50 Cent - In Da Club - Analysis Using Goodwin’s Theory

As previously mentioned in my other analysis of Goodwin's theory, he argues that music videos must have specific elements in order to make them successful.

• Genre characteristics
• Lyrics match visuals
• Music matches visuals
• Promotion of the artist
• Inter-textual references included
• Voyeurism

The video produced by American sensation 50 Cent definitely portrays the genre of "Hip-Hop" as it includes a lot of Goodwin's theory such as voyeurism being used through women seductively dancing around men and the artist himself. There is also a lot of costume and location changes throughout the video. An example of this is the scene where 50 is shown in a hospital-like scene. The lyrics state that you should "party like it's your birthday", even though he's in what seems a quite distrort state on a hospital bed. This almost contradicts what he's saying yet it's that much more effective as he's suggesting that even though you may be in a critical state, you can still essentially "party". All of the people in the video are shown 'in da club', which is a second location that greatly contrasts the first as they all dance frantically around the artist so that he's in the spotlight. The artist is shown considerably to promote him whilst Eminem and Dr. Dre were shown as well in the video to promote them too.

After analysing a number of music videos from the same artist, it was apparent that voyeurism is critical in his videos as a means to portraying the genre and himself. It really hightlights the conventions of the genre and informs the audience that, as an artist, he enjoys using the use of women in his videos. Without this, I believe it would be hard to convey the genre and also the lyrics - without the visuals the lyrics wouldn't be as emphasised as they are and 50 Cent wouldn't get as much recognition.