The student created three media products: a music video, digipak, and magazine advert. For the music video, they followed some conventions of the hip hop/R&B genre such as portraying the artist wearing jewelry and a baseball cap. However, they also challenged conventions by showing the female modestly dressed and portraying a gentle interaction between the male and female artists, departing from typical hypersexualized depictions. For the digipak, they utilized design elements commonly found in commercial music packaging like track listings and credits. Overall, the projects utilized some real-world conventions while also attempting to challenge stereotypical portrayals sometimes found within those genres.

1. Evaluation 1: In what ways does
your media product use, develop or
challenge forms and conventions of
real media products?
Allin Nuh

2. Media Products
The three media products we created are:
• A Music Video
• A Digipak
• A Magazine advert
Our music video is a Hip Hop/R&B themed
genre, so we had to use unique codes and put
real light on the artist. The codes and
conventions we followed weren’t easy to go
by as it was distinctive.

3. Types of Hip hop/R&B representations
in Media
Women:
• Represented in a voyeuristic manor, where they tend to have less clothes or more
revealing clothing to be exact.
• They tend to worship money and love any man with a bit of money, that is a
extremely negative light on female as they seem to have their independence
stripped of them.
• If you look at Lil Kim – Lighters Up, she really does highlight all the negative of
Black females, as not only voyeuristic, but also violent.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X8l_0N8lLWY
Men:
• Men are represented in a money hungry, jewellery loaded, violent promoting way
which is extremely negative and can be deemed offensive to many people.
• They tend to wear a lot of jewellery to emphasise on how much money they have
and how proud they are of it. They also look down on women as objects and
really degrade them in a huge manor.
• If you look at French Montana – Pop That (remix), this really shows where women
stand in their lives, just as objects and nothing more.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X98HX5nbsCI

4. Conventions of music video (Hip Hop)
Men in Hip Hop:
Hip Hop music videos are usually
• Jewellery
explicit and very violent promoting
• Baggy clothing
stuff. Men are represented as the
• Tattoo’s
more successful sex, where ‘money
• Sunglasses
is power’ and women chase the
• Jeans
man with money. This way of
• Gold Teeth (occasionally)
thinking goes back to the 1950’s
• Trainers
Italian Mafia days where Hip Hop
artists such as Rick Ross and Jay-Z
Women in Hip Hop:
take inspiration from.
• Minimal clothing
• Fake hair
2pac – Keep your head up,
• Jewellery
challenges the stereotype
• A lot of make up
completely were he looks to women
• Bikini (occasionally)
as inspirational figure heads and
how all men came from a women,
so they should respect them.

5. Setting the lighting
Our Music Video Drakes Music Video
The similarities between both music videos is that we are pretty much using
the same lighting in certain parts of the music video. I think this really does
show that this is a hip hop music video as it is not too bright and has a
element of darkness in it, which again shows this is a hip hop music video.

6. Clothing Lupe Fiasco Music
Our Music Video Video
Lupe Fiasco Music
Video
Our Music Video

7. General Theory
This is where the lyrics establish a general feeling and a sense of subject rather than a
meaning. The tempo of the music often drives the editing. The Genre might be
reflected in types of mis-en-scene, themes, performance, camera and editing
styles. Camerawork, has a major impact on meaning, the movement, angle and
shot distance all play a part in the representation of the artist/band (for example
the use of close-ups will show inferiority and importance). Editing the most
common form is fast-cut montage, rendering many images impossible to grasp on
first viewing, so ensuring multiple viewing. Often enhancing the editing are digital
effects, which play with the original images to offer a different type of pleasure to
the audience. Intertextuality, not all viewers will recognise a reference which
would not detract them from their pleasure in the text itself, but if he viewer was
to realise the reference it should increase the audience's engagement regarding
the product. Lastly exhibitionism, this is where the powerful independent female
artists portray an image where the woman is being sexually provocative and
apparently in control of and inviting a sexual gaze.

8. Andrew Goodwin’s Theory
•
• Visuals illustrate, amplify or contradict the lyrics and music. Genres often
have their own music style/iconography. Close-ups should always be
included. The artist/ band might want to develop their own star
iconography, which becomes their star image. Voyeurism is a common
theme within music videos. Intertextual references are also popular.
Goodwin argues that the female performer is frequently objectified
principally for display purposes, often through a combination of
camerawork and editing with fragmented body shots emphasising a
sexualised treatment of the star.
• Looking at our music video, comparing similarities with this theory isn’t
really hard; In fact it’s pretty easy. Our music video does place emphasis
on the main artist by using camera angles such as close-ups on the artists
face and jewellery. A star image was definitely created with the main artist
being involved in the main ‘glamorous scenes’. However, voyeurism is also
shown in the music video with the male lusting over the female.

9. Lyrics and Genre
• Lyrics:
• Once in love
Strong
Now it's long, long gone
Because the pain, pain, pain
I remain all alone
Because I want you [Repeat: x2]
I been thinking bout
I been thinking bout
I been thinking about you lately
Thoughts take me to when we were close
Addicted 2 your love, feel I need another dose
I know it's a feeling
That should be long gone
Things seem to come up
When I hear our song
Golden brown girl, it seem so long
Since I heard your voice
Where did the king go wrong?
•
• Lyrics: These lyrics aren’t very visual but more or less have a deep feeling of emotion and love instead of visuals and physical motions.
The audience should sense a type of emotion and love when listening to the lyrics, but the music isn’t really slow and mellow so it
would be difficult at the same time.
•
• Genre: looking at the lyrics, it’s obvious that the mis-en-scene has to create a heart throbbing and warm feeling in the audience. This
kind of feeling might bore young teenagers who aren’t really into all that lovey dovey stuff but maybe some elders in mature
relationships or some who just got out of some might find this very interesting.
•
• Editing: the music tempo plays a huge part in the video; the cutting of the scenes is basically down to the tempo of the music. As the
music is pretty fast in some parts, a lot of cutting has dominated in the music video.

10. Our Digipak

14. Conclusion (Music Video)
How we used conventions:
• The main artist is wearing a baseball cap with lots of jewellery
which signifies the genre (hip hop/R&B)
• The use of special filter effects such as Crisp contrast and cold steel
to make key scenes from our video look similar to real media
products.
How we challenged conventions:
• The female in video was completely modest and covered, this
counter types the hip hop/R&B music genre as females usually tend
to have little or no clothing.
• The male representation is also challenged were the male has a
really soft and subtle touch with the female, something you don’t
usually see in hip hop music videos.

15. Conclusion (DigiPak)