Textual Analysis of Music Video- Plan B

This is a Plan B song from his album 'Strickland Banks'.

2 seconds into the music video, we see a shot of the outside of the arena where Plan B, known as 'Strickland Banks' is performing. This straight away allows the audience to understand the setting straight away. 

The narrative of the music video is Plan B singing about a fictional character, known as Strickland Banks. From the off, we see Plan B going out and performing his song at a concert, and then he goes on to go out for dinner after.

A screenshot of Plan B in performance. This is early on in his music video where we see images of him singing his song. The video progressively starts to have a strong narrative to it, giving the audience an idea of what's to come.

Whilst we see this, we also see Plan B's long term girlfriend at home, cooking a romantic dinner for the two of them. During the video of his song 'Writing's On The Wall' we get the idea that the character Strickland Banks isn't happy in his relationship and this can be justified when we see him going off with another girl after his performance. This also links in with the lyrics and even the song name, connoting maybe he always thought they were never going to last, and as the song name suggests there was 'Writing On The Wall'.

The video throughout uses lots of stereotypes. The main one is the social stereotype of woman staying in at home, while the man is out working, making money. This is a stereotypical stereotype and makes the video seem very realistic, whilst helping us to concentrate on the hidden message behind this.

There are many different shots in this music video. The most common is the extreme close up. This is significant because it is used to help express and portray each characters feelings and emotions. This for example, when Plan B's girlfriend becomes upset and worried when her boyfriend doesn't answer his phone and doesn't arrive home, even though she has cooked him dinner.

Also these shots are used to help show other things, for example when we see the sauce rising as she is cooking dinner. The rising of the sauce could have connotations of her feelings, showing she is happy and excited to be able to cook for her man, however this shortly turns into sadness and anger, as we see the sauce become less. This could again connote her feelings, or suggest the idea of her hope of seeing her man at home for dinner tonight slowly fading. Finally it could connote her feelings of being worried, and the concern as to why her man isn't home, and maybe starting to think about what we can see.

We also see different camera shots such as high angle shots, an example of this would be when we see Plan B's girlfriend at home, crying on the stairs once the realisation that he isn't coming home kicks in. By using the high angle shot, it makes her look small, fragile and venerable. The other shot type is the low angle, this is used when we see the headline 'Strickland Banks' outside his concert. By using this angle shot, it shows Bank's dominance and power, and the relationship he has with his fans, suggesting they 'look up to him'. We do also see some other types of shots, such as establishing shots, mid shot, long shot, wide shot and POV shot, which all help to show emotions and portray different things to the audience.

We see two main settings in this music video, the first is the house, where we see Bank's girlfriend primarily. At this house we get an establishing shot, which shows us a stereotypical 80's bedroom. Also we can tell this by the choice of woman's clothing. It is very bright and stands out. Also we see a short perm, again implying the time period and being a stereotypical 80's hair style. The other setting we see is the arena where Strickland Banks is performing. This has a Motown/80's feel to it given the tables, chairs and traditional silver microphone that we see him using when performing. All this implies the time period is the 80's. Also the stereotypical black and white suit, connoting the time era of the 80's again.

The lyrics of the song also match the moving images that we can see. In one part of the song, the lyrics are 'we aren't over but the writings on the wall, this time next year we will be no more'. This implies Strickland Banks doesn't expect the relationship to last, and is saying that they are still together, but there are many reasons why they could be over. At the end of the music video, we then see Strickland Banks with another lady, therefore we all feel for his actual girlfriend, meaning the audience connect to the music video and we feel the same emotions that Bank's girlfriend must also be feeling.