Kanye West - All Of The Lights feat. Rihanna and Kid Cudi Analysis

The genre characteristics for this music video include, fast camera movement, this is usually found in rap/r&b music videos. This video also features police cars, the police come up quite a bit in rap because many of the artists believe they're better than them.

There are a few bits where there is a relationship between the lyrics and visuals, for example, the lyrics say 'I slapped my girl, she called the feds', in this time he hits another woman, it then cuts to the woman wiping away her tears and on the phone, therefore showing us she did call the police. 'She need a daddy', the camera then shows the little girl, this does have some relationship because the little girl is on her own so it does show she needs a parent. The lights that are mostly colours that police car lights use, this could have some relationship, because the whole song is about him getting put in prison and trying to help his little girl, so prison and the police do have a main part in this song. Also, there's a lot of text in this supporting the lyrics, this is narrative-based.

The relationship between the music and visuals aren't as good as the lyrics and visuals, at the start of the song it's quite classical, use of violins and there is a little girl walking on her own in the snow, showing she's innocent and pure. It's also in black and white, this shows its quite classical and not 'in your face'. When the music and bass quickens, the flashing lights get quicker.

In a lot of Kanye West's music videos he likes the angles to be close-up and high shots, he's been described to be very self-absorbed, therefore this style matches his ego. Also, the times when he is on camera, he's always moving, if it's not him its the camera, there's always something moving, whereas, with the other artists, they're stood still, or at least not moving as much as Kanye West. Not only do these shots match with what he likes in most video, they go well with the genre of rap because when the rapper are rapping, they like the audience to see that they can go that quickly and do it that well therefore a close-up in that situation is brilliant. There could be an intertextual reference because in the past there had been a case where Kanye West did hit his girlfriend, so this could be his almost apologising for it.

There is a hint of narrative-based in this music video, because at the start we have 00:01:08 of a little girl walking through the snow, on her own, with violins being played in the background. But, it's mainly performance-based because of the text used, there is a lot of it and it doesn't show a story it makes the video look good, just like the other majority of the video is Kanye West or Rihanna singing to the camera.

I'm interested in studying this video because I like the flashing effect and the many lights, I am wanting to add this into my video.