Research - Music Video Analysis 1

The music video “Trading Places” is written by the artist Usher, and was directed by Chris Robinson. The genre of the music video is R&B and the videos characteristics involve a sexual relationship between Usher and a woman.

The relationship between the lyrics and visuals can be shown through the facial expressions, dance moves, props and the other actress in the video. During the video, Usher sings while he is performing. The relationship between the lyrics and the visuals are important as when Usher sings “trading places”, Usher and his companion change positions from either on top or underneath each other, and on some other occasions their position does not change but the camera angle changes on the horizontal axis as they are laying down. At the beginning of the video the lyrics “Now we gonna do this thing a lil different tonight” are a little confusing to match with the visuals as the action which is happening is a woman swimming in a water tank, this is different to the lyrics however it is the “different” in the lyrics. The lyrics “And whisper in my ear I bet you really wanna do me” is truly represented in the music video as Usher sings the lyrics in the actress’s ear. Another good example of the relationship between the lyrics and the visuals is “Time to get up baby and let me make this bed up”.
The beginning of the video cuts a drum beat and a note from the piano Usher plays during parts the video. Throughout the video Usher performs a few instrumentals on the piano; however the piano sound does not always stay the same as a piano should sound, during the first minute he uses an oriental sound on the piano along with the drum beat which is off set. After two and a half minutes of the video the pace of the beat increases and becomes faster as they are in the vent-like set and when Usher begins to dance.
Throughout the video there are close-ups of Usher and the female actress, this is to reinforce the stars image and sell the artist.

The record company wants to sell Usher in this video as there are more close-ups of him and the female actress than of him singing, this is a perfect example of Freud’s theory of voyeurism which Pete Fraser Teaching Music Video (BFI 2004) then applied to music videos, which is shown in this video as the record company is selling Usher and his body and of the female actress and her body. From watching the video the target audience is both men and women due to the close-ups of Usher and the female actress. Goodwin’s argument “that the female performer will frequently be objectified in this fashion, often through a combination of camerawork and editing with fragmented body shots emphasizing a sexualised treatment of the star.” is true as the female actress is shown to be more revealing and sexual than Usher.

The image that is being offered to the audience is Usher the star, not Usher the artist, this is because if the record company would want to sell the artist they would make a video that involved Usher singing throughout the video and not only parts of the video. After watching My Boo, Trading Places is more calm and peaceful as in My Boo there is a lot of disco and performances. However the voyeurism is the same, with the women attracting the male gaze and Usher attracting the younger female audience.

Trading Places gives the image of Usher being a skillful and romantic star through him singing to the actress and playing the piano, in contrast to this music video, My Boo shows him to be wild and social-able person. Throughout this video, both Usher and the actress are on sexual display, this creates an eye attraction for the audience due to the woman wearing lingerie, whereas Usher appears to wear a t-shirt and trousers. This continues with Pete Fraser’s theory of voyeurism with the sexual display of Usher and the actress.
During the video, close-ups are used frequently on the sexual and intimate moments between Usher and the actress such as when they kiss each other. The sexual costumes that both of them wear also implies sexualised display, this is another way for record companies to sell Usher and also the costumes have been said to be samples of his new line of lingerie for men and women.

Usher stated that the song “was totally inspired by the work of Prince”, meaning the intertexual reference does not relate to any other music videos but to an artist, Prince. The location of the music video reflects a wealthy and luxurious background, a set that matches Usher’s wealth and personality.

Trading Places is a music video that is performance and narrative based due to Usher dancing in certain parts of the video and playing the piano, however he uses the narrative to display his affection to the actress.

This music video is very creative and intimate, as this is shown through Usher and the actress, the video represents the love and sexual desire both of them share. Also during the video, the imagery that is set is an eye appeal to audiences, and as the target audience is mixed sexes it gives the record company a broader audience. Chris Robinson has used Usher and the actress’s body to sell the video as this video is to sell Usher and not his music, however as this is Pete Fraser’s theory of voyeurism it also displays part of Dyer’s theory of the common values of the music stardom such as sexual magnetism, originality and creativity/talent.
As the artist uses golden and black colours for the main set of himself and the actress, the set gives a display of luxury to show the audience the sexual relationship between him and the actress. However the golden and black set is contrasted by the white pearl set with the see-through piano and how he uses the piano to show his artist features and skill while in contrast he also sings to the actress to show his romantic and sexual features. Although the music video is sell Usher, he is also selling expressing his creative ability as he is mixing a variety of skills such as playing the piano and performing a small dance routine, however the parts of the video which where himself and the actress, he displayed his romantic and sexual abilities such as singing to her and kissing her. This video also shows that the mixed abilities that Usher displays are also what he can show in future videos such as his previous video Moving Mountains where he displayed mainly emotional movements and lyrics while visualising a sexual woman dancing. So in conclusion this video was filmed to sell Usher and the actress and to express the romantic and sexual features of them both.