Sarah Cunningham

Music Video Analysis

“Homecoming” – Kanye West

The music video I have chosen to analyse is “Homecoming” by Kanye West released on April 1st 2008 - a song of the hip hop genre with a video that is made in a performance style. The song itself is a tribute to the artists’ hometown Chicago; Kanye claims to feel guilt for abandoning the city to pursue his rap career. To analyse this video, I used Lacey’s Repertoire of Elements; Character, Narrative Events, Iconography, Setting and Technical and Audio Codes.

The main character in the video is Kanye West himself – he is portrayed as a stereotypical hip hop rap artists; baggy slightly over sided trousers, a plaid shirt, big body warmer and he is also shown wearing a balaclava in some shots giving a rough edge to his persona. His simple clothes make him look rather common and suggest that he fits in back in his hometown Chicago. At one point in the video, he is seen wearing a large expensive necklace – this further expresses his new hip hop lifestyle as large luxurious jewellery is often seen on rappers to show their wealth. His body language such as standing with his hands in his pockets and his serious facial expressions portrays him as a stern man, suggesting a rough upbringing, spending a lot of time on the streets of Chicago and having to act tough. The location of Chicago is iconic to the genre of hip-hip as it is a location where many rappers originate from, referring to the city as ‘Chi Town’ in their song.

The characters within the music video appear to be mainly African Americans. The director may have chosen to do this to relate to the artist, Kanye, who is greatly proud of his African American decent as he expressed in his songs. African American people from Chicago may feature frequently throughout this video as artist Kanye West sees them as his family from his hometown where he grew up, showing the audience the artists’ community.

Chris Martin, who is the lead singer of Coldplay, features within the song singing the chorus as well as playing the piano. He is shown throughout the video, but never fully focused on. He is shown merely as silhouettes and just his hands – suggesting that the focus shouldn’t be on him but on the other features of the video.

The video is set in the artists’ home town Chicago, Illinois, relating well to the title of the song. To establish the setting, the direct has used clips of iconic buildings and places within Chicago such as The Bean and DuSable Museum of African American History. Panning clips of the Chicago skyline are also used at the beginning of the video to further set the scene.

The director has also shot clips of Kanye walking the streets of Chicago and clips off the community, showing another often hidden side, as people usually just associate Chicago with the city and tall buildings within. Clips of Chris Martin appear towards the end, often in a silhouette style. This may have been done to keep the attention on the main artist, Kanye, as appose to the featured artist. He is shown at one point as a dark, silhouette-like figure with fireworks exploding in the background – these match the lyrics of the songs as it sings “fireworks at Lake Michigan” another famous landmark featured on the edge of Illinois.

A montage edit is used throughout the video, piecing together quick takes of both iconic footage of Chicago landmarks, the streets of Chicago and clips of Kanye West himself performing the song. This type of edit helps the performance style of the video and also keep the video rather fast paced which matches the fast beat of the song.

Within the mise en scene, the setting is made obvious with the different locations and iconography. The video also features interesting mirror techniques, using the mirrored float that the artist is stood on which is shown all the way through the video, as well as using the mirrored surface of The Bean to capture interesting angles of the tall buildings of Chicago. These creative techniques help to make the video more interesting and help to keep the audience’s attention. The performance style is emphasised with clips of Chris Martin playing the piano, featured throughout the whole video. The piano is also used as a form of reflectivity towards the end, where the black piano reflects the fireworks - this relates back to the interesting angles point.

The whole music video has been make in black and white – this suggests that the director wants the audience to focus on what is been shown within the video (maybe the location) as opposed to being distracted by the colours. The video also features a lot of fast takes within the beginning to establish the Chicago setting and to capture the audiences’ attention. Mostly natural lighting is used as most of the footage is taken outside. However, towards the end of the video where the clip focuses on Chris Martin, the fireworks act as a back light. This technique appears rather effective as it keeps the shots simple and doesn’t draw too much attention to the featured artist.

Upwards angle shots are used throughout the video, mainly on clips of the artist. These may have been used to emphasise the main focus being on Kanye, as well as suggesting that he is superior and should be looked up at. These upwards angles also help to establish the setting by enabling to capture great shots of the buildings behind the artist, as well as in the reflective surfaces used within the video. Various clips within the video have been edited to show a silhouette of either Kanye or Chris Martin, and showing clips of the setting within their silhouette. This is an interesting technique used, which enables the setting to be set whilst also focusing on the performance style of the video.