Saturday 3 September 2011

Music Video deconstruction 2: Bottoms up - Trey songz

Colaberation between Trey and Nicki Minaj.

Released 2010. (R&B/rap) Trey songz is an american rapper and colaberated with Nicki Minaj to futher his career as most rappers have worked with Nicki in the past and its helped them get into the industry and enhance his new album 'Passion, Pain & Pleasure' as she is such a huge star. It was directed by Anthony Mandler.



the song has sold 2,889,000 copies!

  1. The opening shot is a dark room with bright white lights, being a high angeled shot the camera tracks up to show the clothing of Trey. We can tell from this shot that he's the 'pimp' and its based in a strip club as this idea isnt exactly origional and has been done by a number of rap artists before.
  2. As the camera continues to track up we see the back of the figure moving inot bright lights giving the 'whos the daddy' impression and seeing himself as a pimp which is anchored by the next shot of flashing images of women dancing in provocative clothing and sat on chairs.
  3. He continues to walk on and checks himself out in the mirror like the person is ready for what is about to come. The song then comes in after this shot as he fixes his suit, up until this shot his identity has been hidden and narrative enigma used until he turns his head. Typical rapper with sunglasses on inside.
  4. The girls then appear from the background to ensure the male audience its not particularly a video for girls offering the 'male gaze' theory this is an extreme long shot and the first time we see the setting and mise-en-scene in full. All dancers have the 'ghetto' look like nicki minaj with large chest and bum, high heels and little clothing.
  5. The depth of the video is basically girls parading round in little clothing and to be used and thought to have little intelligence the only female that has close ups is Nicki excluding the close ups of womens body parts.
  6. Flashing effects and lighting play a huge part in the video as girls shadows are formed in the back ground of long shots and the use of the colour red flashing carries connotations of sex which is also used in also of Rihannas videos such as Only Girl in The World and S&M which also feature little clothing and sexual references
  7. The lyrics are describing a girl and the plans he has for her saying they can 'alcahol the time' which all rappers are associated with aswell as drugs and crime.
  8. The girls featuring in the background are dancing on stage and there are poles aswell their faces arnt often shown only the silouettes of their bodies, no men are dancing giving a message that women are only used for sexual acts and as pleasure for men (feminist approach)
  9. High angled shots are used throughout making the male look important and the women in the background irrelevant.
  10. At 02:06 in the video a girl is stood in the background in what is equal to swimwear and is approaching the male sat down with although her arms are tied up so she cant move this has a similarity with Rihannas video S&M although Rihanna is implying 'chains and whips excite her' and is the star of the video this video is a countertype as the man is seen as the star and the women seen as his 'b*tches'
  11. Nicki Minaj appears on screen doing her signiture grunts at 02:37 and she is amongst the other women until later on, she is also wearing a lycra body suit and her style is linked to other women in the industry such as Jessie J in the Price Tag video in particular aswell as Lady Gaga in the Bad romance video . The flashes and effects begin and multi screens are there with her looking at trey. Her lyrics are all about alcahol and when she gets angry then apologises making out shes just a vulnerable little girl 'excuse me im sorry im really such a lady'
  12. Towards the end of the video nicki takes more control showing that the alcahol can mess it up for people and trey is nothing denoted by the bluriness of the camera lense and dutch angle shots used to show something isnt right and he is out of conrol, kind of having that as an underlying message for teens but appearing 'cool'

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