Eminem – Stan Music Video

The song Stan by the rapper Eminem is an unconventional hip hop music video presented

in linear format, scattered here and there with flashback to give a stronger effect in certain

scenes and to emphasise a point. This is unlike the usual hip hop music videos that contain

heavy use of the male gaze theory and brand names, fancy cars and bling jewellery. This

music video has a strong message that Eminem is clearly trying to convey to his fans,

regarding their relationship with him and about themselves, rather than merely having a

music video showing people having a good time or presenting money and fame. He is

trying to tell his fans that they should live their own lives and not obsess over him, thereby

becoming blind to what they have; this can lead to devastating effects if people ignore their

own relationships and fixate on someone else’s life.

The music video focuses on a fan of Eminem called Stan, whom it is clear idolizes and

obsesses over him so much that he even dyes his hair to look like him at the beginning of

the video and at one point even gets his name tattooed on his chest. It is evident that the

rapper is his hero and role model.

There is strong use of pathetic fallacy which helps to emphasis the dark, depressing themes

introduced in this video; the heavy rain, thunder and lightning continuing throughout,

without ever room for a pause, mirror Stanley’s mad behaviour as it continues to spiral out

of control. The fact that the lightning is one of the only sources of light shows just how

unconventional it is as in hip hop videos there is usually bright, colourful light rather than

dull grey and black colouring in a dimly lit setting. This dark lighting highlights the dark

mood of the video and its sinister edge.

In the music video, Stan is seen writing many letters to Eminem in his basement which is

dark and gloomy, illuminated by a single bulb that reveals the walls and table to be

plastered with posters of Eminem’s face. This shows the extent of his obsession and

suggests that the only person Stan sees is him and that his whole life revolves around his

hero, who is the most important person in his life. He is all that he cares about –as though

he is his sole purpose in life.

His pen scratches are heard as he is writing as though he is desperate to send those words

through the page and to Eminem himself in person. This obsession with Eminem is further

emphasised as the video continues, showing Stan becoming more and more aggressive as

letter after letter that he sends is unanswered.

He even takes out his frustration on his girlfriend, becoming violent towards her. For

example when she looks at Stan, shocked and horrified (that he has bleached his hair

blonde, like Eminem) she asks him “What have you done to yourself?” and displeased with

her reaction, Stan shouts and bares his teeth at her up close as though restraining himself,

and then pushes past her fiercely, scaring her.

From this scene the audience can already understand that Stan is unstable and has a strong

fixation on Eminem.

There is one scene, however, where Stan actually meets his idol, Eminem. The light here is

very bright, suggesting a streak of the only happiness shown in the video, further

supporting the idea that Stan’s only happiness comes from Eminem and he is the only

thing Stan truly cares about .

Clothing and location also play a part in the delivery of the messages conveyed in the video.

Stan wears a white shirt which in some cultures symbolizes an unstable mind (The moon,

also called ‘lunar’ is white and lunar links to the word lunacy…)

Stan’s pregnant girlfriend is also significant. She is seen wearing a blue dress which signifies

bravery and loyalty which indeed, she does show, as she stays by Stan’s side even through

his spiralling mental state and continuous neglect.

The setting of the video portrays a working class life, with many of the scenes being set in a

shabby, old house suggesting a sense of struggle and hardship. This may be to help relate

to the audience (Eminem’s fans) as many of them come from a lower socio-economic level.

For example, images of fame, money and fancy cars would paint a picture of a world that is

untouchable, being so different to their own reality.

Nearing the end of the video, Stan’s girlfriend finds the photo of them both where Stan has

covered her face and replaced it with that of Eminem’s.

Stan then confronts her and pulls her away. This leads to the final scene where Stan is

madly driving around in his car at night with his girlfriend trapped in the back boot.

Torrential rain from the storm is pouring down, blurring the vision from inside of the car as

he records his last words to Eminem, angry at him for not replying to his letters, saying that

he is going to die and his death will be because of him. Even as he is recording this angry

message to Eminem, drawing closer to his death, the only thing he can think about is his

idol, as his eyes remain focused on Eminem’s picture in this car: even in the final moments

of his life, Eminem is all that matters.

This further proves the idea that Stan’s obsession to Eminem has become his life and sole

reason for being. Without Eminem in his life, he feels he has no purpose. He has become so

fixated on Eminem that he does not realise the extent of how far he has fallen, not even

considering for a moment his girlfriend, brother or unborn child and the effect of his actions

on them. He chooses only to think of Eminem.

At the end of the scene, Eminem is shown writing back to Stan, telling him how busy he has

been and answering him on everything he wrote – about his daughter, girlfriend and

signing an autograph for his brother, etc.

He also tells Stan to get help as it sounds like he is unwell and could use some guidance. He

tells him that he does not want him to end up like this other fan of his and then stops,

horrified, as he comes to the realisation that Stan is dead. He was the fan whose obsession

with his idol – Eminem – drove him to his death.

At the final scene, Stan’s brother is shown by his grave – this time with blonde hair- just like

Stan’s. This may suggest that fans of Eminem need to realise that they are role models to

the younger generation and so should try and refrain from exposing young children to

Eminem’s music or perhaps to set a good example and understand that their actions do and

will affect others.

LAST FRIDAY NIGHT

By Katy Perry

Last Friday Night is a music promo directed by Marc Klasfeld. It is a conventional pop video

set in common time and was inspired by the film ‘Sixteen Candles’ in addition to other

1980s high school films. We see this at the opening scene of the music video, where there

are opening credits like a movie opening and the camera angles (similar to that of a film’s)

track a newspaper boy on a bike in a quiet street with clean, high class houses, and by the

outfit Katy Perry wears which suggests that the video has adopted a 1980’s theme. Further

evidence of this is the saxophone player, posing as ‘Uncle Kenny’ in the middle of the video

who was a famous musician called Kenny G in the 80’s. The video also stars singer Debbie

Gibson, and actor Corey Feldman, who both rose to fame in the 1980s. And by including

famous celebrities in her video, Katy is ensuring more publicity.

