This post will look into the most common settings for any Hip Hop video. As always any other suggestions would be more than appreciated.
1. A built up area
Most videos will include our artist in a kind of built up cityscpae, NDubz, Kanye west and Jay-Z all use this environment a lot. It helps to portray the kind of cramped and harsh living conditions that these rappers used to live in. By allowing these successful rappers to surround themselves in such a location, the audience is able to sympathise with the artist and create a stronger emotional tie with the him/her in order to increase fan loyalty.
2. A party
Hip Hop artists like to give the impression that they live a non-stop high octain lifestyle all of the time. In order to further this image in their music they make sure that they are surrounded by people in some way. Whether it be at a party or just in a car they want to give the impression that they are liked and well known.
3.Stage
Performance theory plays a big part in hip hop, the artist wants to be seen as someone who loves what they do and a big part of that especially from a connecting with th fans point of view is the live performances. Therefore a stage symbolises a this, which helps him/her relate better to their audience.
4. Recording studio
The whoel genre of Hip Hop was built on the basis of taking older sounds and restoring them into something new fresh and different. this is the reason why many artist choose to show themselves working in the studios whilst recording their track. It makes the artist seem as though he is at one with the music he is creating and makes him seem more honest and genuine.
5. *The Oddball Location
Another key part of Hip Hop is that it a relatively recent genre, and so artist are still at a stage of experimentation with the music they create. I believe that they are also taking this oppurtunity to try somethig different in every other aspect of the genre, for instance the lcoations they choose for their video. You will often find with mainly more mainstream artists that they will try to throw a scene which may not fit in with the usual conventions of the genre.
* - Here we see the notorious king of hip hop, Jay-Z, standing at the window of a new york appartment block high up in the middle of new york. The clothes he is weaaring are smart/casual and the low angle shot denotes power and authority. The audience may be lead to believe that Jay-Z is pretending to be a successful business man as oppose to the done good musician they are familiar with.
Given that we will most liekly be making an illustrative video, the locations will more or less be dictated by the what the lyrics say in the song. I will do a follow up post of the lcoations we will be using in our video soon.
