Conventions Of Music Videos

A convention is a way in which something is usually done. There are conventional elements found in most music videos.

Camera Shots/Movements

They tend to include plenty of long shots, close-ups, and mid-shots. It creates more emphasis on either the artist or the location. Close-ups are used a lot to really emphasise the artists emotions. In terms of movement often tracking shots and tilt shots are used. It is to trace the movement of the artist or the band and also make it more exciting, rather than using an ordinary panning shot.   

Mis-En-Scene

 Mis-en-scene refers to the way everything in the shot is placed, this includes colours used, lighting, props and characters etc. It is also very important when it comes to portraying the way a character is or to put across a certain representation of a person.

 Some music videos often choose to use artificial, high key lighting to enhance everything that is going on around the artist and the artist themselves. Low-key lighting is also used a lot in songs that are more melancholy to create a really sad atmosphere.

Props are often used as enigma codes to create mystery in the plot for the audience, is will cause them to ask questions about the prop, like what it is going to be used for or why does the artist have it? It will encourage the audience to keep watching till the end, just in case their questions are answered. 

Often colour is used in costumes to put across a certain representation of the artist in the music video. A lot of the time the artist will be wearing light colours, such as white. Just so that the audience will associate the connotations of the colour with the audience. Therefore the reason light colours are usually the favourites for the artist is because the audience will associate good things with the artist, like innocence and purity. On the contrary music videos also include costumes with dark colours to, however rather than using it to give a evil representation, it is more there to make the artist look seductive or provocative. This is more common in female artist videos, the female will often be dressed in colours such as red or black.

Sound

The majority of the time the only sound in songs will be the song itself, however sometimes the producers will include an intro whereby they might include ambient sound to set the scene for the audience. Or they might include a voiceover where the artist has a moment to speak to their audience, this is commonly used to put an artists point across. For example in 'Alright' by Kendrick Lamar he introduces the song with a 2 minute poem. It contains clips of police arresting ethnic minorities, whilst there is a voice over of him reciting a poem that reads:

"I remembered you was conflicted

Misusing your influence, sometimes I did the same

Abusing my power full of resentment"

This is clearly reflecting the fact that sometimes the police in the US abuse the power they have as law enforcers and let their racial resentment get in the way. He also uses in as an outro too. Whilst the voiceover is playing, there is a clip of Kendrick Lamar standing on the top of a lamp post. You then see a policeman imitating a gun with his fingers and pretending to shoot Kendrick off the lamp post. Showing that even though he was doing something that caused no problems, police abuse their power when it comes to ethnic minorities and enforce brutal punishments on them, almost as if it is a game..

 Editing

A predominant editing technique used in music videos is jump cuts. It allows the video to progress quickly and still make sense as obviously songs are usually only about 5 minutes long. Therefore the story need to be presented quickly.

  

Questionnaire For Our Target Audience About Our Idea

We are creating a music video for the 'Good Ones Go' cover by Connor Maynard. In our music video we are going to centre the narrative around a boy and a girl. The boy has got caught up in his lifestyle and has begun to change. He is beginning to loose sight of what is important and is making next to no time for his girlfriend. Through the music video we are going to show that he is aware of the fact that he is making her very unhappy and that she deserves better than that. We will show the fact that he has really hurt her emotionally. The most important thing we want to show is that even though they are both agreeing to stay their separate ways, they are still both in love with one another.

Do You Think Using A Black & White Filter Will Look Good?

• Yes
• No

Which Kind Of Narrative Do You Think Would Be Best With Our Idea?

• Non-Linear
• Montage

Which Locations Do You Think Will Be Good For Our Music Video?

• A viewpoint
• An empty bedroom with nothing but a bed
• A beach

Do You Like Our Idea?

• Yes
• No
• (Why?)____________________________________________________________

What Would You Say Could Be Improved About Our Idea?

______________________________________________________________



Questionnaire To Find Our Target Audience

We are creating a music video for the 'Good Ones Go' cover by Connor Maynard. In our music video we are going to centre the narrative around a boy and a girl. The boy has got caught up in his lifestyle and has begun to change. He is beginning to loose sight of what is important and is making next to no time for his girlfriend. Through the music video we are going to show that he is aware of the fact that he is making her very unhappy and that she deserves better than that. We will show the fact that he has really hurt her emotionally. The most important thing we want to show is that even though they are both agreeing to stay their separate ways, they are still both in love with one another.    

