video a few scenes are featured in which dog fighting is glorified.

The video gained even more fame and criticism for its final scene, in which Jay Z is shot multiple times, some critics have said that this glorifies gun crime and some TV companies were worried about airing the video because of the use of gun violence, as a result, when it was first aired in April 2004, MTV attached a warning about the violence used in the video so the viewers were aware and it also featured a statement by Jay Z saying why he wanted the video to be aired unedited, as he felt the final scene was essential to the music video itself.

The video itself was filmed in the urban setting of Brooklyn, New York, where Jay Z grew up, and his issues close to him are brought up throughout the video, such as his controversy with the law and arguments with individuals.

The video it shot entirely in black and white, which breaks a code and convention of music videos which are normally shot in colour, but the seriousness of the issues raised, such as crime and racism are reinforced by the dark, serious colours. Jay Z also stated in an interview that he wanted to break the mould and create 'art' instead of another music video, and the lack of colour relates to art films which are usually shot in black and white.

Genre: of the music video is Rap, which Jay Z is known for, but also features some rock instruments such as the electric guitar that normally wouldn't be found in a Rap single, so it ventures into the Rock / Rap category of music, already, Jay Z is breaking some of the codes and conventions of typical Rap videos.

Style - Textual Analysis: From the first couple of seconds of the video we can tell that the shots are very fast paced with plenty of jump cuts as the eatablishing shot is a low angle shot running up some stairs which leads into a vertical pan downward of the side of a building, which leads to some images of street art at different distances and angles, throughout the video there is a wide range of juxtapositions. From the very first second of the shot on the stairs we hear the non-diegetic opening line, "If you're having girl problems I feel bad for you son, I got 99 problems but the bitch ain't one." From then on the electric guitar starts and the song itself begins.

The mise en scene of most of the video is very urban, featuring industrial buildings, teenagers breakdancing and the inside of a prison, some would class the mise en scene as being based on the 'ghetto'.
At a low angle shot we see Jay Z's first performance shot to the camera, in which he raps the lyrics to the single, the low angle is letting the audience know that he’s in charge and the main character of the video. Throughout the video no diegetic sound is heard; another convention of a music video, where the song and its instruments / lyrics dominates the video over any other sound. Throughout the video Jay Z uses exaggerated arm / hand movements, adding to the performance element of the music video.

The angles used in the video are very diverse, but mostly being at a low angle when Jay Z is present, for example, the camera is at a low angle when he is sat inside his old house on a sofa, showing his dominance. As the cuts are very fast paced, it allows a lot of different cutaway images to be shown to the audience which help build a better idea of the narrative, such images such as boomboxes, which were popular when Jay Z was younger, and some teenagers doing stunts over a wall which adds to the urban style of the music video. The random images such as religious symbols that don't add to the performance or storyline can mean that the music video is in the abstract category of music video styles.

Most of the shots used in the video are mid shots to close ups; for example, we see a medium close up of a boy putting a ski mask over his head, relating to the crime theme of this video which leads to a close up of a housing sign which leads to a close up of Jay Z and then a 'spy hole' on a front door.

The camera itself tends to move a lot in the video instead of staying stable, for example at points where the camera is facing forward, it will tilt slightly diagonally, giving a sense of disorganization to the video, or a sense of something not being quite right, this could tell us that some of the shots were filmed on a handheld camera where the movement is more fluid than if it was on a tripod.

As the video progresses, we see one scene of Jay Z walking across the Brooklyn Bridge at a low angle mid shot, in which we can see much of the cityscape behind him, as he performs the song. This shot is more brightly lit in natural light than many of the others and is prominent compared to the rest of the video so it's memorable, the lighting could mean that it’s better and brighter outside of the place that he used to live in. This scene appears many times during the video in which certain lines are rapped and then it flicks back to other images.

Many nameless faces appear in the video, for example we see a man with half his face covered walking down Jay Z's hallway, who eventually crushes a sign saying 'love', showing the harsh nature of the place they live in, and a small boy outside of a house whose covered in a duvet and a poorly dressed man with a beard stood on the street, relating to the urban feel of the video by showing that some people don't have a lot of material possessions in that area.

Amongst the cutaway images in the video, we can follow Jay Z throughout and create a narrative. From a few seconds into the video, we see Jay Z in his old apartment, then in jump cuts across the video we witness a long shot of him walking down a stairwell which turns into a close up of his face as he reaches the bottom of the stairs. Later on in the video we then see a long tracking shot of Jay Z leaving the apartment block and walking out into the main street, which seems to turn into slow motion when he leaves the building.

