Kelly Rowland-Stole
Written by: Dane Deviller, Sean Hosein and Steve Kipner.
Directed by: Sanaa Hamri
Produced by: Melissa Larsen
Media Representations
As the music video is based on some high school students, it therefore has a narrative and Kelly Rowland is not exactly the 'main character' of the music video apart from the performance shots. A basic evaluation of the video is that it's based on the deaths of two high school students, and the song lyrics as well as several different scenes show the reasons behind the deaths. And I would say the moral and point of the video is for people to 'think before they act' and to consider other people's lives more. Kelly Rowland is presented as being the narrator of the story in the video due to the lyrics and her performances, she's featured in the same scenes as the students in the story line and the school, almost seeming as if she has inside knowledge of their lives and is letting us know about it, she's always close by to what is going on and nearly all of her performance scenes are next to, or Kelly sat on the branch of a tree outside of the school. Nearer to the end of the video, whilst performing Kelly has tears going down her face, this is showing just how important the song lyrics are, specifically to her. I think the video is accurate to the type of message wanting to be put across, people shouldn’t be taking life for granted, obviously there are some circumstances where people feel they have only bad things happening in their life, but they still have something to live for. The boy who commits suicide for example, he doesn’t have a very good home life and gets bullied, both very life dominating things, but he still has a home as well as a mum and a sister, some people don’t even have that. The last line in the song 'We were here altogether yesterday' also conveys how quickly things can change and this is represented in the video.
Media Languages and Forms
The first shot is of a teenage boy laid on his bed, the room is very dark and dull possibly connotating what the rest of his life is like, and the colours in the rest of the music video are generally like this, to convey the meaning of the narrative. However, when shots of Kelly Rowland are shown of her performances sat in a class room with the other students, a spotlight is on her whilst the rest of the room is dark, this shows her dominating telling the storyline and that she's the one explaining what is happening. Differently to the rest of the other students clothing, the girl who finds the boy's body is dressed in a bright pink top which stands out, this could be to interpret her innocence and kindness of calling the police when she finds him, and also because the lyrics at the time of her being shown are 'She could of been a movie star, but never got the chance to go that far', the next shot featuring the girl is showing her at the doctors realising she is pregnant. The male who is shot and killed is shown wearing casual clothes as he's playing basketball, he has a band around his head which could convey blood and danger, the two main shots of him are also just his face, so the red stands out and makes a statement of the danger. I'd say that the music video is iconic of many 'gangster' related films, featuring school shootings and violence, especially amongst black people. The video also related awareness to teenage suicide soon and wants people to think about the reasons why they do it and not to judge people so much. At the end of the video, a wide shot is used showing a memorial painting of the two people who lost their lives, with Kelly performing in front of it, she's dressed in white interpreting innocence and purity, possibly conveying what the boys were and that they didn’t deserve to die. There are several wide and establishing shots used in the video, mainly to show the storyline in its 'full picture' these are particularly used when the body of the suicide victim is taken out of the school when the camera crew are there, when the second boy is playing basketball and then after he is shot, and then when the memorial painting is shown.
Narrative
The structure of the music video has a narrative as well as includes performance. The two storylines featured are consistent throughout the video, showing a beginning and an ending, whilst shots of performances of Kelly Rowland are shown throughout too. This makes the video seem like a sort of documentary, the performance shots of Kelly Rowland are all on the same setting of the storylines being shown, giving the effect of her almost talking us through the story. The heroes and villains of the narrative are clearly shown in the video, mainly through facial expressions as there are no other sounds used apart from the song. The girl who finds the dead body is shown as a hero once she's found the body as she looks shocked, then cries, but then rings the police and the body is taken away. On the other hand, the villain is in the second storyline when evils are exchanged between the boy who is shot and the boy who shoots him, these idea's relates to the narrative structure Russian Folk Tales, studied by Russian Theorist Vladimir Propp. Media academic Kate Domaille’s theory states that every story fits into one narrative. Relating to this theory, the music video that I have analysed would have aspects of Opheus and Romeo and Juliet. However the theory which this specific video relates to the most is Joseph Cambell's work 'The Hero With A Thousand Faces' which developed the ideo of the 'Universal Hero Monomyth'.
Genre
The genre of the song 'Stole' is Rock and Urban Pop. Because the video is a narrative and has a strong story line, there is no particular convention to follow due to the genre. On the other hand, because of the purpose of the song and the lyrics, there are particular conventions of this. Such as the location having to be conveyed as a low social class area, colours to be dark to allow meaning to convey, and slow as well as fast cuts to interpret sorrow and drama. The characters are easily generically determined in a very broad way, for example it's to know that the woman with the black eye is the boy’s mother as they were at home together and it's easy to see who the other boy’s girlfriend was after you see them hug and look romantically involved.