What Age Group Do You Fall Into?

• Under 18
• 18-20
• 21-25
• Over 25

What Gender Are You?

• Male
• Female

What Music Do You Usually Listen To?

• RnB
• Hip-Hop
• Pop
• Dance
• Other____________________________

Do You Like Listening To Either Of The Following Artists?

• Drake
• Connor Maynard

Based On What I Have Told You About Our Idea, What Would You Rank It Out Of 10? (1=lowest 10= highest)

___________________________________________________

Thank-you for taking time to answer these questions!

Andrew Goodwin

Andrew Goodwin created a theory based on what he believes about music videos. He states there are key aspects to music videos. 

• All genres have characteristics.
• Relationship between the song and the visuals.
• Star image (protagonist), lots of camera shots making the artist the centre of attention.
• Intertextuality.
• Women are often sexualised.

Genre Characteristics

The audience could often distinguish the genre of a music video by the elements incorporated into it. Different genres always contain similar features.  

For example in RnB music videos, there tends to be the artist singing about love or a relationship to their partner or the person they want to be with. 

There is also often a lot of dance sequences in the music videos for RnB songs.

Relationships Between Music and The Visuals

Goodwin insisted that there was 3 ways to create a connection between the song and the visuals. This is through:

• Illustration- This is commonly used as it is the simplest and easiest method. It literally means to show the lyrics in a visual form. 

Amplification- This involves using connotations to demonstrate the story. In Beyonce's video for 'Hold Up', she reveals to the world that Jay-Z cheated on her. In the video she shows how she felt insane but had to pretend like nothing was wrong to the whole world. It begins with her inner monologue, talking about how she's going crazy and cannot stop worrying about if he cheated. Whilst you hear all this she is completely submerged in water, at the end she asks "have you cheated" as she opens a door and all the water flows out. This is showing that she was drowning in her thoughts then when she finally let out her worries, her head was clear. However you then see, as she is walking down the road, she smashes up cars, whilst keeps a massive grin on her face and skips down the road. However in the end she shows how you cannot keep things in forever and you see lots of explosions in the background, signifying that eventually you will loose control of your emotions. The video is then ended by her letting her anger show in her expression and hitting the camera, causing it to brake. 

• Disjuncture- Involves intentionally ignoring the content and genre of the song, and creates a whole new set of meanings. Often it does not make much sense. In the video to 'Dancing(Again)' by Eats Everything, there is a lot of dancing in the video, which clearly links to the song. However, it also mainly features two warehouse workers dressing up as famous Hollywood film characters. It clearly has no link to the song, and also does not make any sense whatsoever.

Gender Representation

Most music videos, whether the female is the artist or just a character in the music video, present women as sexual objects. This could be through showing them wearing minimal clothing or showing them being centered around their boyfriend etc. 

'Hold You Down' by DJ Khalid ft. Chris Brown, August Alsina, Jeremih and Future, supports this theory. In the music video the males are clearly singing about girls and every so often you see a long shot of the girls that they are talking about. If they are not in a bikini, they are dressed in skimpy outfits or look very done up. You only see some shots of the males and the females together. Every so often when they are in the same shots, the male is made to look in some way superior to the female. Either by throwing money at her, as if she cannot provide for herself and needs a man to financially support her; or as in the shot above, visually display the hierarchy. In the medium shot above, you can see that the female is placed lower than Chris Brown in the shot. He is also holding her. It represents her as inferior and again supports the stereotype of the male always supporting the female. 

Star Image

Goodwin referred to the image of the artist as a vital element in music videos. This is down to the fact that they are what attracts the audience to the music video and make it more appealing. The director will lots of close-up shots and other type of shots to ensure that the artist is the centre of attention.

In Ariana Grande's video for 'Side To Side' the director uses a lot of close up shots to create a lot of attention on her. They also insured that even in shots with other people in she is still centre of attention, as seen in the medium shot above, there is a shallow focus around her.

Intertexuality

Andrew Goodwin noticed that often in music videos there is some kind of reference to another media product. Whether it be a another song, a film, a TV programme etc. 

In the music video for 'Beauty and a Beat' by Justin Bieber, in the intro to the video there is a quick but significant reference to the game Just Dance 4. This is because this song is featured in the game and allows the audience to learn the dance moves for the song. Therefore they made a quick reference to it, just to provide the audience with a hint that they could find this song on the game. It would also influence a lot of the audience, especially his younger fans, to buy the game as they will think that they should get the game because Justin Bieber has it in his music video, so they must have it too.

