Dizzee Rascal’s music video ‘Holiday’ is the music video I have decided to analyse in detail. Dylan Kwabena Mills AKA Dizzee Rascal originated from Bow, London England. He is a well known global rapper, record producer, songwriter and singer. Dizzee’s record labels include XL Recordings (2003-2007) and Dirtee Skank (2003-present). His music is a mix of genres which include, garage, hip hop, grime, raga pop and electronic style music. Dizzee has had many number one hits which include, ‘Dance wiv me’, ‘Bonkers’, ‘Holiday’ and many more.
Dizzee Rascals ‘Holiday’ was released as the third single which was from his fourth album called ‘Tongue n’ Cheek’. The song was produced by a well known singer-songwriter, record producer and DJ named Calvin Harris. And was directed by Hope Audikana. The chorus vocals featured in the song are sung by R&B singer named Chrome. Calvin Harris originally wrote the song and planned for it to be produced by the girl group The Saturdays, however it was rejected. Dizzee released the song on the 23rd August 2009.
I looked at Laura Mulvey’s male gaze theory; Laura is a British feminist film theorist. She analyses how men look at women, how women look at themselves and how women look at other women. Men are often represented as the gender who takes a stronger interest in the opposite gender than females do of men. Throughout ‘Holiday’ there are many half naked women on display, I believe that Dizzee does see them as sex objects mainly due by the amount he is surrounded by and the lack of clothing they all have on. All the women shown in the video are dancing in a sexy manor which shows Dizzee’s view of them. A couple of times throughout the video there are close ups of women’s assets which indicates this genre of music and the video is meant for men to watch and to listen to. Women are often portrayed as putting themselves down, however in this video they all seem very confident with their bodies; I think this has both a negative and positive effect on other women. If women watch the music video it could make them feel unsure about themselves as the women featured in ‘Holiday’ are fairly skinny and good looking. However it could make women feel as if they don’t need to be ashamed of what they look like because the music video shows strong minded and confident women. I think the way men look at the female body is portrayed in a negative way, it seems that all Dizzee cares about is how good looking the women are and this is the same with the viewers, they would watch it to look at the women. I think this is a bad way or representing women, more and more artists are currently doing this which makes women look like sex symbols.
I also looked at Andrew Goodwin’s writing in ‘Dancing in the Distraction factory’ (Routledge 1992) to analyse this music video in detail. Goodwin’s music video analysis looks at different elements of a music video to analyse the music video in depth. For example Goodwin’s second point of analysis acknowledges weather there is a relationship between the lyrics and visuals, this would either be illustrative, amplifying or contradicting.
I looked at Laura Mulvey’s male gaze theory; Laura is a British feminist film theorist. She analyses how men look at women, how women look at themselves and how women look at other women. Men are often represented as the gender who takes a stronger interest in the opposite gender than females do of men. Throughout ‘Holiday’ there are many half naked women on display, I believe that Dizzee does see them as sex objects mainly due by the amount he is surrounded by and the lack of clothing they all have on. All the women shown in the video are dancing in a sexy manor which shows Dizzee’s view of them. A couple of times throughout the video there are close ups of women’s assets which indicates this genre of music and the video is meant for men to watch and to listen to. Women are often portrayed as putting themselves down, however in this video they all seem very confident with their bodies; I think this has both a negative and positive effect on other women. If women watch the music video it could make them feel unsure about themselves as the women featured in ‘Holiday’ are fairly skinny and good looking. However it could make women feel as if they don’t need to be ashamed of what they look like because the music video shows strong minded and confident women. I think the way men look at the female body is portrayed in a negative way, it seems that all Dizzee cares about is how good looking the women are and this is the same with the viewers, they would watch it to look at the women. I think this is a bad way or representing women, more and more artists are currently doing this which makes women look like sex symbols.
