Appeal to the Audience: Kanye West - All Of The Lights ft. Rihanna & Kid Cudi

Appeal to the Audience: Kanye West - All Of The Lights ft. Rihanna & Kid Cudi

The music video opens with an innocent girl making her way to school after viewing last names and the numbers of residents on a housing project. This illustrates a young person who is capable of carrying on their own life yet they live in such a compact intense living environment - linking to Kanye's words "Ghetto University". This indicates how people envy other peoples lives without knowing what they're actually envying is fabricated.



The music video shows the audience very few snippets of the music video being located at night, in an urban area, between two brick buildings with numerous police vehicles. Implicating the despair that consequently prizes irresponsibility. Of which leads to Kanye's next location being set in a dark room with a back-light because it focuses on the realism of those experiencing 'All Of The Lights' as they are confronted with the verisimilitude  of being abandon and left in darkness.

No sound effects are used in this music video, therefore leaving the soundtrack itself to impact the audience. However two separate soundtracks are involved. In the beginning of the music video, a slow instrumental - mainly conducted by a violin and piano - help to impact the audience emotionally as it allows them to focus on the scene happening. However the rest of the music video is conducted by an upbeat and fast rhythmic instrumental. Both of these instrumental help to drive the narrative from different perspectives. The slow instrumental  denotes the significance of how a young child views and is involved in the city whereas the upbeat fast instrumental puts the audience in the eyes of how the adult is involved and views the city. Not only do these soundtracks contrast the two ages but also contributes to how each person in the audience interprets the music video differently depending on their situation in life, for example age - connecting with David Morley's theory.

Due to the lighting content that is going to be shown within this music video, an epilepsy warning was put into place to ensure safety among those who wanted to watch it. Majority of the music video encounters various illuminating flashing coloured lights on a pitch-black background.



These contrast each other and allow the illuminated lighting to explode off the screen. Furthermore the contrast between Low-Key Lighting and High-Key Lighting enables the artists to 'glow' when on camera, creating a spotlight effect and giving them significance. Evidently the lighting used is able to match the selected genre (Hip/Pop, Rap) in being that its up-beat, therefore causing fast paced scenes. Although by Kanye using this type of lighting he is restricting his audience as it can only appeal to those who don't suffer from epilepsy. Putting his music video in a position of which can only be appealing to a select amount.

In connection with the lyrics, the cinematography match with what the artist is saying. In favour of Andrew Goodwin's theory the narrative is lyrically spoken whilst being shown on screen. Potentially adding meaning to his lyrics but also allowing the audience to visualise all that's happening.




Therefore the music video provides a diverse set of camera angles, to incorporate both the setting and emotion. Camera angles such as close-ups and extreme close-ups are used to show facial expressions behind their music whereas the mid-shots and long-shots are able to show the setting to the audience. Creating a link between their lyrics and visuals.

The costumes worn in the music video are of stereotype to the Hip Pop/Rap genre. The men are shown to be in their casual clothing with various jewellery pieces. However the woman, Rihanna, is dressed provocatively in minimal clothing possible. Although by Rihanna's costume being so provocative it can convey the indication of her trying to 'sell herself' whereas the men are suggested to be more 'thug' as they're presented with police vehicles.



This therefore puts the audience in the heterosexual male point of view because it implicates women to be of a sexual appeal/objects - linking to Laura Mulvey's theory. Due to Rihanna's costume, the music video will - in theory - populate more of a male viewing as it appeals more to them, than the usual woman.

The first soundtrack heard at the beginning of the music video entails slow paced scenes with quick jump cuts that match the beat of the instrumental. Whereas within the second soundtrack the scenes are more fast paced as it puts multiple jump cuts in one scene in order to gain various views of the setting and emotions/passion of the artist. It also involves many overlapping cross fades as it switches between locations, this puts the music video in a position to not only pick up speed but to also not lose its continuity flow.