Target Audience For Our Music Video

Our main target audience for the music video is young girls aged 14-18. These girls due to how young they are will more than likely still be in education, therefore their occupation would be students. We have chosen this group as our target audience as the subject of the song is very relatable for this age group. It is the kind of age where lots of people get in their first relationships and a large amount of the time due to growing up and changing, they no longer fit into eachother's lives. Therefore the audience may understand how the artist is feeling. If looking at the Uses and gratifications theory and it'll give them a sense of belonging and social interaction as they will know other people have gone through the same. The song may originally of been targeted at both male and female, as Drake is a universal artist, however Conor Maynard is targeted more towards a female audience. He is the typical male pop artist that teenage girls obsess over and this usually leads male audiences to not like the artist as they may feel they are girly. 

With regards to hobbies these girls will enjoy things such as going on social media, listening to music and going out with their friends. These are all things that teenagers in this generation typically enjoy and this things will be major parts of their lives.  

The audience will hold quite an urban style. Young and Rubicam would probably class them as the 'The Mainstreamers', as they want to keep up to date with the latest trends and will take a lot of care in what others think of them. This is why they will like quite urban styles as that is currently in trend, that is why we have dressed both our characters in fairly up to date and on trend costumes. The way the characters look will really attract the audience instantly, because they'll want to adopt their style.

They would like other male pop artist's such as Justin Bieber, Zayn Malik etc. This is down to the fact that they are all young males so firstly the target audience will feel attracted to them. They all also sing a lot about love, which is something young girls either want to experience or have experienced it and can relate to what they sing about or also want some clarity on the subject.

Equipment List By Sophie

Digital video cameras 

Tripods

Lighting 

Mobile phones

Apple Mac computer

Mood Board For Prelim By Sophie

Possible Song Choices By Sophie

 

Chain smokers- closer




Majid Jordan- her

Calum Scot- dancing on my own

j cole- love yourz

Conor Maynard- good ones go

Initial Idea

We have decided to create a music video for the 'Good Ones Go' cover by Connor Maynard. The song was originally sung by Drake. We have chosen this song because we felt that it is very meaningful, therefore it gave us the ability to create a good narrative. Not only that, but we have also created a valuable moral to the video: that money and success does not always bring happiness. 

For our narrative we have decided to base it around two characters. The artist and his girlfriend. We want to highlight the fact that they are both in a lot of emotional pain during this time for them. It is basically about the fact they are drifting apart and that they are not good for each other anymore. The boy is getting caught up in his new lifestyle, full of success and money. He is letting his priorities slip and is putting everything before his girlfriend. Therefore he is really hurting her and is not giving her the happiness that she used to gain from being with him. What we really wanted to place emphasis on it that he can see what he is doing to her and is really deeply hurt by what he has done to her. He knows that she deserves a lot more than what he is giving her, therefore he knows that he needs to let her go before it is too late for her. Even though she knows it too she does not want to admit it and would rather go on the way it is than loose him. 

Mis-En-Scene

• `Both of them in their bedrooms extremely upset. The room will not have much in it to show their loneliness.
• Big open spaces, such as Reigate viewpoint,long empty roads and a beach. Again to make him look lonely.

• They will both be dressed in very dark colours, mostly black. To connote that they feel dark and sad. 
• We will try to film when the weather is not so good, either cloudy or raining. This will emphasise the sadness the video is based around.

Editing

• We will be putting a black and white filter over the top of the whole music video. This will give it a much more sad feeling as it will make all surroundings look very dull and dark.
• Cross-Cutting between them both in their bedroomsm, to link their emotions together and show that they are both upset. 

Camera Shots

• Lots of close-ups to really highlight the emotions they have to the audience.
• Loose frame shots with hardly anything other than them in the shot, to make them seem extremely lonely 

Mood Board For 'Good Ones Go' Initial Ideas

First Brainstorm Of Ideas

https://www.mindmeister.com/766507168/music-video-ideas

Frank Ocean

Name: Christopher 'Francis' Ocean (Born Christopher Edwin Breaux)

Date Of Birth: October 28th 1987 (Age 29)

Origin: New Orleans, Louisiana, United States

Personal Background

Frank Ocean grew up around New Orleans local jazz scene, he also used to like listening to his mothers CDs when on her car stereo when they were going on a trip. It was clear from a young age that Ocean took a lot of interest into different elements of different genres of music. As a teenager he used to sing in neighbourhood chores. He then started to save up money so that he could rent time in the local music studio and start recording and producing some of his own tracks. He recalls all the different lengths he would go to in order to get his time in the studio; "Oh man I had numerous hustles...Washing cars was one of them, and mowing lawns and walking dogs." Eventually in 2005 he enrolled in the University of New Orleans. 