I also looked at Andrew Goodwin’s writing in ‘Dancing in the Distraction factory’ (Routledge 1992) to analyse this music video in detail. Goodwin’s music video analysis looks at different elements of a music video to analyse the music video in depth. For example Goodwin’s second point of analysis acknowledges weather there is a relationship between the lyrics and visuals, this would either be illustrative, amplifying or contradicting.
Point 1 of Goodwin’s theory is ‘music video’s demonstrate genre characteristics’ Typically throughout garage/hip hop there would be a serious element to the music video and song however Dizzee is an artist who creates upbeat and happy songs with usually comical and fun music video’s to match. The ttypical genre conventions would be dance shots and lots of girls with barely anything on in a grime/hip hop music video as well as the artist flashing their cash through the various props. Throughout the video ‘Holiday’ Dizzee’s life is portrayed as a big party, with girls who are lounging around in bikini’s by the pool, Dizzee is soaking up the sun and the luxury lifestyle he leads and is surrounded by half naked women. This particular music video does strongly demonstrate genre characteristics. This links to Laura Mulvey's Male Gaze Theory.
There is a strong relationship between the lyrics and visuals of ‘Holiday’. As the mise-en-scene is set abroad by a bright blue pool with lots of women, there is a strong link to the lyrics which talk about taking a holiday. Some of the lyrics include ‘Party around the clock’ as Dizzee is rapping this line there are shots of the pool party he is having, meaning that the pool party he is currently at is just a taster and could happen every day. This also links to Laura Mulvey's Male Gaze Theory.
There is a strong relationship between the lyrics and visuals of ‘Holiday’. As the mise-en-scene is set abroad by a bright blue pool with lots of women, there is a strong link to the lyrics which talk about taking a holiday. Some of the lyrics include ‘Party around the clock’ as Dizzee is rapping this line there are shots of the pool party he is having, meaning that the pool party he is currently at is just a taster and could happen every day. This also links to Laura Mulvey's Male Gaze Theory.
Below is a screen shot showing the location they are at throughout the whole music video. As the song is named ‘Holiday’ and the lyrics are about going on holiday and having fun the music video should also show a holiday with people having fun, which is what Dizzee Rascal has done.
The screen time of this music video is focused on one particular woman for some of the time. She walks around the pool side and meets many different people on her journey. The woman walks to the beat so the music video runs more smoothly and looks more in sync. The main focus of this video are both Dizzee and this particular woman, this is done as this music video is made for men.
The 3rd point to Goodwin’s theory is ‘There is a relationship between music and visuals’. Whilst looking through Dizzee’s music video I noticed that the heavy beat of the music does not really cut to the different shots of the party. However at the beginning there is a fast beat whilst no lyrics are being sung; when this beat is playing there are fast shots of different things at the party. For example there is a shot lasting for one second whilst there is one beat of the song playing, during this shot there is a woman’s stomach, which then quickly changes into a shot of the pool as another beat is played. Another part of the video where there is a relationship with the music is when Chrome (the artist who sings the chorus throughout the song) sings ‘We can do what you want to baby’. When Chrome finishes saying ‘baby’ a woman who has just dived into the pool is coming up for a breath, this is then cut to another scene straight after as Dizzee starts to rap. As the woman comes up for a breath there is a heavy beat which is in sync with the woman (print screen shown below).
The screen shot above shows the woman walking as the beat is played.
Throughout the music video the main focus is on Dizzee, Most record labels demand for lot’s of close ups of the artist. There are a few men however they are overpopulated by the women in the music video. The two artists (Dizzee and Chrome) who feature in this music video are the only two throughout the whole music video who are fully clothed, the rest of the women and the few men that there are have a lot of skin on show. Dizzee is shown wearing two different outfits through the music video, one is a bright red tropical shirt and the other a gleaming white suit and yellow shirt. With such bold bright colours it is not hard to spot Dizzee amongst the people, which is what the record labels want as they want the main focus on him. Most of the shots that are shown are of Dizzee rapping, when the camera does go off Dizzee the shot after will be of Dizzee again. This is linked to Richard Dyer's pop star theory.
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