There is one major segment of the video where we witness Jay Z being pulled over in a car by a policeman, and the dialogue of their conversation is rapped by Jay Z, most of the shots are close up so you can see Jay Z and his acquaintance expressions. The scene features a range of camera angles, from a horizontal panning motion outside of the car to an over the shoulder shot of Jay Z. In-between the shots of Jay Z in the car we see another sequence of Jay Z at a mid-shot at a low angle, tracking Jay Z as he is walking around a record store followed by his acquaintance, a large man with a beard in a big fur coat as the song plays.

In-between those scenes we also see a long shot of some boys breakdancing which then jumps into a close up of a spinning motorbike tyre and close ups of teenage boys faces laughing and enjoying themselves. These scenes are filmed in slow motion to break away from the fast nature of the editing in the video.

When the car is pulled over, we see a quick series of jump cuts from one shot of the left side of the car to the right side of the car, we notice that the policemen are Caucasian, and as Jay Z explains in the rap, he was pulled over for nothing other than being African american in the past, even though he had illegal substances in the back of the car.  We see many shots of the car, ranging from long shots of the road  to close ups on the trunk, in the editing an X-ray effect is used on the trunk of the car to reveal cases of drugs in the trunk.

When Jay Z gives his responses to the policeman, a different image is shown, medium close up shots of Jay Z stood in a dark alleyway next to some fire escapes with his arms crossed and wearing his hat low to cover his face like he would've done when answering the police questions in the car.

When the police threaten to bring out the 'K9' car, we see a close up of a dog in a cage, barking and biting on the cage in slow motion to show the vicious dogs that might've been used by the police.

We then see a shot of Jay Z in a mid-shot at night so it's poorly lit performing to the camera as images of a prison appear, most of them are close ups of the iron bars.We then see a scene where two women are sat in a diner at a mid-shot with a man at the table, they look scared and constantly look down at the floor, the video has also been labelled as offensive as it makes women seem weak and timid compared to men, who appear dominant in the video.

We can also see jump cuts of long shots of streets in the dark of the night and medium close ups of the side of cars and women’s legs, again objectifying women.
We are then transported back to the diner where the man at the table throws objects off the table and the women run out of the diner, one now holding a child and screaming in fear, again making women seem weak and inferior to men.

We are now viewing mid tracking shots to close ups of a large man with muscles and tattoos with an angry look on his face storming around the inside of the prison we saw earlier, jump cuts are also seen of men fighting in the street at mid shots, these set the scene as to what Jay Z is rapping about as we can hear the non-diegetic sound of him discussing fighting and men telling their 'gang leaders' all about it and arguments and fights become more serious. We then see inmates at mid shots with the camera tilted diagonally slightly in every shot holding up signs for their mug shots and as camera flashes go off, the shot is brightly lit for a few seconds like a real camera with a flash would do.

The next big segment of the video is a tracking shot of Jay Z from behind (over the shoulder) as he walks up to a back street venue in the dead of night so most of the shot is pitch black. Later it mid shots to close ups are seen of Jay Z performing on a small stage which is artificially lit surrounded by jumping fans, also close ups of dogs barking and fighting with each other are shown, this is where the claim of glamourizing dog fighting has come from.

Images of a mid-shot of a man in a coffin are shown before Jay Z's final dramatic scene. In this final scene we see a long to mid shot of Jay Z stood next to a fence as he is shot in the torso multiple times by unknown characters, the whole of this is filmed in slow motion to show how extensive and gruesome the injuries are and to make the scene more dramatic and intense. As this scene finishes, images of close ups and extreme close ups of a singing church choir can be seen as well as close ups of coffins, relating to the death element of the video.

To finish the video, there is a sequence of random images that have led up to Jay Z's 'death' in the video which help to complete the overall picture of what led up to him being shot, the final image is of the camera shaking as it looks like somebody is running away from the scene of the crime.

Form: Due to Jay Z performing in the video followed by a narrarive of him being harassed by the Police, I believe that this video is a crossover of the performance and narrative styles of music videos. It also has elements of abstract as some of the random imagery appears to have abstract meanings such as the religious symbols.

Audience: The reckless life that Jay Z lives in the video, hiding drugs in his car, getting locked up in prison and getting into fights, doesn't relate to many people, but when it does, he might be aiming at older teenagers 16-20 year olds, because they're more likely to get into trouble for fights than say an adult who is more mature with more life experience. Also when he talks about how famous he is now and how he was discriminated against, his audience might also be anyone thats come from the same urban, 'ghetto' background, who were in his shoes and know what it's like but have made life better for themselves. There is a wide age group for Jay Z's audience, ranging from about 16, because anything younger than that and they shouldn't really know what gun crime is like etc, to adult age of about 45. Obviously the song and video is too graphic and violent for the likes of pensioners to be the audience, also I think that people over the age of 45 couldn't really relate to the gun / drugs crime of today that Jay Z talks about because they're from a different generation. The video has 8,167,906 hits on Youtube, making it fairly popular on the Internet.