Case Study - J.Cole - Daddy's Little Girl

Priscilla Quarcoo

J. Cole – Daddy’s Little Girl – (Roc Nation)

 

The music video for the song “Daddy’s Little Girl” shows a woman who had dreams of doing ballet becoming a pole dancer.

The actor in this music video is represented as a woman who has lost her way; this is seen in the music video through the editing techniques, camera angles and mise en scene.

The video is narrative and performance based as it shows the narrative story of a little girl growing up to be a pole dancer. The main artist in the music video J. Cole is represented as the narrator of the women’s story. Lip singing is used when it cuts to the main artist to show who’s telling the story.

The motif in the video is the cuts from showing what she was to what she has become. The theme covered in the video is a failed dream this is shown in the video through the editing techniques. Editing techniques in the video include fast cuts to show the audience a flashback of what she was before she became a pole dancer. This is done by the focus being blurred and the location is bright to show the time change. Editing also includes slow motion to show how the women’s dance moves match the ballet moves she used as a child.  

The camera angles used in this music video helps to show the representation of the woman.

Long shots are used in the beginning to show the girl dancing as a ballerina. Close up’s to the dancers face and hands are used to show the similarity of the moves she used as a ballerina to now dance in a club. High angle shots are used in the music video to show the woman to illustrate that she is less powerful this is seen when she is picking up the dollar bills thrown at her.

Eye line match is also used to show how the audience are observing the scene.

A low angle shot is used when showing J. Cole rapping as he is a dominant figure in the music video by telling the woman’s story.  J Cole is represented in this music video as feeling sorry for the women as he appears to be crying for her in one of the shots. 

The mise en scene in the music video contributes to the theme of failed dreams through the story of the club dancer. The video is set in two places a strip club and a theater to show the contrast between the woman’s two “stages”.  The strip club is dark with low lighting where as the theater is bright. The dancer in this music video is wearing white in both settings but in the theater she is wearing a full gown and in the club she wears a costume which is laced like her ballerina shoes to show the link between the past and the present.  This shows the difference between what she wanted to do to what she has become and to show the audience of this music video how far she has fallen. 

The audience are encouraged to buy the record as the narrative portrayed in the music video will cause the listener of the song to take it as a form of encouragement so they won’t turn out how the woman in the music video did.

I would like to include the idea of showing the changing situation of the actor in my own music video. The “flashes” of what they were to what they have become. In the music video the flash backs would be a cut to show how her moves of a ballet dancer matched her moves of being a pole dancer. The cutting rate would be fast in these scenes so it would give the audience a glimpse of her past.  In my music video I would like to incorporate this technique and explore how the cutting rate would show the target audience glimpses of the main characters past.