“Music
videos reflect the social and cultural context in which they were made”
Discuss this statement through
a comparison of the
two music videos you have studied. One mv from list A (CBR) and one from list B
(DG)
In Stop
Where You Are the social aspects of the video are mental health, class and judging
people. This is shown in the video by focusing on the people being represented,
such as a stereotypical teenage girl, a man with tattoos and a homeless woman.
CBR is playing a motivational person in the video, as she is trying to convey her
message of being in the present and celebrating what is happening right in this
very moment.
The
people being represented in CBR’s video are all on the fringes of society and
tend to get judged by the majority of people. This is similar to Titanium as
the boy is presented as someone who is alone and gets judged for who he is.
In Stop
Where You Are, the first shot is of a teenage girl wearing a hoodie. We cannot
see her face as she is turned away, and it is a long shot wide angle with her
framed to the side, with the rest of the environment taking up the shot. We can
gather from this that she is overlooked by society and no one really cares for
her, which could be down to her Asian ethnicity. There is then a cut to a closer
up frame of her, and she has now turned around so we can see her face. By doing
this, CBR is saying do not judge people straight away, as they might be
vulnerable, no matter what they look like.
There
is a similar theme In Titanium, with a young boy being shown as a threat, with
society jumping to conclusions and being scared of him and judging him because
of his powers instead of helping him, as he is also scared and confused with
what he has done. This is shown straight away in the video with him slowly getting
up off the floor looking confused, and we see a teacher on the phone calling
for help, and as she sees him, she slams the door and looks very scared. The video
is in slow motion for this section and there is a close up on the teacher’s face
so we can see what she is saying. Throughout the video, we see more of how the
boy lives and what he thinks about the situation. We see that he is very
confused and scared with what he has done, and he is running away from the
police who are trying to capture him. This is showing how straight away society
have judged him and his powers negatively, instead of trying to find the
positives and help him, as he is also scared of what he can do.
Overall,
CBR and Titanium have both conveyed similar messages of not judging people
negatively straight away, and instead find out more about them and their situation,
because they might be how they are for a reason, and that may lead to them
needing help with it rather than being put down being alienated by society. However,
in Titanium we don’t see the boy having a good moment where he stops being
pressured and judged, so this is more extreme, as it is showing only what
society is like, whereas CBR is also showing what society should be like, as
each person in the video is redeemed later on, as they start getting the
necessary treatment and attention by people.
