Friday 18 March 2022

Revision: a textual analysis of WUSYANAME by Tyler, The Creator WITH EXEMPLAR TEACHER ANSWER

How does media language incorporate viewpoints and ideologies in this music video? [15]



Timings 


Component one


Section A - unseen section


Two questions

Music videos and media language

KOTV and representation

Two minutes per mark

Section B - Industry and audience


Newspaper industry

Wateraid and audience

One minute per mark

Component two


50 minutes per industry

Knee jerk reaction


The Tyler The Creator video uses media language to create a challenging and atypical ideology for the target audience


Plan


Unconventional MES

Single tracking shot

generally tracks Tyler

Extreme shot duration

Long take

Extreme long take

Outfits/costumes challenge black stereotypes

Challenge rap/hip hop stereotypes

Early 90s

Retro

Postmodern

Desaturated

Amateurish 

Romantic narrative

Sex pest

Creepy

Lip syncing is poor and amateurish 

Intradiegetic gaze - where one character looks at another character

Only major representation of black people

Symbolic annihilation

lack of white representation in a stereotypically white setting


Exemplar answer - Michael's response

Ideology refers to the beliefs and values of the producer. Typically, producers will attempt to engage audiences through ideology, and audiences themselves will interact with media products through a process of negotiation. The video to WUSYANAME by Tyler, The Creator presents a subversive and atypical ideology, that challenges not only many of the conventions of the rap and R&B genres, but also the representation of men and women, in order to both confuse and delight the target audiences. Music videos are typically uses as promotional material for a musical artist, but in many instances, they function as a complete media product themselves.

WUSYANAME begins with an establishing montage of Ariel tracking shots, following the protagonist's vehicle as he approaches his destination. The colour is both desaturated yet vibrant, and the MES is rich and suggestive of a warm, west coast summer. The stacked boxes on top of the car function as a proairetic code, suggesting an important journey. However, it is essential to point ut that this is never realised in this video. These opening shots additionally do not show Tyler, the performer, which is also highly unconventional for a rap video, which typically will feature the performer in every shot. However, this opening montage does construct a continuous and conventional narrative, that raises many exciting hermeneutic codes for the audience.

This smooth montage is completely disrupted in the master shot of this video, which features a single handheld panning shot, painfully zoomed in and nauseatingly shaky, that follows Tyler as he bothers an uninterested women in to going out with him. It is essential to note that this scene has little to no relation to the establishing montage, and thus is particularly disruptive and confusing for the target audience.

This master shot breaks the conventions of the hip-hop/R&B video in many ways. For example, the lip syncing is poor and unsynchronised with the singing, with the performer frequently giving up and rubbing his face instead of performing. The complete lack of cuts, focusing instead on a single extreme long take is also highly atypical of music videos in general, which are generally cut to the beat and beat matched in order to provide as much pleasure to the audience as possible. It is clear that from an ideological perspective, the producers of this video are attempting to subvert and to deny the enjoyment of the audience, which raises many issues about the function of the music video.

The video is also highly atypical when it comes to its ideological perspectives on gender. Tyler is represented and coded throughout as being a pathetic and belligerent sex pest, which is a highly self-depreciating representation that subverts typical representations of hegemonic masculinity in hip-hop. Tyler runs in in an undignified manner, and immediately begins gesturing wildly, pushing himself in to the young woman's immediate proximity. His facial expressions are often over exaggerated and is anchored by the bizarre and even creepy lyrics "Aw, you look malnourished/Let's get some bread, fry it in egg yolk and drown it in syrup". Tyler's exaggerated gestures are further anchored through the excessively colourful and elaborate costume he is wearing, which combines a Russian bear trapper's hat and a tiger print tank top in a confusing, highly postmodern mode of address. This forms a stark binary opposition to the clean and conservative style of the woman he is bothering, who is wearing a white buttoned short and slate grey cardigan. This binary opposition diametrically reinforces and elaborates a critical issue that exists in contemporary society, one of male entitlement, and one of assumed female submissiveness, where women are expected to cave in to the desires of men., This video draws attention to this issue in a humorous and stylish way.

However, the video is not only subversive in its representation of gender, it is also subversive in its representation of race and ethnicity. Tyler is black, and every other main performer in this video is also black. While this is typical of rap and hip hop videos, the setting and MES is very much stereotypically white, and perhaps subversively presents a symbolic annihilation of white people. The spacious, chilled MES of the cafĂ© garden, combined with the conservative, middle class white American costumes of the performers (including cardigans, chinos, three quarter length trousers and pastel tank tops) are clearly demonstrating a subversive and atypical mode of address for the target audience. By challenging the conventional representation and ideological assumptions of black people in hip hop videos, who are often stereotypically represented as thuggish and/or highly sexualised, WUSYANAME presents a delightful and exciting address to its target young black audience. 

To conclude, the video for WUSYANAME is both challenging and atypical in every sense. It challenges and breaks the paradigmatic conventions of music videos and hip hop videos. It also challenges gender stereotypes, by presenting a crude, embarrassing representation of male bravado. And finally, it challenges representations of race and ethnicity, by subverting stereotypical assumptions of black people and their role in rap music videos. These elements combine to create a subversive music video. However, it must also be noted that these elements, despite being confusing and even off-putting, the video is constructed in such as way as to use atypicality and subversion to appeal to the target audience through carefully constructed hermeneutic codes, this ensuring the financial viability of the product. After all, the primary function of a music video is to sell the music of the artist