Textual Analysis: Akon- I wanna love you ft Snoop Dogg

Song- Akon- I wanna love you ft Snoop Dogg
Released- September 14th 2010
Video type- Performance
Produced by- Akon

The music video I will be analysing is Akon- Iwanna love you ft Snoop Dogg produced by Akon. The genre of the song is Hip Hop/R&B. It was released September 14th. This is a performance video where Akon makes use of some seductive female dancers in this video. The females seem to be doing provocative dance moves which matches the lyrics as Akon and Snoop Dogg refer to their interest in the females and their dance moves and this is highlighted by their desire to make love to them.

This video is a performance style video where Akon and Snoop Dogg are rapping/singing while the girls perform their dances. The use of Mise-en-scene in this video is effective. The female characters are dressed provocatively and are dancing with the use of chairs, the use of these props reinforces the idea of the objectification of women. This video is heavily stereotypically based mainly through the use of women as eye candy to appeal to the 'male gaze'. The use of camera in this video is another effective way of portraying the representation of the characters in this video. The two male artists are always presented in the centre of the frame and in the foreground of all the frames to highlight their importance and dominance over the female characters in this video. There is always use of MS and MLS of Snoop Dogg and Akon to show their full outfit and chains to reinforce the typical representation of male characters in Rap videos. There is also many low angle shots of the male characters to further reinforce the idea that they are superior to the female characters in this video. The framing used with the female characters alo gives an indication of their representation as they are mostly positioned in the foreground and the use of CU's on their appealing assets to male audiences is also another convention of music videos from this genre. Also they are presented in the background whenever they are in the same frame as the male characters which again shows that they are inferior to the male characters. All of the technical codes in this video adhere to the typical conventions of a rap video.

The representation of the artists in this video is very stereotypical. These representations are constructed by the use of technical codes. For example the Mise-en-scene the clothing of the male characters is very stereotypical of what you would expect to see a male character in a video of this genre wearing. In some of the scenes Snoop Dogg is wearing a fur coat which looks very expensive which highlights the luxurious lifestyle he lives, Akon is also wearing jewellery which is again another convention of rap videos. The costumes worn by the female characters also contributes to the construction of their representation as they are all provocatively dressed some wearing lingerie which would appeal again to the 'male gaze'. The camerawork also adds to the construction of the representation as the artists are mostly framed in the foreground and are framed using low angle shots to show their supremacy over the female characters. As typically in rap videos the male artist likes to present himself as powerful and 'larger than life'. In contrast to this the female characters are shown as inferior and it is obvious to see that they are only used in this video as eye candy which goes against the beliefs of the feminists as the females are being objectified in this video. Also reinforces the ideas of Laura Mulvey where she says women connote 'to-be-looked-at-ness' and are in the video solely for the purpose of display and have no effect on the narrative. The use of POV shots also invites the male audience to join in. There is also an aerial shot where the females are used solely to create patterns and poses that appeal to the male viewer.

Both artists are signed to respectable record labels. Akon is signed to Universal although he has his own record label 'Konvict Muzik' and Snoop Dogg is signed to Death Row Records. This video came on several music channels, MTV Base, MTV, Kiss and Channel AKA were the main channels to play the video this is because these channels mostly play videos of this genre.

The target audience for this video is young people aged between 16-28. I believe that these people would watch this for entertainment and diversion purposes where they appreciate the aesthetic side to the video, also as a way of filling time. Some audiences may also watch this video for personal relationships as a way of finding a basis for conversation and social interaction to keep up with latest trends set by the characters in this video. The feminist theory can also be applied to this video as the females are being used as sex objects and there is clear distinction between the male and female characters in the video in terms of their positions in the patriarchal hierarchy as the male characters are much more dominant in the video. All of these representations fit into the feminism ideas of the 1960/70's.