I Gotta Feeling- The Black Eyed Peas

 "I Gotta Feeling" is a dance song by American group Black Eyed Peas. Released 21st May 2009 it debuted at #1 in almost every country it was released in and has sold over 1.3 million copies in the UK alone. It was taken as there second single from fifth studio album The E.N.D. We believe it's a good music video to research from because it fits into our genre of dance and it's also a mainstream chart song. The narrative of the music video is people getting ready, going to a party, having a good time, dancing and drinking which is almost like our narrative for our music video. This is why this video is a good research example because it follows the same storyline. This narrative is conventional of dance genre music videos which is why we will follow these conventions in our music video.

Relationship between the music and the visuals

• The relationship between the music and the visuals in this particular music video are fairly similar to the relationship in the Maroon 5 music video, however this time the lyrics and the visual have less of a deeper meaning they are there purely to advertise the song and show the band having a good time. For example, when the lyrics ‘Tonight's the night, let's live it up I got my money, let's spend it up go out and smash it like oh my God jump off that sofa, let's get, get off’are sung the visuals immediately cut to inside of the party. Therefore it is clear that the visuals in the song are just backing up what is being sung in the lyrics about having a good time at a party and that there is no deeper meaning to the video.

Genre• The Black Eyed Peas is an American hip hop group. Hip hop music

is a music genre consisting of a stylized rhythmic music that commonly accompanies rapping, a rhythmic and rhyming speech that is chanted. It developed as part of hip hop culture, a subculture defined by four key stylistic elements: MCing/rapping, DJing/scratching, break dancing, and graffiti writing.Other elements include sampling (or synthesis), and beatboxing.

• While often used to refer to rapping, "hip hop" more properly denotes the practice of the entire subculture. The term hip hop music is sometimes used synonymously with the term rap music, though rapping is not a required component of hip hop music; the genre may also incorporate other elements of hip hop culture, including DJing, turntablism, and scratching, beatboxing, and instrumental tracks.

• The Black eyed peas fit into this genre but they also have some of the codes and conventions of pop music featuring in some of their songs such as this one.

Shots

• The camera work is mostly handheld which gives the shots the effect of them being more 'real', and this means that there is a lot more camera movement which can keep it more interesting for the viewer but it can also lose the professional quality of the shots if not done correctly. Zooms have also been used to emphasise certain aspects of the video, it also has the use of slow motion which is one of the main reasons I wanted to research this video because I particularly liked this aspect of the video and I may use this as inspiration for my own work. The camera uses a variety of different camera shots such as close ups of the artists allowing the audience to see their emotions and presents the happy mood of the video.

Mise en Scene• The mise-en-scene also follows the hip-hop

genre conventions with it being at night time, showing a lot of dancing and the setting being at a party. With this in mind the props featured in the video are iconographic of a party, showing alcohol, music equipment and food. The lighting is very dark with flashes of bright colours which is effective for setting a fun and lively atmosphere. Other props include lots of UV paint that the band use to paint themselves with and use to light up the shots. Their costumes for girls in particular are skimpy which relates back to Goodwin's Theory that females come across seductively towards the camera and that they're selling their music through sex appeal, which because it's a convention of not just hip-hop but pop, RnB.

Editing

• The editing in this music video is very fast-paced to match the beat of the music, this is another common convention found in many hip-hop videos as it wants to keep up with the music but also it makes the music video seem more vibrant and energetic to match the music. This links to one of Andrew Goodwin's Theory that the visuals match the music and also his ideas on a thought through beat. What is interesting about some parts of the editing is the use of slow motion with quite fast straight cuts. So whilst the movement within the shots is much slower than the tempo of the song, the cuts ensure that the visuals are out of time with the beat, so the edits still match with the music.The sound of the song is very fast-beat, electronic and digital which is usual for dance songs and the same for our song which we have picked.

Promotional Media

How this will inspire my own work

• I quite like how basic the narrative is in relation to the lyrics of the song, this makes sure that the video isn't over complicated and it is something that I want to keep in mind when thinking about my own work.

• I really like the idea of shooting party footage, it makes the video look really fun and allows you to experiment with lighting and the tone of the song, so if I pick a more upbeat song for my own work I will definitely consider this.