JJ - The Streets Video Analysis

I’m going to analyse a song from The Streets called Could Well be In, this band are a British rap band. I thought that this is similar to Jamie T’s music.



Using Goodwin, what are the forms and conventions evident in the video? The song is a narrative/ performance based piece. Therefore the visuals are mainly based on the narrative. We open to the lead singer, Michael Geoffrey Skinner, walking down the hall singing to the camera. We then have a shot of him ordering a drink singing about the girl he met, as this is happening the girl walks past him to the same character but from earlier in the evening. The audience then realises that the first Michael we see is narrating what happen that night. He summarises the night while on looking. There is a link with the song and visuals as well as lyrics. In the openening few scenes there is a piano player playing, we get the idea that he is in fact playing the beat of tune of the song. On the line "she didn't look too bored with what i was saying" we see the girl laughing at his jokes and smiling as he is talking. With the line "she had her fingers round her hair playing" the girl then play with her hair. "i felt my hair looks shit, wish i had it cut back last week" he then comes in to the toilets and checks his hiar. The line "if she plays with her hair then shes probably keen" this is part of chorus and most times it is played she plays with her hair.

How are the band/artist represented? Does this add to their 'meta-narrative' in any way? How does it help sell their product?
Skinner is represented in a good way which conforms to his typical look. He is seen wearing a Fred Perry polo shirt with the collar up and wearing a silver wrist chain. This conforms to this type of music and his audience. He is wearing a pair of jeans with white trainers. Even his hair is typical of the genre “Short back and sides”.

Is this an example of illustration or amplification? Or disjuncture?
This is an amplification of the band, this is the sort of video they would normally produce. They often do songs about love and girls. However in this song there is no mention of drugs where as in most of there other songs there are references or scenes of drugs. This song is a lot more light hearted than the others and this is shown by a slow cutting pace and little typical mise-en-scene.

Is there any intertextuality / references to popular culture? How does this create meaning for the audience?
There is no obvious intertexuality or reference to popular culture particularly. Other than the mention of football scores this could be considered a reference due to the people that listen to this type of music typically like football. This shows the audience that this rap star is like them in many ways.

What is the ideological discourse?
In this video the lead singer is a male and he is wearing typical youthful clothes. He has no stereotypical traits of a youthful male though. He sits at the bar having a drink. However we do see the lead singer on a date, when in the toilets he fixes his hair and then puts money in a condom machine. This is quite a "ladish" thing to do on a date so this is quite stereotypical. This video is shot a expensive hotel where there is a piano player playing the beat that we hear. Towards the end of the song we see the girl and the lead singer buying a rooom at the hotel. This is challenges his financial situation as earlier in the song it is mentioned that the girl works in "J.D Sports", so we also thing that he hasnt got much money.

How might the video be consumed?
It is probable that the video would be consumed on a major music channel suhch as MTV as when this song was releasd it was in the charts. Therefor would have a high demand from the public. This would need focused viewing as the narrative doesnt make much sense until the end couple of scenes plus the audience wants to know what happpens in the date.