Boys II Men are a group who consist of four black singers(similar to JLS). The video 'End of the road' is one of the most recognizable R&B songs of the early 90's. This video in particular has many similarities and differences with the other two texts I will be studying.
Right at the beginning of the video we instantly see that whilst one of the members is singing the setting is very interesting, as it seems that they are outside some sort of station with graffiti on the walls which is a criminal offence this is ironic because even though they are singing something which has nothing to do with crime, it could perhaps show that negativity will always be surrounding black people.
Also throughout the video we can identify that the clothing plays a significant part as in one shot they are all dressed 'appropriately' by wearing trousers, shirts and ties which people do not normally associate black people with as its seen to be 'Professional, this shows that at this time black people were challenging stereotypes on how they dressed. I could also make comparisons with the JLS video Everybody in Love when referring to clothing, as in one scene towards the end we see that two of the members are wearing very bright coloured shirts such as pink and yellow which is seen throughout the JLS video which shows that even back in the 90's, Black males such as Boys II Men did not adopt that 'manly' appearance.
I also noticed that the narrative of R&B music videos from the early 90's was always about a man or woman being depressed that their lover has left them, this idea was very popular throughout the 80's and 90's and it also showed that black people can have a sensitive side to them, this can also be compared to JLS everybody in love video as there is a lyric which states 'I can't eat, I can't sleep, what else could it be? Missing you so deep, long as I'm where you're going to I'd wait forever and a day for you', this shows that even in todays R&B music videos that sensitive side to black people is still being reinforced.
However although the majority of R&B music videos have similar narratives in todays R&B videos such as Drakes Find your love it shows that the way the narrative has been constructed differently compared to Boys II Men End of the road, as in the BoysII Men song it is all about accepting that their lover has left them whereas in Drakes Find Your Love it is explained in the lyrics 'I better find your loving, I better find your heart' the fact that the word 'better' is used seems to be demanding and controlling as if no matter what I'm gonna find your love and nobody can stop me, this can be related to black people always want to feel as if they are in control and power of a situation.
What also has changed in R&B music videos is the use of violence coming into use now, as this could be seen in Drakes Find Your Love video as gang members are shown to be after him, which shows that the idea of hip-hop is coming into R&B music videos, which was never seen before during the 80's and 90's, the reason for the inclusion of this violence in videos could be because many people have argued that R&B music is not seen to be very 'masculine' so by adopting hip-hop style narratives into the R&B scene could be a way of introducing masulinity into the R&B genre however the problem with this is that the majority of artists are Black which means more and more negative role models would be introduced if most R&B videos became like Drakes Find your love, this can have a negative impact on the black youth of our society today.
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