Media Institutions
The purpose of the institution is to sell the song and the storyline, as well as the artist, Kelly Rowland. Due to research of the artist, I found out that Kelly recorded the album of which the song is featured on, with the same label she is signed with, with her band Destiny's Child, this being major label, Columbia. Columbia is a label with various sub labels, meaning it has many different genre's, and due to it being an American label, the setting, or 'story' of the video is based I’m events that are usually more likely to happen in America, such as shootings in black culture, although this can obviously happen anywhere, something that shows the video is more aimed towards aspects of America is the fact the black male who gets shots is playing basketball, basketball is very popular in America, specifically amongst black people.
Media Values and Ideology
The music video references ideology to a typical American school in a lower class area. It shows elements of shootings, graffiti, and basically the surroundings of the school, all relating to the class of the area and therefore stereotyping those types of places. The music video has two main storylines, one of which is a 'geek who commits suicide and is' portrayed through glasses, a backpack and shirt, and the other a 'Jock' playing basketball with his friends being shot. However, the ideology of the song as well as video is people are too quick to judge, scenes of the video show the geek being bullied, yet, what they didn’t know is that he has many problems at home such as violence. When the boy commits suicide, the people who previously bullied him are seen as upset and shocked, this conveys what the majority of school are sometimes like, there's always people who are bullied, and video comes across as sort of saying to the bullies 'think about what you're doing'. The ideology of the next storyline is conveying rivalry, due to the look exchanged between the boy who is shot and the boy who shoots him, it's clear they don’t like one another very much; however, a rivalry shouldn’t go as far as someone being killed. Surrounding these two stories is another one of a girl who's pregnant, who finds the boy who committed suicide, the girl is shown to have known the boy and at the end of the music video she writes 'Think before You Act' on a painted memorial of the two males who died. Throughout the music video Kelly Rowland is wearing a top with The Notorious B.I.G on one half and Tupac on the other half, when asked why this top was worn she said "she felt like their lives were truly stolen' this conveys back to the name of the song 'stole' and the point of the music video is to show the lives of two innocent people stolen.
Media Audiences
The music video would be aimed at Kelly Rowland fans and maybe Destiny's Child fans (the group Kelly is in), this therefore widening the range of people who would be interested in watching the video. Because of the narrative of the story, i would say the video is aimed at young people from around the ages of 16 to19 year olds, young people who are still in education. It's not just aimed at one particular race either, the two separate stories going on in the video are about a white male and a black male, so the video isn’t just sending a message out to one set of people. When the video was released, Kelly Rowland was very popular at the time, so the video would have been featured on a lot of music channels, therefore meaning that many people who don’t even particularly like her, but like the music channel would see the video too. Also because of the moral of the song and the video many people would of heard of it from others and would want to watch it too just because of the message it gives out and how strongly the video manages to do this.
As the music video is based on some high school students, it therefore has a narrative and Kelly Rowland is not exactly the 'main character' of the music video apart from the performance shots. A basic evaluation of the video is that it's based on the deaths of two high school students, and the song lyrics as well as several different scenes show the reasons behind the deaths. And I would say the moral and point of the video is for people to 'think before they act' and to consider other people's lives more. Kelly Rowland is presented as being the narrator of the story in the video due to the lyrics and her performances, she's featured in the same scenes as the students in the story line and the school, almost seeming as if she has inside knowledge of their lives and is letting us know about it, she's always close by to what is going on and nearly all of her performance scenes are next to, or Kelly sat on the branch of a tree outside of the school. Nearer to the end of the video, whilst performing Kelly has tears going down her face, this is showing just how important the song lyrics are, specifically to her. I think the video is accurate to the type of message wanting to be put across, people shouldn’t be taking life for granted, obviously there are some circumstances where people feel they have only bad things happening in their life, but they still have something to live for. The boy who commits suicide for example, he doesn’t have a very good home life and gets bullied, both very life dominating things, but he still has a home as well as a mum and a sister, some people don’t even have that. The last line in the song 'We were here altogether yesterday' also conveys how quickly things can change and this is represented in the video.
Media Languages and Forms
The first shot is of a teenage boy laid on his bed, the room is very dark and dull possibly connotating what the rest of his life is like, and the colours in the rest of the music video are generally like this, to convey the meaning of the narrative. However, when shots of Kelly Rowland are shown of her performances sat in a class room with the other students, a spotlight is on her whilst the rest of the room is dark, this shows her dominating telling the storyline and that she's the one explaining what is happening. Differently to the rest of the other students clothing, the girl who finds the boy's body is dressed in a bright pink top which stands out, this could be to interpret her innocence and kindness of calling the police when she finds him, and also because the lyrics at the time of her being shown are 'She could of been a movie star, but never got the chance to go that far', the next shot featuring the girl is showing her at the doctors realising she is pregnant. The male who is shot and killed is shown wearing casual clothes as he's playing basketball, he has a band around his head which could convey blood and danger, the two main shots of him are also just his face, so the red stands out and makes a statement of the danger. I'd say that the music video is iconic of many 'gangster' related films, featuring school shootings and violence, especially amongst black people. The video also related awareness to teenage suicide soon and wants people to think about the reasons why they do it and not to judge people so much. At the end of the video, a wide shot is used showing a memorial painting of the two people who lost their lives, with Kelly performing in front of it, she's dressed in white interpreting innocence and purity, possibly conveying what the boys were and that they didn’t deserve to die. There are several wide and establishing shots used in the video, mainly to show the storyline in its 'full picture' these are particularly used when the body of the suicide victim is taken out of the school when the camera crew are there, when the second boy is playing basketball and then after he is shot, and then when the memorial painting is shown.
