Eminem's music video for "Mockingbird" features old home video footage of him with his daughters and their mother. The video depicts Eminem alone, watching these old videos and lamenting not being able to be with his family as his career requires him to be away. Through personal lyrics directly addressing his daughters, the video shows Eminem's love for his family and desire to protect and support his daughters, despite being physically distant from them due to his work and their mother struggling with addiction issues. Intercutting old home videos with scenes of Eminem's success and coverage of his wife's legal troubles, the video uses nostalgia and sentimentality to provide context for the song's emotional lyrics and

1. Eminem – Mockingbird (Music Video)
December2009
Eminem’smusicvideo‘Mockingbird’ appearstobe mainlyacompilationof oldfootage of the artist’s
twochildren,Hailie andAlaina,andtheirmother. It is edited to give the impression that Eminem is
watching this old footage and lamenting because he cannot be with them as his career has him on
the move,andtheirmotherishavingtrouble too,leavingthe girlswithout support. This is reflected
in the lyrics:
“Daddy's always on the move, mamma's always on the news
I try to keep you sheltered from it but somehow it seems
The harder that I try to do that, the more it backfires on me”
Thisis an unusual representation of an artist from the rap genre, who are not normally as sensitive
and open.However,inthisvideo in particular, Eminem reflects on who he really is as a person and
shows his love for his family.
The narrative eventsin‘Mockingbird’are takenfromsituationsfromthe artist’s life. At times in the
lyrics, this gets extremely personal to the artist. He refers to his daughters by their names rather
than usingsecondpersontermssuchas ‘you’ or
‘she’,andwhenhe refers to the problems their
mumis facing,the videofeaturesactual footage
of her being sentenced after a court case. This
makes the narrative more of an account of
events. Eminem directs his song at his younger
daughter, Hailie. In this way, there is no
narrative enigma, and the lyrics become a lot
more sentimental and meaningful. In essence,
the song is about how Eminem will always do
anythingforhisdaughtersnomatter whatgetsin the waybecause he loves them. Nevertheless, he
says this whilst he is away for his daughters and unable to help them, which makes it more
emotional. His lyrics, although he has been away for a while, suggest that he is right beside his

2. daughters whilst their mother copes with a drug addiction. We can see that in his chorus, in which
he repeats:
“… Stiffen that upper lip up, little lady, I told ya
Daddy's here to hold ya through the night
I know mommy's not here right now and we don't know why…”
The main piece of iconography in the set is the movie projector which shows all the old pieces of
footage beingputtogetherwhichEminemiswatching.It shows the artist reflecting on the past and
watching over the time he has shared with his two daughters. The artist wishes he could ‘project’
himself and be with them but he can’t. This is in the setting of a small crowded room, where the
protagonist is sat on a single-person couch in a dark corner. This setting is used to emphasise the
speaker’s loneliness and isolation. This is also evident in the lyrics where he says:
“Now I'm sitting in this empty house, just reminiscing
Lookin' at your baby pictures, it just trips me out”
The videoiscleverlyedited with narrative shots which were filmed for the music video in those of
Eminemsatbefore a movie projector,alongsideoldfootage of the childrengrowingup,alsointercut
withscenesfromthe mediainthe case of the artist receivingawardsandhiswife beingonthe news.
The use of time in the technical editing allows the song to more emotionally reflect the lyrics of
'Mockingbird',as the artistlooksback oneverythinghe hasbeenthroughupto where he isnow.The
'throwback'style of hisvideowill appeal inparticulartoEminem'sexisting fanbase who are familiar
withthe artistand hisgrowth intowhohe is now. Those unfamiliarmaygaina newfoundrespect for
him,whereasinthe past they may only know him in a negative light, such as the story of his wife's
drug addiction, or as a famous artist, seeing him on the TV, the video builds a third picture of the
artist as a person. In this manner, the video could be said to influence audience reception of
Eminem. The cultural theorist and sociologist Stuart Hall coined his reception theory on the basis
that, after encoding and decoding a text, we take a preferred, negotiated, or oppositional reading
baseduponothersociological andenvironmental factors.Withsentiment at the heart of this video,
the viewerismore likelytotake a preferredreading as it encourages people to see the human side
of Eminem and sympathise with his situation.