The document provides an in-depth analysis of the music video for Eminem's song "Stan" featuring Dido. It summarizes the plot of the music video, which tells the story of an obsessive fan named Stan who becomes increasingly disturbed and dangerous in his obsession with Eminem. The analysis breaks down how various scenes and lyrics relate to each other. It also references other songs and videos that are alluded to in "Stan." In the end, Stan drives his car into a body of water after Eminem fails to respond to his letters, and Eminem realizes the fan he drove to suicide was named Stan.

1. Task 3 analysis of Eminem’s song and music video “Stan”
Stan – Eminem feat. Dido
https://youtu.be/gOMhN-hfMtY
The video I will be analysing is Eminem’s ‘Stan’ featuring the artist Dido singing the chorus. It is a
good example of a music video, which directly relates to the lyrics & is a strong example of a
narrative music video, being linear and a very strong message from Eminem to his fans. The music
throughout the song is a modified beat of Dido’s original song “Thank You”. Similar to other rap
songs, the beat is consistent and repeats throughout the whole song. Besides this, however we do
hear other sound effects and connections between both the video and the music.
The song is Hip Hop styled song, but does not included any dancing which is unconventional for a
music video, as most artist in the Hip Hop genre included dancers and sing about their success to
promote themselves, the record label and the single. Usually Eminem adapts the video to broadcast
a message to his fans to show them what obsession can do to someone’s life.
Introduction & Background
‘Stan’ by Eminem, was directed & produced by Philip Atwell & Dr.Dre. The song was released on
December 9th 2000 and received high critical praise, peaking at No.1 in both the UK and Australia.
The video, released 2 years later in 2002 was also well received, being nominated for Video of the
Year, Best Rap Video, Best Direction & Best Cinematography at the MTV Video Music Awards. The
legacy that comes with the music video and song proves to be the turning point in Eminem’s career,
and is one of his most memorable and most influential songs released by him.
The song tells a clear story, linking in with the video, of an obsessive fan writing to Eminem. The song
was inspired by the death of Eminem’s Uncle Ronnie in 1992. This track led to the term “Stan” being
used in the industry to describe an obsessive fan and had huge influence within the music industry
In the starting scene the first clear thing is that the, in the opening of the music video is set out as if
it is a theatrical trailer, with no clear melody or lyrics just the sound of thunder and rain already
stating the mood of a depressing atmosphere,
which is called pathetic fallacy (this continues
throughout the whole song showing how
depressing the song is). The scene then leads to
a man dressed like Eminem bleaching his hair
(indicating already the crazed fan) which leads
to an uproar as Stan is so drawn in by himself as
he thinks he looks like Eminem (which he does

2. throughout the video a s his obsession grows) because
of this he forgets completely about his pregnant wife.
“the morning rain clouds up my window, and I can’t see
at all, and even if I could it would all be grey” – This
directly relates to the visuals of the music video as the
weather outside is in bad condition, as we see in the
opening shot. It also has a direct link to Dido’s
unhappiness in her relationship with Stan, shown to us
by the argument they have just had even though she
constantly wears blue showing loyalty as throughout
Stan’s obsession, he’s addiction she stays with him, even
though she knows who he has become.
“Dear Slim, I wrote but you still ain’t callin I
left my cell, my pager, and my home phone at
the bottom” – This is linked with the shot of
Stan grabbing a pencil and writing a letter to
someone, which the lyrics identify, is Eminem.
Where we see lip syncing as the singer is
actually Eminem broadcasting his message
through Stan, as the actor lip syncs the words
to make it look like he is singing the song.
“My girlfriends pregnant too, I’m about to be a
father. If I have a daughter, guess what I’m
gonna call her? I’ma name her Bonnie.”
Showing the obsession Stan has with Eminem
as he’s starting to piece by piece copy
Eminem’s life. (Also this has reference his song
“97 bonnie and Clyde” as he says he is going to
name his daughter Bonnie). Which is what
Eminem in his message to his fans is implying
them not to do, as this form of idolism is only
because his main fans are of a lower class and
need something to actually give them a
purpose ignoring their real issues in life. When
Stan is writing his first letter where there is
footage on the TV in his basement where
Eminem is waving at the camera. This is clearly
just for the television show it was shown on
however Stan looks back and waves back as
acknowledgement of this showing his almost
trance like state where he believes Eminem
was waving to him. This has been included to
show this is no ordinary obsession with an artist. During this scene, there is also a clear reference to
a Phil Collins song. “The song “Old World Disorder” is referenced by Stan in the track to Eminem as
“that underground shit that you did with Skam.”