The video presents the audience with a story, about a geeky girl (Katy Perry) waking up in

the morning to her house trashed from a night of full on partying, and strangers in her

room, starting from the end and rewinding to what happened last Friday night ( in a

nonlinear order. )

As the story continues to reveal what happened, we see that the night before the scene in

which we joined the story, Katy was in her room playing Sudoku. Becoming fed up with the

noise from the party next door, she goes to complain to her noisy neighbour who is

revealed to be Rebecca Black, (a pop singer posing as her neighbour in the video.) She

invites her in and we see how she goes through a makeover with Rebecca’s help to get the

attention of an attractive” jock” at the party who at the beginning, before her

transformation, gives her dirty looks because of her appearance.

However, after she comes downstairs with a new look, exchanging her denim clothes for

tight, revealing clothes and getting rid of her taped glasses and braces, he spits his drink in

shock and immediately ditches the girl he was with to go to her.

The video contains a lot of the Male Gaze Theory, with the majority of girls featured in the

video to appear wearing short skirts and tight, revealing tops, Katy Perry being one of

them. As she is the star of the video, she drew the most attraction by wearing bright green

and pink clothes (pink suggesting femininity) and odd coloured heels to help maintain the

audiences’ attention and focus on her, in addition to the close camera shots of her face.

Voyeurism plays a major part in regards to the angles the viewer would be seeing the

scenes in the video.

If one looks deeper into the music video, there are messages hidden amidst the partying

scene. The fact that the “jock” Katy liked only noticed her once she changed her look

demonstrates a shallowness on his part. He only cares about how she looks on the outside

rather than the person she is inside, unlike the Geeky looking boy, Kevin, who wears glasses

and braces like her. Kevin fantasises about being her knight in shining armour from the very

start, when the jock only gave her dirty looks, showing that he liked her for who she is

rather than her outer appearance being her most important quality as the jock’s quick look

over of her before choosing to go to a ‘hot’ blonde, suggests.

After her makeover she also becomes popular and is considered the life of the party as

people follow her lead and all their attention surrounds her as she leads the party.

This also suggests that one may only be accepted in society for dressing and behaving in a

similar manner to them and that you cannot gain friends if you are labelled as ‘the nerd’.

The Geeky looking boy’s fantasy at the beginning soon turns into reality when the jock

feels Katy up without permission and the boy with glasses comes to her rescue, resulting in

a fantasy duel (and real life punch) in which he wins and happily end up with Katy.

This presents the idea of having to change yourself to be accepted by people who don’t

accept you as you are already is not worth the effort and looked upon negatively; it sends

the message that the people who like you as the ‘real you’ are the ones who truly care

about you and should matter to you more than those who don’t as they are the ones who

will be there for you all the way. The expectation that a woman should put in such effort to

please a man shows that woman and men are not viewed equally in society. Why should a

woman try to please a man who, ultimately, proved that he had no worth?

After Kevin punches the jock and Katy faints, Kevin re-places her glasses on her face,

implying that she now has no need to be something that she is not for him, and can go back

to being herself.

This also suggests that the video is saying not to judge someone by how they look as it is

what’s inside that counts. The jock may have been good looking but ultimately had an

emptiness about him and the geeky boy was the one with the good and caring heart

showing better values and qualities than the popular football player.

The music video itself contains flashy colours and bright light as well as dance

choreography, all of which make a conventional pop video. However, it is not in linear order

which may be to draw in the attention of the audience from the start through their

curiosity. It uses the music to create a relationship with the visuals, using the beats to

decide on the speed of the cuts from scene to scene, with certain visuals repeatedly

reinforced during the chorus to emphasise on the lyrics.

Andrew Goodwin’s Theory of media videos:

Voyeurism often plays a major part in a music video, especially in relation to females. This

was included in Katy Perry’s ‘Last Friday Night’ but was not present in Eminem’s music

video as it would draw attention away from Stan who is the main focus of the video

Intersexuality is references to other media texts that may be present, particularly in

humorous videos. It is used to engage the audience and provide a certain gratification if

they recognise the link. Eminem does not use this technique but Katy Perry does, as she

based the video on 1980s films.

Multiple close ups of Katy Perry are also used and this technique is also used in the Stan

video, though less important as the background is not so busy like in ‘Last Friday Night’

Genre – related style and iconography present certain actions of an artist to be repeated so

that they will adopt a ’trademark’ but neither artist use this in their music videos.

Eminem’s music video and Katy Perry’s music videos are two very different ones, with

different content shown using different techniques. Katy Perry’s ‘Last Friday Night’ is a

conventional pop video that uses classic techniques such as the Male Gaze Theory to draw

in the attention of her audience and dresses in bright, vibrant colours to give off a happy,

partying vibe. The setting is done in as huge, decorated house with bright light and dance

choreography has been used. This is a vast contrast to that of Eminem’s ‘Stan’ video which

is done in linear format, with dim, gloomy lighting and dark themes introduced. It is not a

conventional hip hop video that includes flashy jewellery and snazzy cars and girls in tight

clothes but rather a video of substance, sending strong messages to the audience.

However, though both are very different from each other, they each contain positives

messages in their own way, demonstrating that each artist has something to say. Eminem’s

being that obsessing over someone is never a good thing and that one should focus their

attentions on their own lives and Katy Perry’s being that people should not be so shallow

and that it’s the quality of the person they are inside that matters.