Textual analysis of music videos

Textual analysis of music videos

I am analysing ‘Trippin on you’ By Cahill ft Nikki Belle video which was produced by Oris jay in 2001. The song was made famous by Liverpool house producers Cahill, who released their cover of the Agent Sumo Body & Seoul remix as a single in 2008. This song belongs to the House genre and is performance/ narrative based.

The music video for "Trippin' On You" was filmed at a location in Liverpool in February 2008, and it stars singer Nikki Belle at a house party and the morning after it in which seems to be her apartment. The more upbeat parts of the song, such as the chorus, are played at the same time as the house party scenes which shows the liveliness and energy at the party, and the less lively parts are played during the morning after scenes. The video uses flash back images of the party as ‘the morning after’ scenes show her messy apartment which gives the audience a clear idea of what has gone on the night before. As the main protagonist is walking through her apartment she is finding objects that remind her of the previous night and then the flashbacks are shown.

In the scenes of the house party, Nikki's hair is an afro with plaits in one side, and is wearing a blue outfit and make-up while she is partying with her friends. In the scenes that are the morning after, Nikki appears more normal and she is wearing a grey shirt. Her apartment is empty except for herself and one other man, who is in her bed.

I don’t think that there is a relationship between the lyrics and the visuals. The only thing that really connects is that she is singing about being broken up with somebody and so she is throwing a party to bring the fun back into her life, as she sings ‘But it’s over now, trippin on you …. So I’m going my way’

The video mainly follows Nikki Belle around the video as she is singing the song. This gives the audience a feel of involvement as we get to see what happened at the party and the day after. Party scenes and flashbacks are used quite regularly in music videos but by showing a house party, this represents the main characteristics of the house music genre.

Laura Mulvey wrote the essay "Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema", where she introduced the concept of the "male gaze" as a feature of power asymmetry. The male gaze occurs when the audience is put into the perspective of a heterosexual man. For example, a scene may look at the curves of a woman's body for a longer period of time rather than for just a split second. This video gives quite a few references to Laura Mulvey’s theory as through the video; the main protagonist is walking around in a metallic bra, leggings and heels. This is to concentrate on how men look at women. The video generally tends to follow her around as you see full body shots. When we’re not seeing the singer, the camera is filming the party scene which includes a lot of girls dancing and drinking in party outfits.