3. There is some passing of time will the chorus
plays allowing the story to progress but also
reveals the building of tension as the letter falls
out of the post cart, showing you the building up
of the atmosphere for the next verse.
The second verse begins with a low angle shot of
Stan looking more agitated implying to the
audience that his anger is boiling as the image is
intimidating. The lyrics link well with this moment
as Stan, writing another letter to Eminem,
expresses his annoyance of not receiving a reply
from his idol. “I just think its fucked up you dont
answer fans!” – this, as earlier stated, shows he is
getting more aggressive and agitated.
Stan continuing his rant enters the next scene
were he and his little brother are at an Eminem
concert, with the lyrics of the song being
illustrated by the video. His perception of
Eminem is god-like and a high-angle shot of him
in the audience shows Eminem’s viewpoint.
Eminem’s expression on his face shows
acknowledgement of him and Stan’s face to this
looks elated.
“If you didn’t wanna talk to me outside the concert
you didn’t have to.” Stan’s aggression/obsession
starts to increase more and more by this time, he is
so obsessed he is blinded form the truth “He wants
to be just like you man, he likes you more than I do”
when actually his brother really isn’t interested, it’s
just an excuse for himself.
The story progresses with various statements by Stan, of how familiar both Eminem and his lives are,
referring to past experiences, explaining their connection and even showing a flashback to a meeting
they had at a CD signing. Where Eminem appears overwhelmed by the situation and Stan explains
that Eminem promised him a reply if he were to write to him.

4. Stan’s obsession with Eminem is continually
amplified up to the point where there is a scene of
him getting a tattoo of Eminem’s face on his body
with the lyrics “I even got a tattoo of your name
across the chest” leaving us in a clear position of
just how serious his problem is getting.
He goes on to refer to self-harm, making the
atmosphere of the video darker, somehow making the
song darker and more depressing than it already Is
then goes on to state “my girlfriend’s jealous cuz I talk
about you 24/7” showing us the proof from his own
words that his obsession with Eminem is the cause of
his relationship problems between him and his
girlfriend. The verse culminates in him finishing off the
letter with the words: “ps. we should be together too.” As
if he fantasises of them being a couple Showing you how
his obsession has reached his climax, a slightly unnerving,
view on his obsession, amplified by him sticking a
magazine cut out of Eminem over the top of a picture of
him and his girlfriend together, as if he fantasises of them
being a couple, even though she is still staying loyal to him
wearing blue as she wants him to get through this period
of obsession he is going through.
The chorus then kicks in once again as we see Stan’s
girlfriend get up late after hours to go down into the
basement to see what Stan gets up to down there as
clearly she has been restricted from entering the
basement, but to her shock she sees the reality of how
bad his obsession is. Which is then followed by Stan
following her down and then strangling her when he
realizes she knows about his obsession. His facial
expressions show how he is okay with her finding out
about his obsession as it gives him another excuse to
relate to Eminem as he then copies him by tying her up
and throwing her in the trunk of his car

