The video I am analysing is 'Rock That Body' by Black Eyed Peas. The video uses many special effects including computer animation but also interesting after post-editing effects which look interesting and inspirational.
The video begins setting the scene of a neighbourhood with its people who seem to be moving in a robotic nature. This effect is achieved by cutting one or two frames of movement and reversing the copies of these frames (one frame reversed, one frame normal).
At 0:09, a bright light from the sky 'blasts' a character onto the screen(Will.i.am) dressed as a superhero.
From this, instantly the audience realises that the video is not a true representation of real life, therefore the video must be exaggerating a whole new meaning. This is an amplified music video as its visual content does not match the lyrical meaning of the song, therefore amplifying the video content into a completely different meaning. The video involves transformer like robots, bigger than humans (or robots themselves judging by the way they move in a jittery way).
Fergie (and the rest of the B.E.P. members) is introduced in the video in costume and props adding to the 'superhero' theme of the video. Fergie here is seen in a tight-fitting, metal bustier with what looks like gun barrels on the bust. She also holds a gun with a speaker on the barrell.
Iconography wise, this may reference the 'FemBots' in Austin Powers (first image), or an even earlier pop culture's first example of a gun bra The 1979 film 'Mr. Mike''s Mondo Video', which featured women in laser-spewing brassieres (second image).
Laser spewing women from Mr Mikes' Mondo Video (above)
The sound and visuals match as Fergie's voice is auto-tuned to sound high pitched and robotic, keeping in tune with the robot, superhuman/hero theme. The lyrics and visuals begin to match at 1:03 where Will.i.am blasts the pedestrians with his speaker who initially appeared to be broken and jittery. As they Jitter, Will.i.am blasts them with his speaker gun and immediately they begin dancing normally, and are no longer robotic.
People jitter...
Until they are blasted by speaker guns which make them dance normally...
The lyrics read:
Shakin' from the bottom to the top,
Freak to what the Dj drop,
We be the ones to make it hot, (To make it hot)
Electric shock, energy like a million watts,
Space be boom and the speakas pop,
Galactic boom and miss the spot,
We bumpin' in your parkin' lot!
The lyrics have terms that refer to sci-fi context such as 'Electric shock', 'energy', 'Space' and 'Galactic'. So instantly the lyrics relates to the visual content more than it did from the start of the song. As they go on to blast or zap these 'broken' dancers they become normal, so in that way the Black Eyed Peas are helping them, therefore they are seen as the heroes.
From 2:10, a black transformer robots return and is seen as a threat it grabs Fergie. Will.i.am then jumps on to the back of the robot and make their way out of the tunnel. The silver robot which was shown at the beginning, is the good robot, as the black one is the bad one. Usually anything related to the colour black gives off a negative vibe (at the exception of Batman), so the badness in this video, is associated with the black robot, where the silver robot is the good one. Their rivalry is seen through their dancing, as they prepare to battle. The silver robot is often seen behind the Black Eyed Peas, which the audience associate at the good one further more.
Towards the end, the black robot is defeated and it falls to the ground.
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