Kanye West – Power
The music video for the song power is a concept based music video. Concept based music videos base the whole music video on a theme or idea, the theme this music video is based on is a moving panting. This has been done by Kanye West as it is his idea of showing his power which is a very masculine way of thinking stereotypically seen in hip Hop music videos.
The music video begins with a close up of Kanye west, who is a famous Hip Hop artist, and in the background we can see pillars which are associated with ancient Rome. Around kanye west neck is a chain which is very big, showing his wealth and power. This is a stereotypical representation of males in Hip hop music videos. The camera shot makes it appear as though kanye west is as big as the pillars behind him; this has been to represent Kanye west as powerful and strong. In the first camera shot it can be said that this music video is reflecting the conventions of the genre. The camera tracks out revealing kanye wests costume, which we can see is robes that may be recognised by some as those worn by rich and powerful people in ancient Rome.
The camera tracks back further revealing more women around him, as though he is a king, the costume of the females is also associated with ancient Rome. The fact that they are around him and he is in the centre of the frame suggests that they are seen as inferior compared to Kanye west. This is a stereotypical representation of females in Hip Hop music videos especially as women are portrayed as sex objects for males. As the camera tracks back further we can see that there is even more women surrounding him, it can also be seen that some of them have wing suggesting they are angels, also we can see a halo around Kanye wests head. The halo may represent Kanye wests opinion of his massive contribution to Hip Hop music; this is seen a lot in Hip Hop music videos as the male rappers exaggerate their ability in order to show their self confidence and strength. We can also see that the females in this video are wearing very revealing clothes and being used to make Kanye west look more powerful.
As the camera tracks out further we can see two males fighting with swords, this was popular in Ancient Rome as it was a form of entertainment for the emperors. It also shows power as two people are risking their lives in order to entertain someone, this makes Kanye west seem important. This is a stereotypical representation of males, so it is reflecting conventional representations in the Hip Hop genre. The long shot shows a lot of people with Kanye west in the centre, this shot makes it look as though Kanye has a lot of followers and is popular. The music video ends with the word “POWER” being displayed, with Kanye west at the centre of the letter “O”.
Overall, we can see that this video represents genders very stereotypically. The male gender is made to look more superior to the female gender, Kanye West a male is made to look the most powerful of everyone in the video. The females used in the video are being used to self empower Kanye West and show that he has followers. This video is extremely short compared to the stereotypical Hip Hop music video, this was done to further reinforce the effect that music video is based on a moving painting. Although the costume and props used in this video are not associated with modern times and the Hip Hop genre, they do work well in helping Kanye west look more powerful which is a stereotypical representation of Hip Hop artists. The costume and props used make Kanye west look like an emperor, which was a position that in ancient times held a lot of power. I would say that this is a clever video as it manages to standout from other music videos whilst still managing to fit into the Hip Hop genre.