Narrative
The structure of the music video has a narrative as well as includes performance. The two storylines featured are consistent throughout the video, showing a beginning and an ending, whilst shots of performances of Kelly Rowland are shown throughout too. This makes the video seem like a sort of documentary, the performance shots of Kelly Rowland are all on the same setting of the storylines being shown, giving the effect of her almost talking us through the story. The heroes and villains of the narrative are clearly shown in the video, mainly through facial expressions as there are no other sounds used apart from the song. The girl who finds the dead body is shown as a hero once she's found the body as she looks shocked, then cries, but then rings the police and the body is taken away. On the other hand, the villain is in the second storyline when evils are exchanged between the boy who is shot and the boy who shoots him, these idea's relates to the narrative structure Russian Folk Tales, studied by Russian Theorist Vladimir Propp. Media academic Kate Domaille’s theory states that every story fits into one narrative. Relating to this theory, the music video that I have analysed would have aspects of Opheus and Romeo and Juliet. However the theory which this specific video relates to the most is Joseph Cambell's work 'The Hero With A Thousand Faces' which developed the ideo of the 'Universal Hero Monomyth'.
Genre
The genre of the song 'Stole' is Rock and Urban Pop. Because the video is a narrative and has a strong story line, there is no particular convention to follow due to the genre. On the other hand, because of the purpose of the song and the lyrics, there are particular conventions of this. Such as the location having to be conveyed as a low social class area, colours to be dark to allow meaning to convey, and slow as well as fast cuts to interpret sorrow and drama. The characters are easily generically determined in a very broad way, for example it's to know that the woman with the black eye is the boy’s mother as they were at home together and it's easy to see who the other boy’s girlfriend was after you see them hug and look romantically involved.
Media Institutions
The purpose of the institution is to sell the song and the storyline, as well as the artist, Kelly Rowland. Due to research of the artist, I found out that Kelly recorded the album of which the song is featured on, with the same label she is signed with, with her band Destiny's Child, this being major label, Columbia. Columbia is a label with various sub labels, meaning it has many different genre's, and due to it being an American label, the setting, or 'story' of the video is based I’m events that are usually more likely to happen in America, such as shootings in black culture, although this can obviously happen anywhere, something that shows the video is more aimed towards aspects of America is the fact the black male who gets shots is playing basketball, basketball is very popular in America, specifically amongst black people.
Media Values and Ideology
The music video references ideology to a typical American school in a lower class area. It shows elements of shootings, graffiti, and basically the surroundings of the school, all relating to the class of the area and therefore stereotyping those types of places. The music video has two main storylines, one of which is a 'geek who commits suicide and is' portrayed through glasses, a backpack and shirt, and the other a 'Jock' playing basketball with his friends being shot. However, the ideology of the song as well as video is people are too quick to judge, scenes of the video show the geek being bullied, yet, what they didn’t know is that he has many problems at home such as violence. When the boy commits suicide, the people who previously bullied him are seen as upset and shocked, this conveys what the majority of school are sometimes like, there's always people who are bullied, and video comes across as sort of saying to the bullies 'think about what you're doing'. The ideology of the next storyline is conveying rivalry, due to the look exchanged between the boy who is shot and the boy who shoots him, it's clear they don’t like one another very much; however, a rivalry shouldn’t go as far as someone being killed. Surrounding these two stories is another one of a girl who's pregnant, who finds the boy who committed suicide, the girl is shown to have known the boy and at the end of the music video she writes 'Think before You Act' on a painted memorial of the two males who died. Throughout the music video Kelly Rowland is wearing a top with The Notorious B.I.G on one half and Tupac on the other half, when asked why this top was worn she said "she felt like their lives were truly stolen' this conveys back to the name of the song 'stole' and the point of the music video is to show the lives of two innocent people stolen.
Media Audiences
The music video would be aimed at Kelly Rowland fans and maybe Destiny's Child fans (the group Kelly is in), this therefore widening the range of people who would be interested in watching the video. Because of the narrative of the story, i would say the video is aimed at young people from around the ages of 16 to19 year olds, young people who are still in education. It's not just aimed at one particular race either, the two separate stories going on in the video are about a white male and a black male, so the video isn’t just sending a message out to one set of people. When the video was released, Kelly Rowland was very popular at the time, so the video would have been featured on a lot of music channels, therefore meaning that many people who don’t even particularly like her, but like the music channel would see the video too. Also because of the moral of the song and the video many people would of heard of it from others and would want to watch it too just because of the message it gives out and how strongly the video manages to do this.
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