STARS IMAGE CHANGETHROUGH MUSIC VIDEOS

byibrahim ali

T H E W E E K N Din

H O W A S T A R ’ S I M A G E D E V E L O P S O V E R T I M E T H R O U G H M U S I C V I D E O

The artist I am looking into is known as “The Weeknd” but his real name is Abél Makkonen TesfayeHe is a Canadian singer, songwriter and record producerIn late 2010 he released a bunch of songs under the name “The Weeknd”, the songs were released as a mixtape which was critically acclaimed, the year after this success he released an album known as ‘Trilogy’ , in which he remastered some of his old songs, he started his own label known as XOHis name came from a producer who had an idea for a dark R&B musical project called “The Weeknd”, Abel began working on the project and ended up taking the name as the music he was releasing was very dark and emotional R&B mixed with some slow Rap

Through this he ended up catching popular Hip/Hop artist Drake’s attention, who he ended up working with, this was a huge career boost for Abel and he was well on his way to becoming a huge star in the industry, his music style was very new and original and people loved the way he mixed parts of Rap with R&B, this helped him cater to many people as he was talented in a lot of genres

Abel’s early image in his music videos started off showing him as a mysterious figure who was experimental with drugs and women and spoke on topics such as the devil, this appealed to people as they wanted to know more about this strange new artist, but Abel refused to do interviews, he was a quiet, talented, mysterious man who released dark but beautiful musicThis includes music videos such as ‘The Zone’ and ‘Wicked Games’

In his later music videos he started showing a more vulnerable side of himself, he showed that he has emotional issues and has made bad choices in his life, he showed this lyrically and visuallyHe is shown playing a character in his music videos but it relates to his actual life and career, in the music video ‘Star Boy’, he destroys his old music and kills his old self to symbolise the changes he is going through, he also touches on religion solely through the music videos and not the lyrics, he is shown having ties to Satan in videos such as ‘The Hills’ and later destroying these ties by killing Satan in ‘Tell Your Friends’ and using a glowing cross to destroy his old achievements in ‘Star Boy’, his visuals for his videos are always telling a story as he prefers to keep out of magazines and the public eye and sticking to just his art

His record label is XO, one he made himself, and he sells himself as a person who is interested in drugs and late night partying but still staying out of the public eye, he has a certain mysterious element to himself and his music videos and this helps his image as a dark R&B artistHis hair used to be very wacky and messy but after ‘Star Boy’ in which he killed his old self, he now sports a pretty normal haircut, he dons a lot of leather and black jeans, he dresses himself in real life just like how he dresses in his music videos, a line that comes to mind of his, is “I'm never rocking white, I'm like a racist”

The editing and camerawork for Abel’s music videos are almost always very dark and slow, he tends to have the colour correction very dark and moody and the camerawork very slow and movie-like, but lately he has experimented with the visuals, in ‘False Alarm’ he had the video shot in point-of-view and the music video was very action packed and not slow at all, in the video for “In The Night” he used a lot of colours and made the video very action packed and like an olden day Japanese mafia movie, in conclusion this artist has a very mysterious vibe to him and he uses his music videos to his advantage and makes them almost like short films in which he expresses his feelings through visuals, he has always had the same identity but has shown his change from being okay with the way he is to wanting to change into a better person, all this is shown through his music videos

STAR IMAGE AND DEVELOPMENT-THE WEEKND-

CHARACTERISTIC FEATURE TEXTUAL EXAMPLE HOW IT IS DEMONSTRATED OR DEVELOPED

A rich, depressed man who spends his time doing drugs and messing around with girls, but is unhappy

Wicked Games The constant shots of girls dancing and him just standing or sitting still almost expressionless, the artist looks very depressed and down in the video, this shows how he doesn’t like this lifestyle, he also sings about love which could mean he doesn’t want to live like this anymore

A man who is afraid of commitment and wants to get rid of his urges before settling down with the girl he wants, but ends up ruining her

