Iggy Azalea music video research (rap)

Textual Analysis of Music Video – Iggy Azalea ‘Work’

 

Genre Characteristics
In the video Iggy curses constantly throughout the song, this is typical of a video of the rap genre as it’s a way in which rappers emphasise their troubles/success . Also cursing has connotations of ‘being bad’ and ‘troubled’ which is what many rappers want to get across. Another characteristic is the provocative way in which she dresses and the way in which she dances, she is objectifying herself, probably because she’s a woman and it tends to be that women are objectified in rap videos. Also, the meaning behind the lyrics is about where she comes from and the struggles she faced, this is quite typical of a rapper, as they pride themselves on where they come from and how they made it.

What is the relationship between lyrics and visuals?
‘walk a mile in these louboutins’ we see Iggy Azalea walking in high heels, which are recognised immediately as Christian Louboutins, which are designer heels, these are extremely expensive shoes, which shows that she’s successful now and that she can afford such shoes. Other than this one relation between the lyrics and the visuals, there are no other connections.

 

Relationship between music and visuals?
There is no relationship between the music and the visuals in this music video.

 

Are there close-ups of the artist and star image motifs?
There are some close-ups of Iggy, some of her face, purely for the purpose of recognition as it helps to sell her record. There is also many close-ups of her bum, as this is her selling point because it’s very big and attracts an audience and gives them another reason to watch the video apart from for the music.

 

Is there the notion of looking?
There is the notion of looking, this is made obvious by the lack of clothing, she’s wearing really short shorts and see through tops it creates the notion of looking as she’s showing a lot of skin, in a demeaning way. The notion of looking is also made obvious by her dancing in the video, she ‘twerks’ which is seen in many videos of the rap genre, it’s a way women dance and shake their bum’s. Also, there are many close-ups of her bum and the other women’s bums.

 

Intertextual references?
There are no intertextual references in this music video.

 

Performance, narrative or concept based?
The video is mostly performance based, we mostly see her dancing and rapping towards the camera, which indicates that this is a performance based music video as she’s performing towards the camera, which would mean that she’s also performing for her audience.