Eminem - Stan
The song of Stan by Eminem is in the genre of hip-hop and rap music and features the singer Dido. The video itself is a narrative style of video with no performance in it, however the lyrics are talked/rapped by those in the music video since it forms a storyline and involves the troubled character of Stan who is a huge fan of Eminem. He idolizes him, even more than his pregnant girlfriend who is never named but is played by Dido.
There is a direct link between the lyrics and the music video since the vid
eo acts out the lyrics since they are a story in themselves. Apart from the Dido-sung parts of the song, it is all said as if it is a letter and this is them represented in the video with Stan writing to Eminem and speaking in his head what he is writing. Everything Stan writes about is how he idolizes Eminem and how he wants him to contact him "I left my cell, my pager, and my home phone at the bottom". The camera also pans across the wall to reveal that it's covered in Emine
m posters and pictures of him, further proof that Stan is obsessed with him. As the song progresses, and Stan writes more letters, he becomes increasingly fustrated and angry with Eminen for not replying to his letters. By the end of Stan's part of the song, all of the amiration he had for him had turned into hate, and Stan couldn't handle that, and subsequently killed himself and his pregnant girlfriend. During the scene where Stan writes the first letter, he looks relatively calm and relaxed, as if writing to Eminem is an escape from real life. While writing the second, he had become more frustrated, which is clear in his face as he looks quite annoyed, and what he says is more criticism than admiration. Finally with the cassette recording, all the initial love and admiration has gone and he is shouting into the recording while 'doing 90 on the fr
eeway' in the rain and dark, after drinking vodka, with his girlfriend in the boot. After the car plunges into the river, there is a clear link between the Dido sung lyrics and what is being seen. The line 'The morning rain clouds up my window, and I can't see at all, and even if I could it'll all be gray' relates to what is being seen, with rain falling onto the car and water filling up the window, which mirrors what is being said in the first part of the line, before cutting to an underwater shot of the grey, murky water, which mirrors the second part of the line.
The song of Stan by Eminem is in the genre of hip-hop and rap music and features the singer Dido. The video itself is a narrative style of video with no performance in it, however the lyrics are talked/rapped by those in the music video since it forms a storyline and involves the troubled character of Stan who is a huge fan of Eminem. He idolizes him, even more than his pregnant girlfriend who is never named but is played by Dido.
There is a direct link between the lyrics and the music video since the vid
eo acts out the lyrics since they are a story in themselves. Apart from the Dido-sung parts of the song, it is all said as if it is a letter and this is them represented in the video with Stan writing to Eminem and speaking in his head what he is writing. Everything Stan writes about is how he idolizes Eminem and how he wants him to contact him "I left my cell, my pager, and my home phone at the bottom". The camera also pans across the wall to reveal that it's covered in Eminem posters and pictures of him, further proof that Stan is obsessed with him. As the song progresses, and Stan writes more letters, he becomes increasingly fustrated and angry with Eminen for not replying to his letters. By the end of Stan's part of the song, all of the amiration he had for him had turned into hate, and Stan couldn't handle that, and subsequently killed himself and his pregnant girlfriend. During the scene where Stan writes the first letter, he looks relatively calm and relaxed, as if writing to Eminem is an escape from real life. While writing the second, he had become more frustrated, which is clear in his face as he looks quite annoyed, and what he says is more criticism than admiration. Finally with the cassette recording, all the initial love and admiration has gone and he is shouting into the recording while 'doing 90 on the freeway' in the rain and dark, after drinking vodka, with his girlfriend in the boot. After the car plunges into the river, there is a clear link between the Dido sung lyrics and what is being seen. The line 'The morning rain clouds up my window, and I can't see at all, and even if I could it'll all be gray' relates to what is being seen, with rain falling onto the car and water filling up the window, which mirrors what is being said in the first part of the line, before cutting to an underwater shot of the grey, murky water, which mirrors the second part of the line.Despite being a song by Eminem, he doesnt appear himself too often in the video untill after the car has gone into the river. Before, there are just short clips of him at a live show, and the posters of him at Stan's house. Eminem writes one letter back to Stan at the end which is the only part of the song sung in the style/voice of Eminem himself, since the Stan parts are sung by Eminem in a different style/voice. Stan is the main focus of the video, but he styles himself on Eminem, such as short bleached hair, and the baggy white t-shirt, so the audience relates him to Eminem,
despite it not actually being him. When Eminem does appear on screen properly to write a letter, he looks different to how Stan was, looking smarter with things like reading glasses and tidy hair. This could show that Stan was interpreting the character Eminem becomes when he raps and not Eminem himself. The lyrics also reflect this since Eminem says to Stan that he is 'just clowning' with some of the lyrics implying that they shouldnt be taken seriously.There is a very dark feeling to this song and video. Both of them combined creates the whole story of what happens. Listening to the song without the video makes it harder to understand and watching the video without the song makes it even harder to understand, but bring the two together and it all makes sense. From it all, there is the message of not taking songs too seriously since not everything is true, it's just words, which makes up a song which can be sold to make money. Stan is shown to be one of those people who are influenced too easily and reads into songs too much. 
