Representation

Ed Sheeran - You  Need Me, I Don't Need You
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZXvzzTICvJs 

The artist which I have decided to focus on is Ed Sheeran in his music video of 'You Need Me, I Don't Need You' I chose to do this music video as it is within the rap genre but it does not meet all the codes and conventions of a rap music video. 

Who or what is being represented?

Within Ed Sheeran's music video you can see that he is not shown until the final seconds of the music video, throughout the music video Ed Sheeran does not want to be shown throughout his music video as he wants the main focus to be the music and the lyrics, I believe that he has done this to focus more on the music than his own image as a star. The main character within the music video is a different race than Ed Sheeran which shows the different ethnicity within the music video. The actor Lenny Henry, said called for a new law in 2014 for a new legislation to reserve the low percentage of  black and Asian people within TV shows, films and music videos. He said that the situation had "deteriorated badly" as it has fallen significantly, by falling 30.9% between 2006 and 2012  and now make up only 5.4% of the broadcasting workforce. This theory from Lenny Henry works well with this music video as it is a white artist singing the song but the main focus is on a young black male. Within the music video the young boy is interpreting the lyrics through the use of sign language and dance which tells the story through his dance movements as he is not lip singing as he is using his whole body instead of his mouth within the video. This shows that Ed Sheeran did not want a large focus on himself when he first started out as an artist hiding his appearance within his first two music videos of 'The A Team' and 'You Need Me, I Don't Need You' as you can only see him at the ending of the music video and throughout the video there are short scenes of mid-shots without Ed Sheeran's head showing within the shot as it just shows him playing his guitar which also implies that he cares more about the music than having his appearance on TV. 

Is this a positive or negative representation?

I believe that this is a positive representation of this life as there is no swearing involved within the music video and the lyrics mention that he has sold out venues and the different places which he has played and that if he isn't there he is in the studio writing more music which shows the great success that he has had. Another reason why this is a positive representation is that it does not mention sex, drugs and swearing whereas other rap genre music videos involve a lot of the above and strong references to money and cars but Ed Sheeran did not involve any of this within his rap music video which gives a positive representation of the rap industry and for Ed Sheeran which can promote his image. 

Is this what the audience would expect?

I don't believe that this song is what the audience would expect for a rap song as other rap artists such as Eminem have a lot of swearing involved in them and they have a key theme of life struggles, drugs, cars and women but within Ed Sheeran's song you do not hear any offensive language or the lyrics involving a few of the codes and conventions of a rap music video but not them all which makes this song different to others.

Through my research of the representation of Ed Sheeran's music video 'You Need Me, I Don't Need You' I learnt that about the different things which can be represented within a music video.