Analysis of 'Will Smith - Summertime'

As part of my research on music videos, I have picked the video of 'Summertime' by artists Will Smith and DJ Jazzy Jeff. This song is of the rap genre, I have written down my anaylsis of this video which talks about the codes and conventions used and their representation of the genre.

At the start of the video, the use of the 'Disk Scratch' (usually conducted by a DJ) effect gives away the genre as this effect is predominantly used in 'Rap' music. The smooth flow of the artist's lyrics is also a giveaway as the narrative of the lyrics is similar to that of all Rap lyrics. The lyrics narrate the day to day activites the community take part in during the season of Summer in Philadelphia, the use of this technique is known to be very common in Rap music as Rap artists 'rap' a certain story through their lyrics. The use of the location/setting in this video is also a characteristic of the genre as the artists are representing where they come from, this is also very common in rap videos.

Throughout this song, the relationship between the lyrics and visuals can be seen as the lyrics of the video are narrating a happy and joyfull time for the artists and the visuals are linked to this as the lighting is natural. The use of the natural lighting helps to represent the characters' moods as the Summer day represents the joyfull and happy mood that the characters are feeling at the time. At certain intervals in the video (the beginning and end to be specific), there is a split screen effect which splits the artists' bodies in half which in a way is quite funny as one half of their body moves quicker than the other. This in turn brings comedy into the video, again representing humour and joy.

The two camera shots used throughout the video are 'Close Ups' and 'Medium Shots'. Close ups of the artists are a common camera shot used throughout the video, there are several Close Up shots of the two artists as they travel through Philadelphia and whilst they are rapping. This is a common technique used in rap videos, the artists are shown to be the main part of the music video. However, there are medium shots of the extra characters used in the music video whilst they are dancing/performing.

Throughout this video, there are no intertextual references.

Overall, this video is both Performance and Narrative based. This however is not a common technique in rap videos, as rap videos tend to mostly be Narrative based. Therefore it is debateable as to whether this song is part Hip Hop as Hip Hop videos are based on Performance as well as Narrative.