RMA 3 - Keri Hilson, Kanye West + Neyo - Knock You Down

Keri Hilson Feat Kanye West And Neyo - Knock You Down Music Video
Keri Hilson’s ‘Knock You Down’ featuring Ne-Yo and Kanye West is pop/RnB/hip-hop genre and rillustrates genre characteristics, relationships between lyrics and visuals and it is a narrative video which tells the story of how a girl feels after being hurt by her partner.

There are many voyeuristic shots of Keri dancing she is illustrated dancing and flaunting her body to the camera in time with the beat. She is exemplified dancing in a way whereby her moves are sharp, strong and sexy. The dancing that the singer performs in her music video clearly portrays an element of hip-hop and electropop which are the genre characteristics of her video.

In this video there is a distinct relationship between lyrics and visuals as they are amplified. This is a perfect video that represents this well. The part where she says “You knocked me down,” as the camera focuses on Keri and shows her body floating in the air as she slowly begins to fall down on top of her bed illustrating that she has been ‘knocked down.’ Additionally, they do the same for the lyric, “I used to be commander in chief,” as Ne-Yo raises his hand to his head doing the salute sign that commanders did to show respect to one another. Another example of this is when kayne west says ‘this is bad, real bad Michael Jackson’ and the camera is on Kerri hilson as she grabs her crotch area with one hand and throws the other in the air. Clearly, visuals and lyrics work exceptionally well together here.

Keri Hilson, Kanye West and Ne-Yo are each represented as being the main stars of the video. They are each represented by the use of close ups of their face which allows the audience to feel as though they can connect with them as they are able to feed off their facial expressions and emotions. Certain close up’s show an artists charisma, confidence, attractiveness as they stare into the camera providing the audience with their full attention and with a warm, gentle smile.

There are quite a few intertextual references made in this music video, these being the opening credits at the beginning of the music video as it displays the name of the single and the names of the three singers staring and singing in the video. This is similar to films openings as during the beginning of the film the credits will appear on screen displaying the names of the actors and actresses followed by the title of the film. At one point Ne-Yo sings “Miss Independent,” which is the name of his previous single. This is another intertextual reference as he is referring back to his earlier single and promoting it through this song so people will still go out and buy it.