5. He is speaking into a cassette “Dear Mister I’m too
good to call or write my fans” showing how agitated
he is. As he mentions that he is “doing 90 on the
freeway” and continues with “Hey Slim, I drank a
fifth of vodka, you dare me to drive?” he continually
looks at his hanging ornament on his rear-view
mirror of Eminem, as if he is talking to him directly, a
clear sign of a deranged person like he has finally lost
it completely, like he has gone off the edge (which he
does). As it’s if, he saying that is the last he will hear
of him which is why he is leaving the message to him.
A reference to another song in this scene is My Name Is’ where Eminem raps “Am I comin’ or goin’? I
can barely decide I just drank a fifth of vodka, dare me to drive?” another reference in this song is
when Stan says “You know the song by Phil Collins, In the Air of the Night About that guy who could
a saved that other guy from drowning, but didn't, then Phil saw it all, then at a show he found him?
That’s kinda how this is, you could a rescued me from drowning” “This refers to another Phil Collins
song “In the Air Tonight”, but in this song its misquoting as “In the Air of the Night.”, as Stan refers to
an urban legend that the song is about Collins seeing a man drowning, while a closer bystander does
nothing to save him.
“I hope you can’t sleep and you dream about it and
when you dream I hope you can’t sleep and you scream
about it I hope your conscience eats at you and you
can’t breathe without me.” Revealing how his obsession
has destroyed him as now all of his basic functions have
switched off and how reality no longer matters to him
this is followed by a scream we hear from Dido, Stan
turns around and exclaims, “Shut up bitch! I’m tryin to
talk!” Hey Slim, that's my girlfriend screamin' in the trunk But I didn't slit her throat, I just tied her
up, see I ain't like you' Cause if she suffocates she'll suffer more, and then she'll die. As if to say, he
wants to be him but better like saying he sees what he is doing to his girlfriend as better than what
Eminem did. Another reference in this is when Stan says” Shut up, bitch, I’m tryin’ to talk! Hey Slim,
that’s my girlfriend screaming in the trunk/But I didn’t slit her throat, I just tied her up” which refers
to Eminem’s song “Kim,” where Eminem murders his wife after realizing she is cheating and doesn’t
love him; at the end of “Kim” he slits her throat and throws her in his trunk.”

6. The verse is finished with Stan signing off his
recording with “Well, gotta go, I’m almost at the
bridge now Oh shit, I forgot, how’m I supposed to
send this shit out?” showing he hadn’t planned this
through, but this is not reality kicking in it’s only the
fact that he wouldn’t be able to get the tape
delivered, his cares for his wife, child, family even
himself have all vanished just to make his life a
remembrance to Eminem, which then shows the
urgency of the situation as his car breaks through
the Bridge’s Closed barriers, flying off the bridge into the water below. Rain sound effects are made
louder when Stan is drunk at the end of the song when he is driving dangerously and Car tyre
squeals are heard exacerbating the erratic driving to the audience.
The chorus is used to fill the time where the car sinks and
shows Eminem finally picking up a pencil and then start to
write back, where then the last verse to start this time
instead of Stan pretending to be singing its Eminem, as
narratively writes his letter. Eminem begins with the lyrics “I
meant to write sooner but I just been busy” which actually
shows Stan and dido’s deaths could of actually been
prevented, something which Eminem himself is not aware of
at the current time. As he continues, unknowing that Stan
has died, he mentions “here’s an autograph for your brother,
I wrote it on a Starter cap” with this the camera
cuts to Matthew at a cemetery where we see
Stan’s grave to be.
The video then goes back to the scene of the car
being pulled out with Eminem still not realizing
Stan has already passed tries to help him with his
message he is writing back, “seen this one shit on
the news a couple weeks ago that made me sick
Some dude was drunk and drove his car over a
bridge and had his girlfriend in the trunk, and she was
pregnant with his kid and in the car they found a tape,
but they didn’t say who it was to Come to think about,
his name was. it was you Damn!”
The sudden realisation of him finding out it was Stan is
shown with Stan’s face appearing on the window of his
tour bus as a flash of lightning occurs. This is the end of
the melody and song with the video continuing to finish
with a shot of Matthew placing his hand on his
brother’s grave in remembrance but showing the influence older brothers can have, as him losing his
brother drove him to follow in his footsteps.

