Eminem - Stan

This song can be defined as in the hip-hop genre as it follows

the beat very strongly, although it has many differences from

most hip-hop songs, in that it is not just bragging about how

good his life is, but instead conveys a message, that his fans

should not get over worked on him but instead understand

there are other things what are more important, such as family

and your friends getting a job etc. which is even stated in the

song when Eminem writes back saying he should pay more attention to her and treat her better.

Eminem’s supporting artist is a pop singer dido, not someone of

the hip hop genre, because he wanted her to help convey

emotion, which not done that often as people generally pick

people who have the same sort of way of singing to help them

with their songs as they know people who like the other artist

music are likely to like his own.

The video show use of pathetic fallacy as the setting of the

video is dark and raining is to show that the video is not happy

one but is instead about much darker tones the reason for this

is at allows for us to know what to expect from the song and it

further diffenituates this form other songs of the hip-hop genre

which are usually sunny.

The dark tone of the can be seen in many other ways such as

his behaviour and the driving off of the bridge at the end which

kill Stan his wife and child and how at the start of the song Stan

shoves his heavily pregnant girlfriend into the bathroom when

she does not like his new look.

The lyrics hold a moral message which is unusual the fact that

the only theme the song is bring is when he is meeting Eminem

is to show that is the only part of the song where he is actually

happy and not depressed which is to help illustrate the level

that Stan is obsessed over Eminem and show that it is

unhealthy and try to make people understand that is not the

right thing.

The clothes hold different means such as the girlfriend wearing

blue which is used to represent the fact that she is a loyal

person which we can tell as she sticks by Stan though out all of

the song which is set over 6 mouths despite the obvious that

their relationship is one sided which can be seen as he covers

her up on the photo with Eminem and it is possible she is

mistreated given how he sees what she is doing when he sees

her out of bed.

Eminem wearing white shirts is to mimic Eminem which is easy

to see it is also used to represent how he is mad with his

obsession as white can be used to represent madness in some

old beliefs with the word lunacy deriving form the world Luna

the moon which is white which can be seen in werewolves

which are driven made by the moon this is so people can see

that Eminem believe that obsession to that point is an illness

that you need to try and cure yourself of and instead use moderation.

Emimem adds in several different types of shots to give

different meanings for eample the shot towards th stage is an

high angle shot as this is in stans perspetive and is him looking

up at stan as a metaphore for stans oppion of eminem with his

admiration and prise thinking that eminem is an idol.

The video is introduced with a medium shot that zooms into the

window as if you are looking into Stan and his girlfriend’s life as

a silent observer this also serves to introduce the mood of the

video as there is a large amount of rain and lightning which we

associated with dark moods.

The video uses over the shoulder shots to continue the feeling

that we are looking over their everyday life and show us what

their life is like and show how they are struggling to get by and

how their relationship is at different parts of their life over the 6

months and show the stain that Stan’s obsession over Eminem is

causing it.

There are still parts of the song which fit into hip-hop normally

such as the use of the artist face in this song though the use of

a large number of posters in the basement although this is not

the way this is expressed as it is normally done using close ups

of their faces which is a type of shot not used to often in this

song as it would ruin the feeling and message that is being

created but instead show the extent of his obsession.

The basement is also important for another reason which is

the fact so much of the song is set in the basement is that the

basement is used as a visual representation of Stan’s mind

which is why the basement is so dirty and decrepit also why it is

so dark and poorly it as well as why the production team filled

it with Eminem all over instead of just his desk.

The location also shows us what sort of people Stan and his

girlfriend are which is lower/working class people as the house

that they live in is a small one with very few rooms and it looks

like it is an old decrepit place that is not worth much and is

cheap to stay in and you imaging that it would be cold and

hard to liv in showing that they are not having an easy time

but are struggling and allows for us to see that Eminem is

Stan’s idol as someone like him who got rich and left that kind of life.

The song also uses two-shot in order to establish links

between different people for example at the start open is

used in the bath room with Stan and the mirror where he

sees Eminem instead of himself resenting what he wants to

be.

This song does not use common features of hip hop such as

dance instead focus on improving the narrative that they are

creating by having Stan writing his letters and showing the

relationship between Stan and his girlfriend to make it seem

more believable and grounded in reality so the message will

be taken seriously.

