Word & Image Continue to Work.

Will.i.am feat. Nicki Minaj–Check It Out

Watch the video so that you will better understand everything I will be discussing.

Since Professor Housefield showed this video in class, I have been slightly obsessed with it. I even have my roommates singing the song. I am actually a bit mad at myself for being so impressed by this song and video because I pride myself in being a fan of music with substance. This is close to the opposite of that very thing.

The only thing that is keeping me away from being so critical of the language and the message of the song is the fact that the video seems so planned out, as far as design goes.

During my groups discussion, we talked about why Will.i.am and Nicki Minaj may have wanted to use another language in their video. Because their major audience is in the United States, it may seem a bit unnecessary because it is assumed that most people speak English. But then again, the US is a country that has many citizens and people that are undocumented from different cultures and speak many different languages. One reason may have been to reach a larger audience that may enjoy the beat of the song but may not be able to relate because the lyrics are in English. As viewers that could not understand the script for ourselves imagined that the words that showed up on the screen were directly translated from what they were saying out loud. The script that is seen in the video is Korean. A lot of the popular music in Korea now is similar. Take the group 2NE1 for example:


Is the video not just a little similar to that of Will.i.am and Ms. Minaj? It makes sense, to me, to make Korea a target audience. The creators of this video, like the creators of many products which are designed, had an audience in mind and fit the creation of it to please them.

Something else that I found interesting in the "Check It Out" video is how word and image worked together. The colors of the Korean script and their clothing matched. There was a sense of aesthetics that came with this. The colors in the video made it more appealing to the viewers' eyes. It also helped that Nicki Minaj was very animated in her pepto-bismol pink jumpsuit.

Once again, word and image come together and work for man and womyn-kind. Where are some other places you see word and image working together?