Analyse - Kid Cudi "Pursuit of Happiness ft. MGMT"

Background: Kid Cudi is a 26 year old hip-hop artist. The song Pursuit of Happiness was on the album "Man on the Moon: The End of Day" and reached #3 in the UK R&B Chart.

The Music Video has been edited to be in slow motion for everyone other than the actual Artist, this shows the viewer who the artist/lead role is in the music video, i feel this has a positive affect on the music video as the lyrics of the video are about being drunk and on drugs etc. So the slow motion illustrates being drunk and on drugs.



The first part i decided to TubeChop is the beginning of the song, and i am picking up on the slow motion again here. At the beginning of the music video everything is in normal motion speed until the artist starts to sing/rap, this is when everything surrounding the artist slows down whereas Kid Cudi is in normal motion, this can represent that Kid Cudi is "Godly" as only god should be able to speed and slow time, it represents the power kid cudi has in the music video.
The mise en scene in this clip is doom and gloom with the lighting and room colours, although in saying that the surrounding people in the scene are celebrating drinking glasses of wine and champaigne and doing the old "cheers" with the glasses. This could come under as being a disjuncture as you expect with the setting being all dark and dusk and then people being all happy and celebrating.



I Decided to use this clip to talk about how the lyrics represent the celebrations going on in this scene, "im in the pursuit of happiness.." and the surrounding people looking happy. Having confetti fall from the ceiling could connote and represent a new years eve party.
As the surrounding cast seem to people happy and enjoying themselves, Kid Cudi's lyrics "im in the pursuit of happiness" connotes he is not currently happy however he is in search of happiness, this is why, in the scene he is the only person who is looking miserable, until the lyrics "everything that shine ain't always gonna be gold" can connote to be happy for now as things could be much worse, which then cuts to him and 'Drake' dancing looking happy.



In this clip we get a close up of Kid Cudi's face and his eyes, by the looks of his eye's the rapper is made to look high on drugs and sad, this fit's in with the lyrics as they go "Tell me what you know about dreamin’ dreamin’, You don't really know about nothin’ nothin’. Tell me what you know about them night terrors every night. 5 am, cold sweats wakin’ up to the skies. Tell me what you know about dreams, dreams. Tell me what you know about night terrors, nothin’" these lyrics fit in well with the action because the lyrics are saying that nobody know's the pain/challenges he is going through, which leads to why he looks sad on the close up of his face.



In this scene the speed of the clip speeds back up at random intervals, this can symbolise how thigns are picking up for the lead character and how life is becoming more normal and not depressive. The lyrics "I'll be fine once I get it, I'll be good." can connote that once the artist has reached fortune, fame and happiness he will behave.



In this last scene, time slow's down again and speed's up at random interval's. At the start of the scene Kid Cudi is shown to throw a bottle at the floor, and then walks towards the camera, the mise en scene and action can connote that he is a 'bum' and is not happy or successful at this point because of his rigid clothing and actions. As the lead character strolled into the toilets looking 'high' or drunk (or both), Kid Cudi then goes on to see himself dressed smartly in a tuxedo, however also drunk or 'high' (or both), we can see this as he falls when he try's to pick himself up off of the floor. As the 'bum' kid cudi is watcing the 'successful' kid cudi get up off of the floor we the viewers can see in the 'bum' kid cudi's face the dissapointment in what the 'successful' kid cudi had became, to add to the dissapointment look, he looks to the floor as if he is ashamed.

The whole point of this music video could be to show the viewer how he struggles to become what he wants, which is fortune and fame and happy, however we see that when he gets fortune and fame, he is not happy, so at the end when he looks to the floor feeling ashamed could represent a cliffhanger because he never reached happiness.

If i could take any ideas from this video it would be the slow motion surroundings with the main character moving, i think that is a very affective way of showing whos the lead character in the scene and can add to the mood of the scene.