Music Video Essay Part 3-Justin Timberlake-Suit & Tie (Ft Jay-Z)
Justin Timberlake’s video Suit and Tie is a performance based black and white video (with small sections of narrative) directed by David Fincher (DF). The video was shot in black and white for two reasons; so colour correction wouldn’t be needed and it went with the Jazz theme that the video has. The music itself is very old school Jazz using modern techniques. DF represents this by using a 1950’s style Jazz club for JT to perform in. The time period is shown through iconography such as the microphone JT uses and the locations such as the dome stage and the smokey club.
Jazz was popular in the 50’s and the time period is shown throughout the video. For example, when shown in the studio, all the musicians are black. This is to create an ‘authentic’ image of Jazz; when most audiences think of Jazz they think of black men in smokey clubs. The aura of the video is quite laid back and fun, another stereotype of Jazz music and musicians (being energetic but laid back about their music). Another example that DF uses to represent the era is at the end of the video; JT is shown jumping around and splashing in water, creating the imagery of Gene Kelly’s ‘singing in the rain’ performed in 1952.
The black and white also adds a certain class to the video; suit and tie, pianos, smoke. DF uses all of this imagery is to create a high class powerful persona for JT. The video is very masculine; the men are shown drinking whiskey, smoking and watching sports, all of which are stereotypes of men. Women on the other hand are shown as sexual objects. For example, at the beginning of the video there is a small narrative intro to the main song showing JT getting ready for his performance that evening, there is a half-naked woman JT is playing chess with; since JT is clothed and she isn’t, this suggests that she is a weaker, sexual object under his power; he can have her at any time. It may be implied that they are playing strip chess, reinforcing the idea of the more intelligent man, winning over the woman.
DF makes certain that JT is always in the spotlight; the dancer’s faces are never seen and are always silhouetted. This is so JT is singled out as the performer and the dancers are only there to support him and his image, who they are is not important. The angles and shots DF uses are very clean cut and simple; this is so the audience is not distracted by too much movement or loses the plot. DF is trying to give the ambience of a real performance; as if the audience were right there watching in the club. Keeping the shots clean helps to do this, if there was too much movement or fast cuts, the illusion of a ‘true performance’ would be lost. However, DF does use clever techniques such as mirroring JT’s movements with one another. For example, he’ll be dancing in the club and in the next shot, JT’s movement will be correspondent to a move he’ll be doing in the dome. This is so the illusion of watching one entire performance is not broken. The only time the illusion is broken is when the video cuts to the studio. This is to introduce new but interesting images as the audience could become bored just watching two locations. Cutting to the studio also creates an opening for another section of the song that includes Jay-Z. Before Jay-Z performs on stage, he is shown to the left of the stage to continue a fluent narrative.
Jay-Z r is not really shown performing on stage however, he is shown in the studio for a few seconds and then it cuts to a scene with female dancers in lingerie. This is very typical of the rap/hip-hop genre that is to modernise the main Jazz theme. However, DF shoots the scenes in slow motion; the shots aren’t extremely slow but just enough to show fluent movement. This keeps with the high class theme as even though the women are scantily dressed, their performance has a sense of artful seduction rather than smut, which is a very post-feminism ideology.