analysis two

Goodlife, Kanye West ft. T-Pain

The video for Kanye West’s “Goodlife” contains many conventions and features of music videos, and in particular those used in the R&B genre.
The video starts with a frontal mid-shot of Kanye West revealing the main star immediately. This catches his fans and fans of the music genre’s attention. As Kanye West begins to write “the Goodlife” on screen, the camera reverses to a mid-shot from behind him to reveal the title of the song. As West splashes ink to the floor it runs, with the camera following its movement to the feet of a person. After the ink wraps round his feet in colour, the camera tilts upwards to reveal the featuring artist T-pain, perhaps suggesting that he is also of a high status in the genre. As he sings the lines “Welcome to the Goodlife” they appear on screen in graffiti font thus amplifying the lyrics to the audience and making them want to join in. Zoom ins and zoom outs are occasionally used in the video to vary the editing and camera angles, sometimes giving a good effect when zooming in to Kanye West as the audience will anticipate it and can’t wait to see him close up.
This is continued throughout the video with lyrics being amplified on screen along with mid-shot, long shots and close ups of Kanye West. There are also close up profile shots of Kanye West from the side giving the audience every view of the star therefore giving them pleasure in watching it/him. The same shots are used when T-pain appears on screen too. At points within the video both Kanye West and T-pain are shown on screen, together, mainly through the use of long or mid shots, to increase pleasure for the audience with two stars on their TV screens that have done a lot for the genre of music, alas emphasising what a huge collaboration this is
Camera shots with a good looking woman are also included both on her own, with West and with both the male artists. Long shots are used to show off all her credentials and close ups used to emphasise her certain qualities meaning the video is particularly paying attention to its male demographic, contributing to the video’s voyeuristic features. Making the woman appear sexy and desirable, the video producers and editors are encapsulating and keeping the attention of the male audience.
The editing of the video is of a very high standard as expected for a song of a multi-millionaire music artist. However, some of the effects used in shots are incredible to watch and one can only imagine how long it must have taken to edit in time with the music and the artists acting. For example, when the lines “so I roll the good” are sang by West he rotates his arm to turn a wheel on screen which was probably added in after the footage was filmed using a green screen, etc. Another example of this is where Kanye West itches his fingers together and throws his arms at the camera where the editors have then added cartoon like diamonds to the footage to make it look like he throws diamonds and wealth at the camera, emphasising his huge success and high status. Thirdly, Kanye West puts on a pair of sunglasses in one shot where instead of the lyrics and images being projected behind him like previously in the video, they are on his lenses shown in a close up, giving a new, different and interesting effect which the audience will like and want to watch again.
In terms of intertextuality, the video or rather song and lyrics mention the music channel on which the video is most likely to appear on and make money from; “I’m gonna get on MTV momma” with West and T-pain walking into a TV screen being watched by the woman in the video, again perhaps adding to the voyeuristic qualities of it.
The video itself has a good quality narrative and performance by all involved which should mean good repeatability on channels and video websites such as youtube, myspace, etc. and thus with its individuality and originality has and will continue to gain success.
To conclude, the video is original and thus effective in gaining repetitive views and giving satisfaction to viewers.