As dancing and other common place parts of hip-hop do not

work with the message that he is trying to put across he did

not use them because they would be running the atmosphere

and sense of reality and tone of seriousness that the song is

griped by which contains many messages such as be careful

when listening to his music as little brothers could hear it and

become a fan of his despite the language and themes he covers being inappropriate for that age

group.

The song Stan shows some of the parts of Goodwin theory of

media videos for example the dark tone and way that the

video is made with the writing the song as letter fits in very

well and what is on the screen reflects the lyrics of the song

which helps to emphasis the songs message and make it

clearer for people.

The speed that she song cuts is quite random with some

features giving it like the lighting flashing and people leaving

but it can change at different times from one scene to the

next the reason for this could be to reflect that Stan is not

mentally stable and instead a tad mad which would fit into

the theme of instability further driving the point in.

In the song Eminem fills the roll of the star by his

appearances at the end and though being the point of Stan’s

obsession so that when people they will think of him as one

which will make people want to be like him and buy his

music to mimic him to some extent but the way he did this

fit into the story so as to not detract from the message and

warns them of what could happen if you get to obsessed

over what he creates.

There are not many shots taken to feel like voyeurism in this

song as the shots are mainly in a 3third person perspective

taken over the shoulder or form a distance away from the

people in the scene and those that feel like they could be

them are used to show what their life is like for example in

the kitten scene showing their relationship and how small

the house is.

This song shows the 6th part of the theory as he works

alongside dido who is a pop singer and also when Stan

mentions having that album where Eminem worked with a

band he used to be a part of in the lyrics and showing it in

the video at the same time and mentioning another

collaboration that he did with another artist which allowed

for Eminem to promote himself and other artist while

keeping his message as Stan saying that fits into his character

Katie Perry -music video review- last Friday night.

Like Stan this message contains a few messages of its own

although it can be more easily to miss them than it was in

Stan as they are not as much of a priority. One of the

messages of this song is that people should not judge others

based on how they look which is showed too different ways

the first of them is in how Katie Perry changes from being a

nerd to a fun full of life person which represents that

appeacnces don’t dictate personality. the second way that

this is showed is through the use of the nerd when he beats

the jock showing that although he does not look like he can he can defend what he wants.

Unlike Stan this video does not show some techniques such

as pathetic fallacy but it is also a nonlinear song as it starts at

the end showing aftermath of party the following day and

Katie Perry’s reaction to what she finds and then transitions

to the past at the start of the party when she looks on social

media to see what happened and the song and video

continue form there.

The clothing that the characters’ wear at first is to show

what stereotype teenager they represent with the jock the

pretty best friend the male nerd and the female nerd with

them acting as they would like that for example how the

male nerd places his hands at his face a lot and acts nervous

despite this the colours still hold meaning such as after her

costume change the pink on Katie Perry’s outfit represents

her femininity

A similarity between the two songs is that we are made to

recognise the singer although this is though more direct

means showing their face very often bring a large number of

close ups of the main character and how their dress is made

to standout form the other people which sink into the

background making us better recognised them and see

them as a star.

This video shows male gaze theory though out the entire

song with many different shots of point to show different

parts of Katie Perry’s body such as legs and chest as well as

this the outfit that she wears is made to be very tight to

allow for people to see her better this is to make the song

more eye catching so people will be more likely to watch the

video this also help to make many people want to be like

the main artist.

This song has the setting of a party with an 80ies theme

which can be seen in the cloths that the different people

wearing such as the dress that Katie Perry changes into and

the stereo typing of the clothing also fits into that era with

the jock and nerd clothing being what you would expect

form an 80ies sitcom.

The video reminds you it is set in present day when they are

dancing as it is using a just dance game which is an example

of synergy as she is trying to promote the game in her song

as it has many of her other songs so she could get herself

more heard and allowing for her to make more money as

just dance could then choose to work with her in the future

and pick you use her songs again allowing her to expand her

fan base.

The tone of the song is a fun one which can be seen in the

fast beat is which gives an exited full of energy feeling which

is a large difference form the slow serious beat of the song

Stan. This is backed by a bright colour scheme and the lyrics

which are more fun and less serious which helps build this

up as well as this the scene is well light and in the day time

parts the sun was up and there were few clouds in the sky

to represent how the mood was and when it is night there

are lights every when to keep it well lit.

