This year "Candles in the Sun"a music video by Miguel was nominated for a MTV Music Video Award. In this video Miguel addresses people on a global scale about a wide scale of issues. Some of those issues include the issues of illicit drug use, poverty, equality, and corruption in the government. Miguel's intent for the video was to bring all the issues in the world to the forefront of people's minds to inspire them to do something about the problems. Miguel doesn't tell people how to feel about these issues in the video, he merely wants to put these problems into people's heads so they can figure out what they want to do about them. Miguel sings in his song, "What are we doing? Where are we going?"This video is a cry to everyone in the world that we need to work together to right the wrongs in the world and not just turn a blind eye. Miguel uses powerful black and white images to get his very important message/plea across.
The whole music video for Miguel's "Candles in the Sun"is an arrangement of very quick black and white images. Some of these images include people using drugs, the destruction of Hurricane Sandy, kids holding guns, kids wearing gas masks, people living on the streets and many more. All of these images are very provocative which lends a hand to Miguel's message. Since these images are thought provoking and at sometimes very sad they can provoke emotion in people which is what Miguel's overall intent was. In Julia's blog post she writes, "The powerful combination of the song and video clips inform and captivate the crowd, drawing all attention to the presentation before their eyes. By this point, the crowd's vulnerability makes them easy to influence." I would have to agree with her on this. These two sentences perfectly sum up what Miguel did to get across his point. He used powerful images which play into human emotion to provoke them to want to change the problems he puts forth in his video.
While writing the analysis of Miguel's "Candles in the Sun"I realized something. The music video only has 1,562,535 views while Miley Cyrus's video for "We Can't Stop" has 224,028,914 views. Miley Cyrus's video had more likes than Miguel's video had views. This bothered me. The fact that a music video depicting Miley Cyrus twerking and partying has about 223,000,000 more views than a video about the issues of drugs, violence, and homelessness in the world just shows the Miguel is right about that fact that many people turn a blind eye to the problems in the world and would rather, for example, watch Miley Cyrus twerk than help.
Chrissy, this is pretty solid. You avoid most of the pitfalls of rhetorical analysis. You don't assume an audience reaction, although you do quote a line from Julia's post in which she does. Be careful. Do not assume how the audience will react. The closest you come to making this mistake is when you write that the images "can provoke emotion." You wisely avoid writing that the images "DO provoke emotion." I also like that you introduce the "speaker's" purpose immediately in your introduction. This gives your post some cohesiveness. Finally, I really like your conclusion. This is a wonderful observation. You finish by writing that "Miguel is right about that fact that many people turn a blind eye to the problems in the world..." I wish you would have elaborated more on this. Where in the video do you see Miguel highlighting this? You never really address the "blind eye." If you had earlier, and then proven it with textual evidence, this post would have been almost perfect.
ReplyDeleteYour biggest mistake, and please be careful to avoid making it in the future, is your use of the word "powerful." What are "powerful black and white images" and "powerful images"? The word "powerful" really has no tangible value. It is not a good descriptor.