7. last Friday Night-Katy Perry
http://www.vevo.com/watch/katy-
perry/Last-Friday-Night-(T-G-I-F-
)/USCA31100045
The next video I will analysing is “last Friday night” by Katy Perry. The music video is a combination
of narrative and performance, with elements of pastiche (“an artistic work in a style that imitates
that of another work, artist, or period”) and clear Intertextual references throughout. It closely
follows the conventions expected by Goodwin.
The main purpose of the music video was to further promote album sales of Katy Perry’s
sophomore album “Teenage Dream”. This was the fifth single lifted of the album and its success
would lead to further publicity for Perry. A number 1 single would set a new World Record making
Katy Perry the first female solo artist to achieve 5 number 1 singles from the same album.
the video encompasses(surrounds) many elements of performance with the intention of promoting
and idolising the artist. An example of this will be the use of camera angles of Katy Perry which
emphasises the importance of her role not only within the narrative, but also as the “product” that is
being promoted. The song includes a pace beat and a catchy chorus a conventional thing used in pop
music.
Some of the narrative actually expands in the song, amplifying its meaning. There is a subtle Cameo
and intertextual aspect to the video as it stars Rebecca Black, famous for her song ‘Friday.’ It is
suitable that she should feature in this video considering the relationship between her song ‘Friday’
and this song ‘Last Friday Night,’ with lyrical parallels like “…gotta’ get down on Friday, everybody’s
looking forward to the weekend…” and “T.G.I.F” which is an acronym for ‘thank God it’s Friday’.
In the beginning scene the first thing you see is an extreme long shot of what seems to be a rich
neighbourhood, set in the past (80’ theme which is a link throughout the whole video) shown by the
paper boy riding his bike delivering papers, which sets the scene as if the video is a movie. Even the
writing used to show the record that produce is set with an 80’s theme. There is pathetic fallacy
used in this scene also as the weather reflects the mood as there are birds chirping, and it’s a clear
sunny sky, which suits the music in the beginning as it’s the beginning of the day as it’s the beginning
of the song

8. The next scene starts of by showing the aftermath on the songs title “last Friday night”. The video is
nonlinear as the video is not in chronological order as the video starts with the aftermath and goes
back to show you what happened, to cause the room that she is in to be in such a state. This part of
the video is still as if we are watching a movie
instead of a music clip to promote a song. The
bright colours used in this scene are
conventional to the song as it’s a pop song
and also represents the theme of a typical
American girl’s bedroom as there is a lot of
pink which resembles femininity. It shows the
typical stereotype of an out casted girl in
school throwing a party and becoming
popular this is common and used to add humour, something seen often in teenage girl movies. The
music video for Last Friday Night has a strong relationship between the visuals and the lyrics.
Throughout the video, there are visuals,
which illustrate the lyrics “there’s a stranger
in my bed” an image of Kathy Beth Terry
waking up next to a stranger. “Pictures of
last night, ended up online” shows Kathy
Beth Terry browsing through an example of
a social media site which has picture
evidence of “last Friday night”. The video
also presents Katy Perry (in character as
Kathy Beth Terry) lip-synching to the song.
This helps to amplify the lyrics, so the audience can fully understand the connection between the
narrative and the lyrics.
The next scene is where the video takes you back to where the party was starting, and you have
Kathy Beth terry doing a game in a book (this also represents the 80’s theme as they didn’t have
such advanced tech like we do know such as mobile phones (I phone 6) computers (mac books) and
gaming consoles (X BOX 1), They had these technical devices but they were nowhere near as
advanced, to have kid’s on them 24/7.) as she has no friends being an outcast of the popular groups,
but in this video she gets invited I when she goes to moan and do what a parent would do and ask
them to turn it down, instead she goes in obviously wanting to go in, in the first place, this is also
were we see the artist Rebecca black come In to the video. In this scene we also see the first sign of
female gaze theory as we see the jock lying in Kathy’s bed shirtless being revealed for the female
audience.

