COM101 Blog Entry #6 - Fire Burning

Sean Kingston's Fire Burning

First things first, I chose this video to give my readers some eye candy away from the boring (though undeniably hilarious) videos. This would probably give kicks to music fans. Yes, I know this song is getting pretty old, but I still totally dig it, and I know a lot of you do too! In this entry I will analyze the ways in which the director makes this music video an uncontrollably addictive one. And you guys probably would have never even thought about a music video in this way. Till now, at least.

1) Stereotypes

This video is definitely a clear example of the portrayal of stereotypes. The portrayal of women skimpily dressed in short dresses, skirts and shorts are "defined" as the people of the "underground". Well, I say underground because the setting that this video is being taken does look like an unknown place where people (as shown in the video) congregate. But that's just my perception. Back to the stereotypes, women are being portrayed as sexy and, arguably, sleezy- the exact kind women that men love to ogle at. That was probably why the director chose to have such a setting; so as to attract the male audience who would end up salivating (exaggeration, or not) in front of their TV screens or computer monitors. Either way, though women are stereotyped as such, their physical appearance plays and important role in fitting in to the song and setting. Imagine innocent schoolgirls in the scene. Err.... (crickets)

2) Non-verbal Communcation : Kinesics

Alright, it's definitely impossible for me to make this analysis without criticizing on the non-verbal cues (since its all about dance and movement anyway). Let's first start with emblems. Ok I know this isn't exactly the orthodox emblem, but, have an open mind, will ya? Ok well the dance which they do for the part "Fire Burning, Fire Burning, on the dance floor" is sort of like an emblem because we can see that all the people in that underground club know about it as they are doing it as the song plays. In addition, emblems are culture-specific and this emblem-cum-dance-movement is probably a gesture that only the people in this "culture" are aware of. In addition, affect displays play a crucial role in this video because the facial expressions and body language of the dancers and surrounding people matter in making the whole scene seem believable to the audience. We can see how Sean Kingston projects a very enthusiastic expression as well as energetic body movements. The dancers, too, are very much in their zone as they are full of energy and hootspa and this is shown through their movements as well as facial expressions. Imagine a whole group of people with glum faces and sluggish posture. (Totally unglam!)

Other than that, hope you all enjoyed the video because I think after reading my analysis you guys would probably have the tendency to criticize music videos whenever you see one.

Video's addictive, ain't it?