The Zone The artist has a girl who he loves, but isn’t ready to settle down with as he loves partying and drugs too much, the video shows her going from perfect and innocent to becoming a mess, this shows how he ruined an innocent soul as he only cared about what he wanted

A rich man who just crashed his car with some girls inside, who is now lost in a rich quiet neighbourhood and badly hurt, ends up finding the devil

The Hills The artist has just crashed his car and is shown escaping the car and badly hurt, the girls escape as well and are in shock and keep hitting the artist, the artist is also in shock and hurt so he keeps walking in this rich, quiet neighbourhood, he approaches a huge ruined house, he explores until he finds an evil looking old man holding an apple, he is meant to be the devil, this video shows how the artist sold his soul to the devil due to everything else in his life going wrong

A man who buries himself and shoots his mentor (the devil)

Tell Your Friends The artist is shown burying himself next to a burning bush to symbolise religion and god, he then dances away from his grave and walks up to the devil who looks very angry and shoots the devil, this shows how the artist is trying to get rid of his old self and wants to turn over a new leaf

An assassin who murders his old self and destroys his old life, to make a new one

Star Boy The artist again murders his old self and continues to walk around the house destroying everything, burning clothes and smashing his old music awards with a glowing cross, showing how he is undoing his evil, he then steals a car and a cat and disappears into the night, this symbolises how the artist is starting a new life, and getting rid of his old ways

THE WEEKNDmusic videos

(the ones I spoke about)(in chronological order)

+ the weeknd – wicked games [2012] (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O1OTWCd40bc)

+ the weeknd – the zone [2012] (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tfrWuiQ4QNc)

+ the weeknd – the hills [2015] (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yzTuBuRdAyA)

+ the weeknd – tell your friends [2015] (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j1ngEIxopUU)

+ the weeknd – into the night [2015] (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2iFa5We6zqw)

+ the weeknd – star boy [2016] (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=34Na4j8AVgA)

+ the weeknd – false alarm [2016] (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CW5oGRx9CLM)

VISUAL CHANGES OF MUSIC VIDEOSfor

THE WEEKND *1

the weeknd – into the night

[2015]

the weeknd – wicked games

[2012]

Just through these sets of images you can see how the artist’s music videos have changed but still stayed the same in certain ways, Starting with colours, in the 2012 music video you can feel the darkness in the visuals, the colours are black and white and make the video seem very emotional, however in the 2015 music video you can still feel those emotional vibes, even though the colours are bright blue and pink

The same with clothing, in both videos he wears black clothing and messy hair, keeping up to that lifestyle he created for himself in his music videos

The differences are obviously colour but also the camerawork and editing, the 2015 music video seems more energetic but the 2012 video seems very dark and mellow, it’s to do mostly with the colours and the shooting style, the 2015 music video is shot in a very jumpy, action movie kind of way but the 2012 video is very slow and only has 2 or 3 scenes whereas the 2015 one is done like a short film

He has kept up the consistency in his mysterious ways and the tone of his music, but he has become more open and creative in his visuals

VISUAL CHANGES OF MUSIC VIDEOSfor

THE WEEKND *2

the weeknd – the hills [2015]

the weeknd – tell your friends[2015]

These images show the storyline between The Weeknd and The Devil, there are spaces in-between missing, purposely done to get the audience thinking and make their own storyline, as I talked about before, this artist is very private and mysterious, he has to keep that identity up by doing such confusing, artistic music videos

In ‘The Hills’ video is the first time the artist runs into the Devil, he seems very lost and has been through so much pain already that he must have fallen for the trap, the red colours symbolise evil and a warning, the Devil has an apple in his hand with women next to him, symbolising temptation, the artist falls for the trap, he has lost himself

In the ‘Tell Your Friends’ video, he is seen burying himself next to a burning bush, which is relative to religion, showing that the artist is going against the Devil, the Devil is seen coming closer to the grave, looking very angry, the artist then shoots the Devil, killing him, showing that the artist is finally free to be himself again, this story line shows the personal conflicts that the artist faces that he chooses not to speak out about rather show through his music videos