Career

After Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans in 2005 and destroyed Ocean's recording facility he moved to LA. In order to continue with his music career, he planned to stay only for a short period of time. However, after establishing connections with people in the music industry he extended his stay to try and progress his career as much as possible. He began with pursue a deal in song writing. He started working with other record producers and wrote songs for various artists such as Justin Bieber, John Legend, Brandy and Beyoncé. It came to a point where he felt this was not the top of his career, he said "There was a point where I was composing for other people, and it might have been comfy to continue to do that and enjoy that income stream and anonymity. But that's not why I moved away from school and my family. Ocean had already worked with extremely well known and well respected artists such as Nas and Pharelle Williams. Due to his friendship with Tyler The Creator, a member of Hip Hop collective Odd Future, in 2009 Frank Ocean joined the LA based group. It was not until late 2009, when Ocean finally signed a record deal with Def Jam Recordings as a solo artist after coming into contact with Tricky Stewart.

2 years later on February 18th 2011, he release his first mix tape: 'nostalgia, ULTRA', it became critically acclaimed launching Oceans career into success. It was centred around interpersonal relationships, personal reflection and social commentary. After the launch of the mix tape, Ocean became widely known and it led him to collaborations with huge artists such as Jay-Z and Kanye West. He featured on their collaborative album; 'Watch The Throne' and not only featured but also co-wrote the tracks 'No Church In The Wild' and 'Made In America'.

The first appearance made by Frank Ocean was in the music video for 'She' by Tyler The Creator featuring himself.

The first performance he did was with Odd Future in 2011 at Coachella Festival. He later joined them on their tour across the east coast of the US.

Def Jam Records announced on May 19th 2011 that 'nostalgia, ULTRA' would be released again but as an EP. First came the release of 'Novacane' on ITunes as the first single from the EP in May 2011.

In 2012, Ocean released his debut studio album 'Channel Orange'. It was vote 'Album of The Year' in HMV's polls. It also earned six Grammy nominations. He was credited for moving the RnB genre in a new, more challenging direction. His songs were noted for their story telling, social commentary and a dense musical fusion of Hip-Hop, Soul and RnB. His song 'Forrest Gump' received a large amount of attention, as it revealed to the world that Ocean's first love was a man. The album debuted at number two on the Billboard 200. He promoted his album with his summer tour and appearances at Coachella and Lollapalooza Festival.   

 For a long period of time Frank Ocean flew under the radar. He deleted all social media accounts and stayed out of the public eye until August 2016. During the early months of 2016, there was lots of rumors about Ocean releasing a new album. It was not until July that he confirmed there would in fact be a second studio album. He hinted that it would be released the same month. The month had passed and there was still no sign of the album or the official release dates. All the fans had was the image above, creating ideas of the release date. On August 1st at about 3AM, Ocean posted an endless live stream of a warehouse on Apple Music. It showed him doing woodwork and playing instrumentals on loop. It was not until the release of his visual album 'Endless' that the instrumentals from the live stream were for this album. However fans were still left waiting for the release of his official second studio album. Finally on August 20th the highly anticipated 'Blonde' was released. Fans made their excitement clear as an album that they had been waiting on for 4 years had finally arrived.

History of Music Videos

'Let Me Love You' by Ariana Grande Music Video Analysis

At the beginning of the music video, the audience see a medium shot of what looks like a bath full of water. This could be to show the audience that the song is about the artist reflecting on her feelings. In a lot of media products, when a scene is set by an ocean or you see the actor in the bath, you usually see them reflecting on an issue or the way they feel. This is probably down to the fact that water is quite calming. Therefore sends people into a mood, whereby they think about things that are happening in their lives.

This theme is then followed as the audience see a medium shot of the artist (Ariana Grande) staring at her reflection in the mirror. The producer may have chosen to instantly introduce this theme of reflection to encourage the audience to think more like how Ariana Grande is thinking in the video.

