Goodwin's Theory -Music Video Essay Mariah Carey Obsessed

Mariah Carey – Obsessed

The genre of this music video is R&B and hip-hop. Some examples of the genre characteristics of this music video is the establishing shot of the music video which is a wealthy hotel, the chauffeur, fans waiting outside the hotel for Mariah Carey, paparazzi, lots of shopping bags and the fact that Mariah Carey is doing a photo shoot. These examples connotes that Mariah Carey is wealthy and has an expensive lifestyles and wants to show it off, as she is staying at an expensive hotel and is wearing an expensive dress.

The lyrics of this song and the visual of the music video are parallel as Mariah Carey is acting as herself and someone who is obsessed with her, which is the name of the song. When Mariah Carey sings the lyrics ‘delusional’ there is a clip of her dressed up as a man in a room (the media thought she was acting as Eminem) full of pictures – this connotes that the man she is portraying is obsessed with her. Also every time the artist sings the lyrics ‘obsessed’ there is a clip of her dressed up as the ‘obsessed’ man. This helps the audience clearly understand the meaning behind the music video – that Eminem/the obsessed man is obsessed with her even though he does not know her.

During the first chorus of the song every-time the beat drops the frame changes. Also during the final chorus when Mariah Carey sings and the drums are playing in the video the obsessed man get run over – this clip is parallel to the instruments playing in the background of the song.

At the beginning of the music video there is a close up of the artist while she is talking to the audience – this connotes that she is directly talking to the audience as she already has or is building a relationship with her audience. There are close ups throughout the video of the artist while she is portraying herself as she is showing the audience how she feels and is showing the audience that this song is personal to her. The close up’s also helps the audience build a relationship with her audience, as the lyrics are personal to her as during 2009 when ‘Obsessed’ was released the media and critics suggested that the song was about rapper Eminem as he negatively referenced her in some of his songs. There are also close ups of the artist while she is portraying the obsessed man – here the artist is showing the audience how the obsessed man idolizes her.

There is a reference to the notion of looking in this music video – while Mariah Carey is having a photo shoot, this connotes that Mariah Carey is wealthy and has an expensive lifestyle. Also during the scenes of the obsessed man when he is in his room, on the wallpaper there is a collage of pictures of Mariah Carey, also a paper cut out of the artist, a picture of Mariah Carey in a picture frame next to the bed of the obsessed man and merchandise of the artist e.g. dolls. These references help the audience understand how the artist feels and her point of view and how she pictures the obsessed man.

Throughout the music video there are several inter-textual references, the first one is the Canon camera the photo-shoot man uses. This connotes that the photo-shoot is professional and that Mariah Carey is wealthy as she is having a professional photo-shoot. Another inter-textual reference is the artist – Mariah Carey merchandise, here the artist is cross promoting her music and her merchandise so her audience and fans will buy the merchandise. Also when Mariah Carey is playing the ‘obsessed’ person she is wearing Nike trainers and a New York snap back – these inter-textual references connote that this is what the obsessed person wears and these are the typical brands a boy/man would wear.

The music video is performance and narrative based. When Mariah Carey is portraying the obsessed man this is performance based as the video is showing the audience a story. The music video is also narrative based as the artist – Mariah Carey – is telling the audience the story of this obsessed man, the artist makes it clear that she is telling a story as she talks and sings directly to the camera during close up shots – this shows the audience the artist is telling the audience her personal story.

I will use Goodwins theory within my own music video as my genre characteristics will help the audience understand which genre our music video is. Although it will be difficult to visually show the relationship between the music and lyrics me and my group will show the relationship clearly so our target audience can see the relationship between the music and lyrics. Our music video will be concept and performance base as its will be difficult to narrate our music video