Kanye west – Good Life Analysis by Sam

This video appears to be shot completely on a green screen, with colourful pop-art cartoon effects shown in both the foreground and background throughout the video. The pop-art effects are related to the lyrics either by being representations of lyrics or the lyrics themselves. The rappers and woman in the video are monochrome while most of the added effects are in colour, and are heavily saturated so that they stand out. Due to the rap genre of the song, it is expected that the music video would concentrate on the lyrics and the story they tell, and so this song is a clear example of illustration of the lyrics.

The visual technique of the colourful, evolving pop-art really stands out and demonstrates the creative and fairly original feel to the video. The lines and lyrics often move or are moved out the way by the rappers, as well as some that follow them, for example the picture frame that changes their colour to colourful vector art. This changing and evolving design makes the video more interesting to watch than boring static images. It also gives the feeling that the animations are alive and gives an upbeat, ‘alive’ feel to the song. The visuals are also good at catching the eye. They stand out due to the over saturation and single colour backgrounds, and so the video has a better chance at attracting ambient viewers to be more focused. Some of the animations are quite fast, and detailed as well as being good fun to watch, and so this adds to the repeatability of the video.

Kanye West in this song is singing about his way of living; ‘The Good Life’. He sings about making it big and living in some big cities in USA, and with that comes respect (not getting pulled over by cops, which are also featured by other rappers in some songs), money, women and fun. He also talks about fast, expensive cars, like Ferraris for example, one of the many things he can spend his money on. He also makes later reference to the black oppression by white cops when he mentions being asked to pop his hood and trunk of his car.

There are some possible references to popular culture in the song. A possible one is that the song is based on making it big in the USA and basically living the perfect life with everything you could ask for, i.e. the American Dream. This is similar to ‘Scarface’ (1983) in which Tony Montana comes over to Miami from Cuba to follow the American Dream. However drugs in this song are not labelled as bad, nor do they lead to any apparent negative consequences, although it never says that people would take them, only that they were transporting/selling them:

“Welcome to the good life

Where n-gg-s that sell D

Won't even get pulled over in their new V”

Another reference is a small one to ‘King Kong’ in which on the lyric “It feel like NY” it shows a collection of New York icons, of which King Kong is one of them. Finally ‘Snakes on a Plane’ is referenced as a sexual innuendo about having sex during flight.

This video would appear to be commercial as essentially it’s promoting Kanye West and his lifestyle as something desirable, and something to aim for. However with the amount of effects used in the video could be considered as an art form. Overall all though, there are no hidden meanings or challenging ideas, as the effects simply illustrate the song.

The heteronormative discourse in this video is clearly shown by the presence of the supporting female in who Kanye West takes an interest in. He is also shown, talking about sexual moves and reading porn magazines in parts of the video. Although dismemberment is not used in the video, he does rap about particular body parts of women, and so can be seen as derogatory.

The ideological discourse running in the video is reinforcing capitalism as the song is about the 'Good Life', having money, cars and women, and so is also promoting commercialism. It is also, as I have mentioned, reinforcing the American Dream of 'making it big' and getting riches and with that comes happiness, and that of course anyone can get there. He does that by saying "welcome to the good life" at the start of the song, saying everyone is welcome.

Due to the fast and fairly complex nature of the lyrics I would say this video was meant for focused viewing. As well as the great detail and effort put into the visuals, they attract your eye to increase the possibility that the audience consuming will become focused once they notice the effects. The target audience for this would be male teens to early 20's. There is a clear first person mode of address in this video as well as plenty of meat shots of both rappers, and so is again showing that it is for focused viewing.

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=su_zrW9WBVk&fmt=18

(Appendix 3a)