9. The next scene is where she enters the main party,
having bright colours suiting the song and the party
itself, being a Friday and an 80’s theme. She seems
bewildered by it all as obviously implying that she
has not been to one before, the scene includes
anther major stereotype used in American teenage
movies having a jock not being interested in her due
to her appearance and having another geek falling
in love with her as he sees them as the same,
different. Which leads to the scene were the he
fantasizes over the two being together. Again like before we get to see the female side of the gaze
theory in this video as they have the actor playing the jock show his abs which is for the female
audience proven as he does it in front Katy
Perry and Rebecca black.
The second verse begins with a cut back to the scene in
the bedroom where she has just woken up, this
happens continuously as it’s like she is telling the story
and we are watching it as it unfolds, the story then
carries on were Kathy is taken up stairs by Rebecca
black were she gets dressed for the party, this is where
the male gaze theory kicks in and the you start to see
the voyeuristic angles, even though the colours are
bright, pink included for femininity, she still wears tight
small clothing for the attraction of the male gaze
audience proven in the video when the jock instantly
leaves the girl for her. Instanty though when she walks doen the stairs she looks at him for approval.
Also in the scene like others, kathy still acts like a beginning to still show how she is still inside
someone different as she is not used to these ways which is why she walks funny and has weird
exprssions on her face.

10. The next scene is where the chorus kicks in
again, with a long shot angle to set the
scene were now the dancing choreography
starts, this scene is similar to the song “sorry for party rocking” as they surround the stage and
person by person they step in and perform their choreographed dance. In this scene also there are
many close ups on Kathy (Katy Perry) to show she is the star and is the most important character in
the video, also to make her stand out the people in the
background are wearing simple normal clothes to make
sure they don’t stand out and that your eyes are on Katy
Perry.
After the chorus we get an instrumental solo from an artist
called Kenny G who plays uncle Kenny in the video, by him
being here it promotes him and the song to other genre of
audiences, as instrumental solos are unconventional in pop
songs.
The next scene is how we come to realize how her room ended up like it did, in this scene we also
come to terms with the finally of the fairy tale happy ending I this teenage video as the geek (who
thinks himself to be a prince saves Kathy (the princess) form the jock (the evil prince) and they live
happily ever after, this is another iconic 80’s theme which relates to the game Mario a massive
brand now but
actually kick started
in the 80’s.

11. The ending scene of the video once the song has finished the video goes back into the movie stlye of
video, as kathys parents return home to find kathy and their house in a ginourmous mess, were they
have a dialogue to read instead of lyrics as the style now, is more movie than song, another 80’s
theme is revealed in this scene also as the actors used to play the parents are iconic famous 80’s era
stars (corey fieldman and debbie gibson). Which completes the 80’s styled video as it draws to an
end with the parents unusually leaving her to sleep whilst the house is a wreck, this relates to the
side of rich white familys as having a lot of money gives the children more freedom during the 80’s
era and any other era. The video aslso ends with a casting to show you who was in the video and
who was involed with making the video this is also like a movie styled video as this normally only
happens in movies so it is unconventional for a music video, they also show you at the end, clips
were the actors and artists messed up with what they were doing to make the video funny and
attract more audiences to watch the video, promting the artists involved and the song itself.
Conclusion
As we can see from both videos, they are completely different genres in pop music videos and shows
how they can vary, but which is conventional for a music video? As we can tell the Katy Perry music
video is conventional for a pop video as it includes aspects you would expect to see when Stan
doesn’t. the video includes dance choreography, male/female gaze theory, bright colours to match
the mood of the song as there is an energetic beat. When Eminem’s Stan is a message being linear
unlike Katy Perry’s last Friday night explains in a message through a story form, with a dark
depressing atmosphere which is unconventional for a pop song, Stan also has barely any closes up

12. on Eminem as Eminem is not the main character in the video which is unconventional for a pop
video. Whereas Katy’s Perry’s last Friday night has her wearing bright colours and camera angles
which focus on her to promote her as an artist and the song/album which she is promoting, links
they both have is that both videos have links to other artists, songs and they both have similar
formats as they both are sought of like movies in some scenes. Which shows the differences and
similarities between the two videos and how Katy Perry’s video is conventional and Eminem’s Stan’s
is unconventional.