Artist/Band - The Mouse Outfit
Featuring Artist - Black Josh
Track - Air Max
Genre - Hip Hop
Release Date - February 17th 2013
Denis McQuail defines genre within music videos as a practical device for helping any mass medium to produce productions consistently and efficiently to relate the production to the expectation of its consumers. In terms of music videos this would be producing and listing certain content so that it has maximum appeal to the target audience and also meeting the expectations of the target audience in terms of generic content. For example in The Mouse Outfits music video; Air Max, their target audience may be expecting such generic content such as the use of marijuana, this is a commonly used aspect in hip hop music videos as Marijuana originally originated from Jamaica, most hip hop artists tend to be of the African American ethnicity, therefore are more likely to be smoking the drug and listing it in their music videos as they may have grown up around it and see the drug as an important aspect of defining who they are. Throughout 'The Mouse Outfit's' music video marijuana is mentioned in the lyrics numerous times and on a couple of occasions 'Black Josh' who is the featuring artist for this music video is seen to be smoking the drug.Marijuana is a generic convention of the hip hop genre and has been used by many famous hip hop artists such as Biggie Smalls and Tupac within their music videos. This could also suggest that the Hip Hop genre is based around wealth as the drug is an expensive habit to come across and the fact that the lyrics could be suggesting that it is being smoked in excess implies that they have money to waste. Most music videos based around the hip hop genre exploit the artists wealth and their ability to spend it on expensive possessions.
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| The surroundings add to the music video's urban culture. Also seen is the iconic marijuana leaf on 'the hat. |
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| 'Black Josh' smoking marijuana during the music video for The Mouse Outfit's Air Max video. When a music video is released it will be labelled under a specific genre such as hip hop, therefore the audience will know and have a picture about what to expect from the music video. McQuail's theory addresses the consistent and efficient making of productions and it also takes it consideration the commercialism of the music industry (hip hop being one the most used genres for commercialism) and the way that these hip hop music videos are used to promote commercialism with certain brands and objects such as cars and fashion accessories. This leads absolutely perfectly onto my next point about the hip hop genre promoting commercialism, the music video for 'Air Max' does this to great extent. It all begins in the track name which is a well known brand of Nike shoe which is of great popularity all across the world and is an expensive product furthermore supporting the theory that hip hop genre is controlled and molded around wealth. The opening shot to this music video is of a pair of custom Nike Air Max sneakers which acts as a starting block for the rest of the music video and track as it goes onto rap about different forms of Nike shoe and how shoes along with marijuana are basically a way of life. Fashion could be seen as a way of letting hip hop artists express themselves and to put their own individual stamp out there. For example in the music video for Air Max by The Mouse Outfit we see that the shoes shown in the opening shot the featured artist 'Black Josh' has customised his name onto the tongue of the shoe giving him presence and making him seem important, also yet again reinforcing wealthiness. The shot of the Nike Air Max shoes is a close up which provides an emphasis on the shoes and makes them seem an important factor within the music video.  Close up shot of a pair of Nike Air Max shoes at the beginning of the music video. The video for 'Air Max' seems to be targeting a particular audience or subculture with the way that the artist 'Black Josh' is dressed. Hebdige stated that a subculture is a meaning of style, the fact that individuals come together through such things as clothing, music and drugs. Evidence for this theory is provided through the music video as emphasis is put on the brands that Black Josh is wearing, a strong example is during the opening scene when his sneakers are shown at a close up. The hat that Black Josh is wearing is the designer brand of 'Huf' which associate all of their garments around marijuana and largly using images of weed on their clothing and accessories as shown on his hat in the music video, Furthermore expressing the generic convention of weed and hip hop. Throughout the music video the lyrics play a big part in the fashion side as brand names are constantly being repeated such as 'Air Max' and 'Carharrt' which is reinforcing the brand names and images which will stick in the heads of the consumers. This leads onto the fact that the audience consuming this music video can go out and buy the same or similar brands of clothing and footwear, these brands may become more appealing for an audience and its also another way in which the artist can be represented by fans.  An interesting relation between the lyrics and visuals comes in the music video for 'Air Max' is when 'Black Josh' raps "Nike's on my feet and a bag of weed to keep me complete" which implies that these two elements are enough to keep him satisfied in life and that as long as he has fashion and drugs his life is complete. When the lyrics "Nike's on my feet and a bag of weed" are spoken, the surroundings are very dismal and urban but when the lyrics "to keeo me complete" are spoken the surroundings change to a more bright and lit up city scene suggesting that without this culture he is living by you may end up in a dark, bad place but with this culture he lives by, you will find yourself 'complete' and end up living the 'high life'. The emphasis of these lyrics and visuals seen in the music video can be related to Andrew Goodwin's theory of music videos. |
