Matisyahu Music Video Analysis
Aug 07, 2015
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- 1. Matisyahu Music Video Analysis
- 2. Genre As an artist, Matisyahu originally aimed to mix Orthodox Jewish style and theme with Reggae, Hip Hop and Beat boxing. From 2004-2012, Matisyahu was observing Hasidic Judaism and often incorporated Orthodox themes and ideas into his songs. The genre itself is very festive, for obvious reasons, but with help of mise-en-scene and green screen elements, Matisyahu successfully conveyed the idea of Hanukkah, and matched the conventions of a novelty genre even though it was an original composition. For example, he put the lyrics of the chorus in large text so that the audience would find it catchy and know the words to sing along with it. He also used animation to create a Star of David image that looks drawn on with a neon/yellow colour, and he used props such as a Menorah, candles, dreidels, decorations chocolate coins and wine glasses.
- 3. Target Audience Matisyahus target audience is essentially split into primary and secondary targets. Primary target consists of a Jewish audience, regardless of Jewish sector (e.g. Orthodox, Reform, Liberal, Hasidic etc.) who enjoy listening to an artist who can preach Jewish beliefs in a current musical format, which is what Matisyahu does through his Reggae, Hip Hop and Beat box blend. Throughout this music video, Matisyahu is seen as moving graffiti along a wall; wearing his typical Hasidic clothing reflecting the image to the audience. Matisyahu can also be considered a novel artist to Jews who do not share the entirety of Matisyahus beliefs, (i.e.) we like him because hes a Jewish musician. Another section of the target audience are those who enjoy the Reggae/Hip Hop/ Beat boxing genre and arent really concerned with the Orthodox influence (Non-Jews/Non-Observant Jews). They might just enjoy the artist in general, the positive messages behind the songs and Matisyahus particular style. Although Matisyahus lyrics and image are primarily themed with Judaism, we cannot say his target audience is only Jews; rather anyone who wants to listen to him. His update of image suggests he is trying to appeal to a larger scale audience; on the other hand, his songs and lyrics still contain Orthodox themes which register with the Jewish audience dynamic.
- 4. Other Conventions Although Matisyahu has spent the majority of the video matching conventions of Hanukkah celebration, he has encorporated other elements that either are not relevant to or subvert expected conventions of the Hanukkah theme. He may have done this for artistic reasons or maybe as a way to show that on Hanukkah, all religions can come together and celebrate and be happy rather than just one. Location in particular doesnt have much relevance to the theme of Hanukkah, but it seems that he spends quite some time in the video in an independent record shop, promoting Spark Seeker. Matisyahu is also seen on the train interacting with other people of different races and cultures, possibly to show equality and his acceptance of others. In one way, Matisyahu subverts expected conventions by walking past a sign for Chinatown, which you wouldnt normally expect in a video about Hanukkah. He features in many random locations but for the majority of the video uses green screens and effects, possibly to show that this video is all about having fun and celebrating.
- 5. Star Image This song was released in 2012, which was one year after he re-modelled his image from a Hasidic Reggae artist into a non-Hasidic Reggae artist. Although his image changed, his musical style remained the same and was exemplified with the release of Spark Seeker before Happy Hanukkah was released. We could therefore suggest that Matisyahu may have used to have an organic image as a Hasidic Jew, as he created it himself. However, since 2011 we could say that he has become more synthetic, scrapping his old image for a newer and cleaner one. This may be hinting some industry input, that Capitol Records might have inspired this decision, but according to Matisyahus social media, he claimed that the image change, like his Hasidic image, was entirely his choice. In the video, he aims to convey himself as a kind-hearted Jewish man trying to bring all races and cultures together to celebrate Hanukkah, whilst at the same time, he aims to focus the most of the video on close-ups of himself, his products and his artistic ability rather than completely addressing the celebration of Hanukkah.
- 6. Organic/Synthetic Audience Matisyahus audience is mainly a synthetic one because although his music does aim to reach out to a primarily Jewish audience, he is the type of artist to have gone viral, with songs such as One Day, Sunshine, Searchin etc. He has accessed the mainstream, meaning that possibly any audience type may have heard his big hit songs, or at least know of him. The way he solidified himself as a mainstream, synthetic artist, was by redoing his song One Day, but this time it featured African-American rapper, Akon. The interesting part of their collaboration was that Matisyahu is Jewish and Akon is Muslim, and they tried to prove that by doing a song together that music can bring groups together. Due to Akon already being a mainstream artist, his target audience had now become familiar with Matisyahu and may have started listening to his music as well. However, just like his old images conveyance, Matisyahu has now returned to an organic audience type, possibly because he is no longer talked about as much as he was during his mainstream period. His music still sends the same messages, but his videos are no longer too focused on his image, rather his artistry and his journey as an artist still trying to make music.
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