Textual analysis of music video


In this essay I will be analysing the music video, ‘Fit but you know it’ by The Streets. The genre of the video is rap/ hip hop. However, The Streets singer, Mike Skinner, adapts his own style by involving British Culture into his music. The whole of the video is performance based but has elements of narrative within the images which go with the lyrics. The video consists of broad characteristics of a rap video, for example having featuring artists within his video. The relationship between the lyrics and the video are portrayed in a very interesting way. The video starts with Skinner picking up photos from a shop and as he walks home the whole narrative of the song is shown through the photos he picked up. As Skinner walks down the road performing the song the images shows what he is singing about. However the narrative is shown not only through the lyrics but also through photos. Therefore we get a visual representation of the lyrics. For example, he sings “So when I looked at you standing there with your hoard, I was waiting in the queue looking at the board, Wondering whether to have a Burger or chips” As he sings those lyrics the narrative is shown through images. This is a very unique style that you wouldn’t see in a typical rap video. The visuals go very well with the music. As the chorus is sung the images are always of them on holiday shown through the photos. The pace of the video changes with the pace of the music. For example, as the pace of the music fastens the pace of Skinners walking fastens in time with the music. The record company is definitely trying to sell the track through the narrative of the song and most importantly the style of the video. The lyrics within the song are very basic but the way they are portrayed and performed within the video gives it a very interesting style. Fit but you know it, was one of the first songs by Mike Skinner to be released with a video therefore it had to be interesting to catch the viewers eye. They haven’t gone for the typical style that most other rap artists would use within their video, such as women lacking clothes and lots of ‘bling’, which is interesting as the video and song where both very successful. There are a few sexual displays of the women within the video, for example some have bikinis on but they haven’t focused on body parts etc to sell the video. The video is performance based as it is Mike Skinner walking round London back from a shop but it is also narrative based as this is shown through the lyrics and the images. To conclude, The Streets video, Fit but you know it is a unique video. It consists of elements of typical rap/hip-hop videos but Mike Skinner adds his own style to it. The video is very interesting to watch and keeps the viewer intrigued throughout the video through the photos.