LB: Music Video Comparison

Music Video Comparison

Bobby Shmurda – Hot N*gga VS La La La – Naughty Boy (Feat. Sam Smith)

Bobby Shmurda – Hot N*gga

I will use Goodwin’s Theory to compare these two extremely different music videos. The ‘Bobby Shmurda’ video has connotations of rebellion, crime, youth and gang culture following the genre conventions for rap music.Goodwin’s theory reveals that rap music videos are largely disjunctive, in comparison to the more illustrative nature of folk music videos for example. The disjunctive nature of the relationship between lyrics and visuals in ‘Hot N*gga’ is revealed by the fact the chorus  is similar throughout but has no link to the lyrics. Bobby Shmurda gets all the screen time within the clip to identify him

to the audience that he is the star, this very voyeuristic. We see Bobby standing in the foreground of all the shots to reinforce this idea and identifying him as being the leader. Many of Bobby’s friends are also in the video this give the audience the impression that Bobby has a close large friendship group as well as many established social links. All the individuals in the clip are dressed in designer clothing to present themselves to the audience as wealthy. The individuals smoke and drink freely in front of the camera, which are all visual motifs, expressing their rebellious nature and street lifestyle. The song is completely performance based which is a general convention for rap songs.

La La La – Naughty Boy (Feat. Sam Smith)

In the Naughty Boy video is primarily illustrative and narrative based. It follows the Goodwin’s general conventions for pop music with a lot of low key lighting and interesting set and costume designs .Non-verbal language is used throughout to help amplify the narrative of the video. The narrative follows the journey of a young boy across a city where he meets an array of characters whom he collects along his way. In comparison to Bobby Shmurda video, the stars Naughty Boy and Sam Smith do not make an appearance in the video. This allows the video to be complete narrative and gives the song greater meaning.