Analysis Of A Music Video 1

The first video I am going to analyse is "We Made It" by Busta Rhymes, featuring Linkin Park.
The opening shot seems as if it has been shot from a helicopter, the location looks as if it is New York, we can recognise the location due to the high rise buildings and wide streets. The opening shot establishes the location.
The shot after is a medium close - up of a Louis Vuitton logo which is a big/expensive brand and would represent wealth. The camera slowly pans upwards to reveal a watch with diamonds on the face of it, again backing up the representation of wealth.
The shots are in a shot/reverse shot pattern for a while and the audience can see the non - diegetic writing that informs us who the artists are in the song/music video. During this Shot/Reverse Shot routine the artists are shown to the audience.
The location that is used for the introduction of Linkin Park looks like some sort of abandoned warehouse. On the other hand, the location used to introduce Busta Rhymes looks like a glamorous hotel room. This could show the contrast of the lives lived by people of different races many years back (the trashed up abandoned warehouse) to how they are living now (nice apartments).

After the introduction shots, another shot/reverse shot pattern appears showing the singers in the locations they were in. Linkin Park's Mike Shinoda is playing the piano and Chester Bennington sing the opening line of the song. The first verse of the song is sang by Busta Rhymes who is still in his apartment/room. The shot is a close up with the rapper positioned in the right side of the screen. The left side is empty and dark, this could have been done to connotate the emptiness in his early life and that he still remembers how bad it was.

"We Made It" was inspired by the problems faced by the Rapper T.I The the RnB/Hip - hop singer Akon. The song reflects on how far people of different races have come, from the lifestyle they had started with. The song also reflect on how Bust Rhymes' career had taken off. "See, how a Ni**a survived the worst but my life is glorious." this quote from the song tells the audience that Busta has been through lots of discrimination and is now at the best stages of his life.

"When it all got started we were steadily just getting reject and it seemed like nothing we could do would ever get us respected" - This is another quote from the song which could be interpreted as how people from other cultures and races did not fit in and therefore did not get the break they needed, to become successful, at the time racism was a big issue in society.