Almost as soon as the music video starts, certain elements begin to support Laura Mulvey's feminist theory. She believed that media products represent women as though they are objects. After the shot of the artist gazing at herself in the mirror, there are some medium/handheld shots of her in extremely low-key lighting. The lighting is so dark that all that is visible to the audience is the outline of her body. It encourages all members of the audience to observe much like a heterosexual male would. Due to the fact that there is nothing else to look at in that particular shot, her body is the only thing that the audience can see. It removes any emotional attachment that some of the other shots in the video may hold because the audience cannot see the artist's facial expressions. Therefore, they do not know any way to interpret the lyrics or what is happening in that particular shot.

There are some extreme close-ups of the artist's body throughout. In these close-ups here costume is very minimal. In the close up above, the artist is wearing a black bra with jeans and a black jacket. However, she is letting the jacket hang off her shoulders, revealing her chest and her stomach to the audience. Yet again, forcing the audience to see these sexualised shots of her.

McRobbie is another feminist who also believes that women are manipulated in the media. She feels that females are shown to act and think in a certain way, therefore encouraging the female audiences that they should be the same. She argued that one way women are shown is that they are always searching for a boyfriend and as if they are lost without them. There are a couple of elements in the video that support this idea. The most obvious being the lyrics. The artist included lyrics in the song such as; "I just broke up with my ex" and "I don't really know whats next." It is like she is suggesting that she is incapable of living her life without a male partner by her side. After this, she then goes on to sing: "just let me love you." The audience would assume that she is now talking about another boy, after she has just broken up with her boyfriend. Therefore, she is begging another boy to let her love them because she does not want to be alone.

The excessive use of handheld shots could be signifying the fact that she is emotionally unstable without someone to love, due to the fact that the placement of the camera is unsettled and is constantly moving around the artist.

There are also a lot of wide shots showing the artist on her own with hardly anything around her. Wide shots are often used to represent the character in the shot as lonely, therefore it is suggesting that she feels lonely without a man in her life.

When the artist is in shots alone, she is mostly quite sad and serious. This is  to connote that she is feeling lost and sad on her own. The seriousness shows the dedication she has for finding someone to love.

However, at the end of the music video when the male artist (Lil' Wayne) is in the shots with her; she is smiling and shown with happy facial expressions. It again supports the idea that she needs a man to make her happy and is incapable of finding happiness alone.

Throughout the video the audience see close-ups of Ariana. It is clear that before she is in any shots with Lil' Wayne, she has pink lipstick on. Choosing to have her wear this pink colour on her lips could be used to help represent her as innocent and delicate, to keep up this idea that she is vulnerable on her own.

In the medium shot above, the audience can now see that the pink has been replaced with the red. Not only will this signify her love for the boy to the audience, due to the fact that red is commonly associated with love, but it also represents Ariana as more sensual. The change from a delicate colour to the bold deep colour is highlighting to the audience the fact that now she is with the boy, she has changed. The lyrics of the song support this idea as the male raps : "Good bye to the good girl!"

Lil'Wayne's costume is completely white. People associate white with goodness and purity, due to the fact that things like angels and God are shown dressed in all white. The audience, they may feel that the male will just be another boy who hurts her and leaves her alone. However, the white costume could be used to represent how Ariana Grande's character may see the male: he is good for her. The male is also wearing lots of gold chains and jewellery. Lil'Wayne is a Hip-Hop artist. It is a common convention in Hip-Hop music videos for the artist to have expensive looking jewellery. This is usually to show off the fact that they have money and want to highlight all the materialistic things in their life. It represents the artist as rich and that automatically makes them seem powerful, as people who have a lot of money must hold quite a lot of power in their job.

'Down On My Luck' By Vic Mensa Music Video Analysis

The video begins facing a ceiling, leading the audience to question where the location is. The first thing the audience see is 'Vic Mensa' superimposed on the screen, which is then closely followed by the title of the song 'Down On My Luck'. This will establish with the audience who the artist is and what the song is called. It is ideal for new audiences. The producers would have felt that this was necessary for this particular video as this is completely different to Vic Mensa's conventional hip-hop genre. Therefore, this song would attract a different audience, who may have no idea of who the artist is. It could then encourage them to look up other songs of his, helping bring in new fans.

