Analysis of Kanye West music video - The Good Life

The Good Life - Kanye West featuring T-Pain:


The first thing we see in this music video is the use of computer enhanced images and cartoon like background, this is not typical of the hip-hop genre but Kanye Wests music videos are not really typical of the genre but they still show some codes and conventions. For example in this video we see comic like images of fast cars, champagne, money and there is also a pretty girl dancing in the video which is of course a convention of hip-hop music videos.

The editing for this video was obviously very important to the success of the music video, as i have already said, the background images are all cartoon like and the way in which Kanye West and T-Pain react to the images behind them is cleverly done as this was obviously done behind a green screen. Editing is fast cuts and nothing more for continuity. There are a mixture of shots including close ups, mid shots and long shots, complimented by a mixture of low angle shots to show Kanye Wests power in society as a succesful rapper, and also high angle shots to show that he isnt always so well respected and powerful.

Joe Manners