Research Into Similar Products/Target Audience: Jade - Don't Walk Away

R&B Music Videos

Above is a video for Jades' Don't Walk Away music video. It is of R&B genre and doesn't go against the conventions of this music but instead, it follows them.

Right at the beginning of the music video, the audience is presented with a couple of young, African American males sitting on the street. They are sitting in a group or "gang" which is more suitable for this video. They are wearing the stereotypical clothing for black males that were in gangs in 90's America. The mise en scene was thought out carefully in this shot as to present the characters in a certain way in this frame. They are wearing tank tops and denim jeans to keep with the R&B costume conventions. The camera is also at a slanted angle to show them in a more aggressive and dominant way. The video is appealing to its target audience in this way as teenagers and young males and females of African America descent are targeted. This would appeal to them as gangs were perceived as cool. The gang is also sitting in an expensive car which shows the characters in an attractive light as the target audience would be drawn to expensive cars, resulting in them looking up to the characters in the video.

At 30 seconds in the star, Jade, is seen in a very dominant and attractive way. One of the conventions of R&B is for the women to be wearing costumes which would appeal to men which are targeted by the R&B genre. Jade is between two girls who are walking towards the video and keeping consatant eye contact with the camera. The audience will feel drawn in and also this video would appeal to the male target audience as they would be attracted to the female characters in the video because of their costumes.

The whole video is set in a typical African America neighbourhood which has brick buildings, graffiti on walls and gangs roam the streets. The mise en scene in this video is carefully planned and the location was not chosen at random. The majority of people who would listen to this video would live in these neighbourhoods and through locating the main star in this location, the audeince will feel more involved in this video.

Props such as costumes, make up and expensive cars and motorcycles are also used in this video. In R&B music videos it is a convention of showing off expensive jewellery and cars to make the audience admire the characters. Jade is also wearing very attractive make up and has her hair done up to continuously appeal to the male audience. The males on the other hand which are present on the video, are seen wearing denim and most of them are shirtless which is a common convention.

Overall most of R&B music videos do not break conventions as to do so, one would risk not appealing to their audience.