media

1. Music video analysis of smack my bitch up
The Prodigy
Smack My Bitch Up
The fat of the land 1997
Jonas Akerlund
The song is a first person video portraying alcohol, drugs sexual encounters and
vast nudity. It also shows a car being broken into, drunk driving fights with both
men and woman and explicit scenes at the end.
The plot to the video is a female who is portrayed as a male to challenge
stereotypical views of woman. She acts like a drunk and disorderly man groping
woman and starting fights withother woman and men. While breaking the law and
going into strip clubs.
This is a narrative video it tells a story and challengesthe stereotypical attitudes
and opinions of woman and how they should behave. It challengesthe female
stereotype of woman being a lady and not being able to have as much fun as men.
There is a slight connection between the lyrics ( change my pitch up, smack my
bitch up) throughout the music video when the lyrics kick in the music is a faster
pace and more intense this is because something dramatic is happening or is about
to happen.
The target audience for this music video are raverswho listento The prodigy and
people that have the same mind set as the artists themselves, they could be young
or older. The artist don't seem to care about what people think of there music and
what to challenge the classic types of music video so a audience may be interested
in seeing something new.
The video focuses on a narrative of what appears to be a male getting ready for a
night out then heading off and causing chaos. Then at the end we find out it was
actually a woman.
The video creates an interesting atmosphere when watching the video you expect
the focus to be on a man, which seemsacceptable to many people but when you
realise it's a woman at the end the atmosphere changes to disappointment and an
expectation of woman to behave better in a social area.
The music video is fast paced with lots of quick cuts this gives an indication of
their excitement. For example the beginning of the video is fast paced and shows
that persons step by step guide in getting ready. The editing of the room spinning
makes you feel as though you're looking through that persons eyes.Giving you the
same drunk vision as they have. By the use of Mise-en-scene every part of the
video seems realistic, from the outfits that are being worn, to the drugs and alcohol
being supplied.

2. The intention with this video was to change the way people think about the
stereotypical gender roles. Showing that either gender can behave exactlyhow they
like without having to be judged.
Barthes cultural code includesdrugs as that was and still is part of youth culture.
The enigma code has also been applied as they hide the gender of the person until
the end of the video so you have chance to judge the video and decide on the
gender.
The codes and conventions of electronic music is that the video starts of mysterious
and then we are watching to see what will happen next. The style is abstract and
links in well withthe lyrics of the music. As it's electronic the lyrics are
minimalistic so it can be difficult to spot the symbols with in the video as you have
to look into it deeper.