At first the low-key lighting hides Vic Mensa's identity. It keeps him slightly mysterious for new audiences. There is then eye-line match editing to show that he has made eye-contact with a girl in the club. There is a shallow focus on her, which signifies that she is an important character in the plot. By her happy facial expressions and inviting body language, it is clear that she wants to grab Vic Mensa's attention. The eye-line match editing representing his point of view will hint to the audience that he feels the same way. The fact her costume is all light colours suggests to the audience that she is going to be a good character. When looking at Propp's character theory, it could be suggested that she is the princess of the narrative.

Finally his identity is clarified by the high-key lighting that is suddenly shone on him. After the audience are shown that him and the girl are attracted to each other, the spotlight on the artist could indicate the fact that he as the male has to make the first move. It is the stereotypical view that males should always approach the female and take the lead role. In the medium shot of the artist; the audience can see that he is wearing a black jacket. One connotation associated with the colour black is power. As black is such a strong and bold colour, when a character's costume is black it can depict them as powerful. This is again linking to the stereotypical view that men hold a lot of power.

Panning shots follow him through the club, which makes the video more exciting for the audience as it gives them a sense of involvement, it creates a realistic interpretation of what it would be like to actually be there. Throughout this shot a series of events take place, which commonly happen in a night club, such as he gets caught up in a fight. People may be able to relate to situations that have happened to them on a night out. Every time a bad event takes place, the video cuts back to the beginning of the story line and all the events take place again, however the artist deals with it much better and avoids getting into a bad situation. This is called a forking path narrative. It meets the audience's uses and gratifications, because it provides them with entertainment due to the fact that it is an unusual story line. Therefore they want to see how it ends. It also gives them satisfaction as repeating an experience is that people often wish they could do. By the artist having the chance to do this and proving that being given the chance to deal with something again will mean that you deal with it better.`

As he finally gets to the girl, the audience see a close-up shot of her dropping a pill into his drink, going against the stereotype of males usually taking advantage of women.  The close-up tells the viewer that this is a significant moment in the narrative.

The multi-coloured lagged visual effect shows the audience that the artist is under the influence of drugs and is not capable of looking after himself. It highlights that he is vulnerable and acts as an action code, suggesting that the female character is about to some how take advantage of him due to his incapability to look after himself. The artist leaning against the female for support, goes against the conventions of gender roles in music videos. Usually, the male is supporting and looking after the female. The female is also usually the upset or vulnerable character. After falling on the floor the girl takes his wallet out of his pocket. The audience now learn that she is in fact the antagonist rather than the princess of the story. Her stealing the protagonist's wallet contradicts the earlier unconventional idea of the male looking for the females support. This is because her taking his wallet implies that women cannot look after themselves financially and depends on males for this support.

Eventually, after repeating the series of events a number of times, the artist finally deals with every situation perfectly. He avoids all of the things that got him in a bag situation, resulting in him ending the night by having a good time. It will give the audience a massive sense of satisfaction and happiness because their hope of successfully repeating situations has been confirmed.

When leaving the club, the artist has a black hat added to his costume. He walks out keeping his head down, which the audience would at first assume is because of his fame. 

However, it then becomes clear that it is due to the fact he is about to commit a crime (vandalism). Alvarado suggested that there are four usual representations of ethnic minorities. One of the themes is the fact that they are often represented as dangerous/criminal. The artist could be identifying with his race here, especially considering it is commonly black people that are stereotyped as dangerous. The black hat contributes to the stereotype, as there is the idea that it helps to hide there identity making them more intimidating. He is showing that he sees how his race is labelled as dangerous. He gets caught by two security guards. In a close up you can see that the white security guard hand cuffs him and takes him away. Whilst this is happening the black security guard is remaining relatively passive and is not doing much, the artist also shouts the lyrics 'look at you' at him. This is suggesting that he is saying to the security guard that they are the same and although he may think he has the power, ultimately he is inferior due to his ethnicity. 

In the repeat of the scene, Mensa does not commit a crime. However when walking past the security guards, they barge into him hinting the lack of respect he feels there is for African Americans. He turns around and puts his middle finger up at them, hinting the hatred there may be between the two parties. The audience then see that the artist gets hit by car. He could be highlighting the fact that this conflict will not end and that there is no point in reacting, as it will still just end badly for them. The next time around he just brushes it off and does not react, resulting in him finally getting through his whole night problem free. 

J.Cole

Jermaine Lamarr Cole was born 28th January 1985. Professionally, he is known as J.Cole and is an American rapper, singer and songwriter. He initially gained recognition in 2007, following the release of his debut mixtape; 'The Come Up'. Determined to further his solo career as a rapper, he went on to release two additional mixtapes after being signed by Jay-Z's record label: Roc Nation.

