Textual Analysis

Rizzle Kicks - Down With The Trumpets

In this textual analysis i will be analysing 'Down With The Trumpets' by Rizzle Kicks. The genre of this is British Hip Hop, and the type of this video is concept based. The potential target audience for this video are teenagers, this is supported by the image of Rizzle Kicks.

The camera shots used in this video are all fairly similar, a wide range of shots are not used, but instead there are a repetition of shots which are numerously throughout. Medium close ups are used extremely often throughout the whole video, near the very start when the video is picked up, when it then switches to the artists on the grass and also when they are walking down the street. The shots which are used are mainly all long duration, you do not see a part in the video where there are cuts all close together and in time with the beat when the beat speeds up. There is a shot where the shot is slowed down and then sped up to give a certain effect when the man they are being chased by jumps over the wall.

The clothing that Rizzle Kicks wear supports the target audience they are trying to attract and aim their music at, teenagers and youth. Baggy jumpers, hats, jeans and bright trousers, all the kind of clothes that teenagers are associated with, this is a convention of the genre. The lighting in the video is all natural, this is because the majority of the video is shot outside, except for a few internal shots, where the lighting is still kept natural.

The genre can be recognised by a number of aspects in this video, things such as the clothing, which is stereotypical of genre. Also by what the videos underlying message is about, drugs such as cannabis. Drugs can often be associated with the hip-hop genre.

The relationship between the lyrics and visuals is a mixture of contradictory and illustrative. Sometimes what they are saying fits in with what is happening in the visuals for example when he says 'now i got grass stains on my brand new white trainers', it shows you white trainers in the shot. However, most of the time it is contradictory. 

The relationship between music and visuals is also contradictory. The cuts are not in time with the music at any point in the video. So the music is not parallel to the visuals.

Demands of the record label include medium close ups, this is because both of the artists in Rizzle Kicks have very unique and distinct faces. The artists are looking at the camera throughout the video except at certain points where the camera work is focusing on their performance.

In conducting this textual analysis it is obvious that the mise en scene elements such as clothing, played a major part in who the target audience is for the video. The clothing also emulates the stereotypical genre characteristics which is British Hip Hop.