Andrew Goodwin’s 6 point theory was written in ‘Dancing in the Distraction Factory’ (Routledge 1992) I will use this theory, as well as a few others to analyse Timberland featuring Justin Timberlake’s video Carry Out.
Carry Out is from the album Shock Value 2 released in 26 April 2010. The genre of this music video is R&B, Hip Hop and Electro. It was written by Timothy Mosley, Jerome Harmon, Justin Timberlake, Timothy Clayton and Jim Beanz, and it was produced by Timberland, J-Roc. Its record labels are Background Records and Mosley Music Group.
This video is a performance/ conceptual as there is no real narrative to the video and most of the time the artists are singing the lyrics. This has been lip synced as they would have put the visuals over the sound track.
The characteristics of this genre I would say would be pretty woman dressed provocatively, nice cars, a lot of ‘bling’ and good dancing. All of these are seen in this music video which links into Laura Mulvey’s Male Gaze Theory. She believes that men look at woman as objects so not in a nice way. The whole way through this music video all the women are dressed in very revealing costumes with the two males (Justin Timberlake and Timberland) watching them as objects not as people.
The visuals amplify and almost illustrate the lyrics as some of the lyrics are ‘Cause is me, you, you, me, me, you all night’ they are talking to woman and this is obvious as while they sing this the women are dancing over them. The whole way through the lyrics are suggesting they are talking to woman the lyrics ‘Before I feed you appetite’ show they don’t look at them as equals as they are saying they need to feed them. The whole song is about how they can spend the night together, it is a very sexual song and the visuals accompany this by having sexy women dancing all over them.
Again the music and the visuals work well together as most of the cuts are on a beat of the song. The cuts are sometimes faster than the beat of the song which creates an emphasis on a particular part the song, mainly when a woman is dancing it will flick between so shows both. Also, the video is set in a ‘drive through’ which also is some of the lyrics. This makes the lighting very bright which again goes well with the music as it is a very upbeat song. The instrumental parts of the song are very well illustrated by the visuals as they are mainly of Justin Timberlake dancing. This works well as Justin Timberlake is a very skilled dancer and he normally dances to a beat so the instrumental part of the song is perfect for this.
The record company have to have a certain percentage of shots of the artist which is show in this video as most of the close ups are of Justin Timberlake or Timberland. There are also a few of women eating cake or cherries which is mean to look sexual. Richard Dyer’s Star theory stated that the stars need to be the USP of a music video for it to be successful as no one want to watch a video where they cannot see the artist. He also stated that stars are constructed almost as if they are not human as this makes the star more liked and easier to model to become a super star. This music video shows both artists as being ‘laides men’ as the whole time they are surronded by women. This will make the male audience appreciate they as it is socially meant to be a good thing if you can ‘get all the girls’.
This video is very voyerisic. Most of the shots, as I have said, contain scantally clad women and them men looking at them. All of the women are very attractive and have attractive bodies. Even though the women are dressed nicely, I think this shows women in a horrible way as they are being looked in a vulgar way. This is the main point of Laura Muvley’s Theory as she believes that women should not be shown in the media like this as is it not nice for the women. One particular part in the video, Timberland is sitting on a throne like chair framed between a womans legs. Personally I think this is a very pornographic shot and should not be allowed in a music video. Even though the whole song is of a sexual theme, I think think this shot is too much. His facial expression is very appreciative which shows he likes what he is seeing which is very voyeristc.
Most of Timberland and Timberlakes videos show women in this light as most of there songs are about women or to a woman. This shows that both of the artist have a reccuring theme to all of there videos which will help the audience recognise the videos and relate the songs to the videos and the videos to the artist which will make the artist more well known.
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