This song as stated previously features parts of Laura

Mulvey’s male gaze theory about how songs are made to

catch means attention by showing women in promises ways

that show skin e.g. when Katie Perry is coming down the

stairs after her change in clothing.

Not just Katie Perry is used to grab people’s attention as her

best friend in the video was also used to help with this

although not as common as to avoid taking away form Katie

Perry as she is the star of the video and the friend is one of

the secondary charaters so while they do take some of the

screen time and are recognised it is not as much.

The song does not just display Laura Mulvey’s male gaze

theory but also Goodwin’s theory of media video and

displays more parts of it than the Stan music video as it fills

more conventions of music videos and as a pop song people

would expect this of the song singer like Katie perry who is

well known for songs like this so it would be a risk to change

her style.

The music video is well light and made using a large variety

of bright colours the reason for this is that the song has a

fast pace and the lyrics are happening and are about

partying this helps to reflect and show it visually.

The second part is not shown but I believe that this is

because it is to better reflect that it is about a party where

there are every few rules and things are generally not

regulated so to help mimic this they wanted to cut randomly

like photos being taken at random times which matches up

with the start.

The video contains dancing bright colours a repeating curse

a fast fun placed beat all of which you would expect form

the pop music genre even the catchy lyrics are part of it and

help to show this though out this song she acts like a fun

loving teenager and does a lot to boost this for example

maxing the credit card which is tied with teenagers when

they are being irresponsible.

The song features multiple close ups of Katie Perry as this

places her as the main character but there are unlike most

music videos secondary charters such as the best friend the

nerd and the jock which is more like a movie than a music

video to help push what we saw that the start of the song

with the establishing shot often used to establish the scene

of a movie.

The song also features a few long shots so we can see the

entire scene for example the garden scene as many parts

that were set form a distance so we could see the scale of

the party and make it feel more real and show that there

was a large attended that filled the house and show some

of the damages to the house such as the coloured paper

everywhere.

The video shows scenes that are voyeuristic such as when

Katie Perry is coming down the stairs it is shot to make it

look as if we are looking up at her as if we are part of the

crowd although this is the easiest example there are many

more than this and this is done to make us look up to her

and to make people feel more involved as well as this the

type of shot used is a pov shot to make us feel like we are a

person who was in the party as if we were there.

This video is packed to the brim with intertextual references

especially pertaining to the 80ies which shows people of all

sorts of media for example the farther in this played one of

the roles in the goonies a famous 80ies movie and was a

well-known actor at this time, the mother was a famous

singer at the time, and the uncle was a saxophone player at

this time which is brought up in the end credits another

connection to a movie to help make Katie Perry a star.

Comparison and contrast between the two songs

These two songs had much in common for example they were both made by very famous artist with

large fan bases and contain a message in the case of Stan don’t become obsessive over music and in

Katie Perry don’t judge people by how they look as there is more to them than that they both

brought on other famous people with in Stan their being dido and in last Friday night all of the

people who were famous back in the 80ies both of them promote the artist t and other songs and

people who they worked with in order to try and make more money.

Both of the songs show some unconventional features for example in Katie Perry they were using

features and shots found more commonly in movies to try and promote that Katie Perry could do

more than just sing which is un and in Eminem they did not have male gaze theory and it took a dark

atmosphere and feeling despite what type of music it falls under does not follow many of its

conventions in order to carry’s its message which Eminem wanted to give to his fan base.

The overall feel of both of these messages is very different as well with Stan being a very dark video

that people will not find fun but instead more depressing the way that this atmosphere is created in

the video is through the use of rain when you entre to start you off with expectation for it to be dark

as we are conditioned this way though horror movies and then the dim lighting of the room which

leaves it dark for the most part and the way that Stan acts pushing his girlfriend and driving off the

bridge and the lyrics such as him cutting himself. Katie Perry on the other had made her song a

happier one and to create this atmosphere it sated with a bright street and goofy opening text keeps

brightly light and uses large lightly painted open spaces to make it feel more open and bright the

people wear light colours and are dancing adding to this mood.