The video in which I am analysing is Wiley's music video for his song 'Numbers in Action' released on the 5th of April 2011 which was directed by a company called Us which is a multi-disciplinary design
and direction studio, who’s work covers brand identity, printed literature, advertising, motion, installations & web. The genre this type of music belongs to is 'Grime' as Wiley is credited as one of the pioneers of this genre. Also the type of music video for ‘Numbers in Action’ is conceptual and performance based.
I shall be analysing Wiley’s music video using Andrew Goodwin’s music video analysis. To start off the first point to discuss is Genre Characteristics. The genre of music which Wiley performs is Grime. Grime has the characteristics of being hard, aggressive and dark. It emerged from Bow in East London and the genre is a cross-pollinated genre, taking influences from a variety of different cultural styles therefore being considered as underground music. With it being an underground genre this means that the lyrics involved are normally describing the life that the artist lives on the streets everyday which most of the time comes across as violent and has a sexual element involved. Wiley in the past has created songs that fit the genre characteristics of grime however with his song ‘Numbers in Action’ he creates a huge contrast and goes against the typical characteristics for grime. The lyrics in ‘Numbers in Action’ do not once have any element that is either sexual or violent instead the lyrics describe Wiley and his music. The song is upbeat throughout creating it to be a catchy and a happy song. It comes across through this song that Wiley wants to make a change within grime music by going against the genre characteristics.
Throughout the whole of the music video there is a strong relationship between the lyrics and the visuals. As an audience we are shown this through objects and also through gesture. A word which is mentioned within the lyrics is “Timing” and this is shown visually throughout the video because the video is all about clever timing to create the effective loops in making the intended repetitive theme. The title of the song ‘Numbers in Action’ is repeated very often and to show these lyrics as a visual the director did various things such as rolling out large pieces of paper which had numbers on them, pushing over large statues of numbers and also jumping through a number of stacked cardboard boxes which had the numbers 1, 2 and 3 printed on them. By doing this it created the static objects to move linking the title and the visuals together.
Other lyrics that are shown visually are “I wanna see dollars, I wanna see pounds” this is shown by having the dollar sign and pound sign as piñatas that get smashed by the artist Wiley. Wiley performs in the music video and carries out gestures throughout to match with the lyrics. For example when said “ladder that we are climbing” he mimes and acts as if he is climbing a ladder. Another gesture shown is when said “open up a new door” Wiley then acts out opening a door. All of this shows that there is a very clear and dedicated relationship between the visuals and the lyrics all the way through the video therefore creating a more eye catching and fluid to watch video.
The whole of the video also holds a relationship between the music and the visuals. Every action carried out is repeated to the beat of the song. There is a constant steady beat throughout the video so this makes it easy for there to be a relationship as there is no sudden change of pace. The whole of the music video is of Wiley, the artist carrying out a variety of actions such as pushups, jumping, dancing etcetera and these are all repeated and reversed creating a repetitive effect however every single action done is repeated to the beat. During the music video there are no cuts, it is all taken as one shot however there is a lot of editing mainly adding in loops to create the reverse and repetitive effect.
The record label being Big Dada has made sure that Wiley is the main focus within the music video as he is in eye view at all times. Reasons for this are that it may have gained him more viewers of the video as Wiley, being the star, is in it. The image of Wiley that comes across in this video is that he is fun and doesn’t take himself too seriously. This video contrasts with all his previous music videos as Wiley is rarely in or performing in his music videos. From some of his previous songs he may come across as quite dark and tough such as his song ‘Wot Do You Call It?’ however the ‘Numbers in Action’ video is seen as much more fun and ranges to a broader audience by having this change in image. Wiley has the representation of someone who is very masculine, mysterious and hard. He comes across as masculine as he portrays to have the characteristics of traditional qualities ascribed to men such as being strong. The reason for why he may be seen as a mysterious person is because he is rarely seen within his music videos and has only recently started appearing in them so therefore previously a majority of people did not know who Wiley was or looked like. He also is represented as hard this being stereotypical because of him being part of the grime genre. Overall the representation of Wiley is stereotypical due to the genre of music he is involved in and he may not be this character in which the audience sees him as within day to day life but this is how he has portrayed himself to be.
The setting of the video is in a warehouse which is used as a blank canvas to in which Wiley can perform and carry out the actions needed to create the intended effects. Mise-en-scene plays a big role within this video especially the props such as the boxes, /number statues, balloons, and piñatas and so on. Without the props the music video would be pointless and there would be no productive material. The lighting and colour of the music video is quite dull however some specific things are shown in bold, bright colours such as the statue numbers as this is intended to stand out and be eye catching.
Goodwin’s analysis point 6 is used within the music video as intertextuality is shown. The main intertextual link is games shows. Throughout the video the use of numbers and activities carried out suggests there is a link with game shows such as ‘Total Wipeout’ which includes several activities taking place exactly like this music video includes. The effect of doing this is that it makes the video more engaging as it creates the viewer to think more about the video therefore making it stand out.
Overall Wiley’s ‘Numbers in Action’ music video has used most of Goodwin’s analysis points which has created an original, eye catching and entertaining music video.
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