Similar Text Analysis

Music Video Analysis

Usher – you remind me

Nickelback – how you remind me

The music video ‘you remind me’ by usher is a conventional R’n’B video with the dancing and the typical boy likes girl theme. The close up of Ushers face at the beginning represents Usher as the artist. The panning of the escalator with usher and the girl at the top is an interesting camera angle, as if the camera is following them (which is it is), it then cuts to a medium shot of both of them together. The girl is wearing a red top and casual jeans, the red top connates with passion, love, and lust which is connecting the lyrics as Usher likes the girl. Many shot reverse shots are used between them as if they are having a conversation, yet its just Usher singing to her, then there is a jump cut to them sitting at a table which reflected the lyrics as it says ‘we need to sit down, this may take a while’, a shot reverse shot is used again here.

In Nickelback’s song ‘how you remind me’ the classic conventional video is also used just like Ushers video about a boy and girl. The girl in Nickelback’s song is wearing red lipstick as she gets out of the shower, which is obviously mediated as we know she doesn’t actually looks like that when she gets out of the shower, this sexualises her and the voyeurism of her being naked also does this. This makes her aspirational to women, even though she’s just seen for the way she looks, an object, which is also similar to ushers video with the girl just being there and not shown for anything else but her looks. The same way they both use the colour red to portray the same image. Both girls in the videos are conventionally attractive which creates an audience of male viewers.

In Nickelback’s video there are a lot of performance shots, which as usher is an artist not a band he has a different way of showing this as he himself is the only performer, which shows the genre difference and artist/band difference. Nickelback’s video shows the authenticity of their music and is shown to be conventional rock stars; they are playing instruments which show this. When the girl is around the band there is a change in tone, the colour and lighting is affected to add effect to the scene. This emphasises the story, its brighter and more positive when she is around and dull and dark when she is not. This is shown in the picture on the right when she is there, and also shown below when she is not. The use of editing here creates a more obvious way of showing the meaning of the song.

Ushers music video is similar to Nickelback’s with the performance shots as there are shots of usher dancing which shows the type of music (R’n’B) with a mix of long and medium shots. We can hear the ambient sounds of his feet on the ground as he is moving, the splashing of the water on the floor. The audience here these sounds to make the scene more realistic. Throughout the video it cuts back to the shots that had been shown before which reflects the story line, and the lyrics at that particular point. Editing is used in the dancing shots, changing the way the location looks, adding and changing colours, creating effect.

Ushers video ends with a girl and him sitting on the sofa, a close up shot is being used to show them getting close, whereas Nickelback’s video ends with the boy and girl both on their own, dull colouring is used to make the atmosphere negative. Both videos tell a story with the conventional idea of the boy lusting after the girl, but there is a reason why they can’t be together which both videos illustrated. They have different ways of doing this as they are from different genres, but create the same image and portray women to be objects of desire and not shown for other qualities that they may have.