Personal Life

J.Cole was born in a US Army base in Frankfurt, West Germany. His father was African American and a former soldier for the United States Army. His mother is a white German woman, who was a postal worker for the US Postal Service. When Cole was young, his father abandoned his family. Leading his mum to move her family to Fayetteville in North Carolina and continue their life there. He grew up in a multi-ethnic environment. J.Cole has been asked how his ethnicity impacts him, due to the problems black people in America are currently facing, and he commented: "I can identify with white people, because I know my mother, her side of the family, who I love. But at the end of the day, I've never felt white. I can identify with white people but never have I felt like I'm one of them. I identify more with what I look like, because that's how I got treated but not necessarily in a negative way". He has always had an interest in music, he served as a first-chair violinist for the Terry Sanford Orchestra until 2003.

Career

When he was young, Cole and his cousin worked on developing their basic understanding of rhyming and wordplay further, as well beginning to pick up the skill of including storytelling within their lyrics. He produced a whole load of ideas, but unfortunately was unable to actually start producing beats any further than sampling. Then his mother bought him the equipment, allowing him to produce actual songs. He began by posting his creations onto online forums.  

After producing a whole selection of instrumentals, he went to Roc Nation in the hope to play his creations to Jay-Z. After originally being dismissed, determined to make it he released his first mixtape (The Come Up) on his own.  

From there J.Cole's success only got bigger. He followed 'The Come Up' with his second mixtape 'The Warm Up' in 2009. He then finally began to make his journey towards his dream, as he featured in a song from 'The Blueprint 3' By Jay-Z. The song was called 'A Star Is Born'. 

Since then, he has released 3 studio albums; 'Cole World:The Sideline Story'(2010), and 'Born Sinner'(2013) . After creating these albums, in 2013 J.Cole decided to give back to his fans. He has set up an annual tour; "Dollar and a Dream", whereby fans can pay nothing but a dollar and he will showcase his early music, the music before the fame that many fans may not of heard.

Being born with African Amercian background, like many other artists with a similar background, J.Cole decided that he felt passionate about race problems facing African Americans in the US and around the world. Like artists such as Kendrick Lamar and Beyonce, he used his power to speak about a matter that he feels strongly about. Whilst he was writing his most recent album '2014 Forest Hills Drive', after the Ferguson Riots, Cole felt he wanted to share his view on the matter. After a black teenager was shot dead by a white police officer, it sparked a large amount of controversy. Therefore he wrote, recorded and released a single dedicated to Michael Brown, the boy who was killed, called 'Be Free'.

He expresses his concern towards treatment of African Americans. He encourages the audience to think about things like why "every time I [He] steps outside I [He] sees my [his] people die" he also pushes the audience to join him and demands "don't just stand around", he wants them to raise the awareness of the situation. J.Cole took advantage of the power he holds with his music, and put strong words about a devastating event in order to make people realise how out of control and inhumane the situation is. It is also in one of the most memorable and touching ways possible, as people will find a connection and meaning with the lyrics making them memorable.

Following "Be Free",came the release of his latest Grammy nominated album "2014 Forest Hills Drive". "Be Free" was not on the album, therefore Cole had not released any build-up single or teaser. It was all about his journey and where it started. He wanted to revisit the place where everything began for him: his childhood home in Forest Hills Drive, Fayetteville, North Carolina. He created a clear narrative in each song:

• His desire for success - 'Fire Squad'
• His success beginning to grow - 'A Tale Of Two Citiez'
• Starts revealing his past and life stories - '03 Adolescence' and 'Wet Dreamz'
• Things begin to get a bit patchy and problems start occurring - 'G.O.M.D' and 'No Role Models'
• Then lastly explains how much everything means to him and the notion of love - 'Love Yourz' and 'Apparently' 

After reaching his lifetime goal, he wanted to help others get to theirs and decided to create his own record label 'Dreamville Records'. He aims to keep empathetic lyricism and true soul music at the core of all his work.

Awards

BET Hip-Hop Awards

• 2011 'Friday Night Lights' won best mixtape.
• 2014 'Crooked Smile' won biggest impact.
• 2015 he won best performer.
• 2015 ' 2014 Forest Hills Drive' won best album

Billboard Music Awards

• 2014 '2014 Forest Hills Drive' won top rap album.