1. Music Video Analysis
Artist: Earl Sweatshirt
Genre: Hip-Hop/ Rap
Director Hiro Murai
The concept of the music video is to present a visualization of how Earl feels
about his life at the moment. The use of the unconventional camera shots and
bizarre imagery creates an image of a broken and distorted world which reflect
Earl’s feelings towards the world. The idea of the video is to intrigue viewers into
following the artist’s career as his video is very unconventional as far as Hip-Hop
goes.
Goodwin analysis
The music does not demonstrate many characteristics of the genre it is in.
Hip-hop usually has a very confident aesthetic to it with the majority of
the video being focused on the artist in designer label clothes with
expensive items and seductive women around him. This video has a very
dark and mellow atmosphere, which does not reflect the genre accurately
in the grand scheme of things. It can be argued that Earl is wearing
designer clothing but it is tough to say, as it isn’t a recognizable brand due
to his jacket being heavily customized with badges. It is also worth noting
that it is an even split between camera shots including and not including
Earl. It shows a lesser focus on Earl as an icon.
The visuals sit well with the mellow tone of Earl’s voice and the negative
topics that he brings up about himself because of the black and white
visualization and the use of disturbing imagery such as the dog with a
skeleton face. The visual however does not directly illustrate any of the
topics Earl brings up about himself. It can be interpreted that the video is
a symbolic amplification of Earl’s thoughts and feelings about his life. It
was revealed however by director Hiro Murai that the video was based
around the economic downturn of Greece and it had no relation to Earl
whatsoever.
The music is illustrated within the video when the camera shows a man
playing a drum kit in a skeleton costume in time with the beat of the
music. The camera will sometimes cut into a shot in time with the sound
effects used within the song also. The majority of the song’s mellow and
simplistic production is contradicted in bizarre cinematography that
shows locations upside down and rotating camera angles. The camera will
cut to the beat of a strong piano note and drum beat used at the same
time to keep in time with the beat of the music.
There are a noticeable amount of close ups when Earl is in shot with a
hand full of panning medium shots of Earl floating around the abandoned
city. The lighting within the shots of Earl is constantly shadowing his face
2. on multiple angles with the lighting changing constantly in shot. The
visual style is reflecting in a mall number of Earl’s music videos but it is
only done when the song for the music has equally dark and gritty tones
to the song presented in this video.
There is a use of intertextual symbolism with the fact that the video is
based on Greece’s economic downturn with the idea that the city is
abandoned, desolate and the only people remaining have a skull drawing
appearing on them symbolizing their hopelessness or impending demise.
