The music video for Eminem's "Stan" tells the story of an obsessed fan named Stan who loses touch with reality in his fandom of Eminem. The video uses dark imagery and lighting to portray Stan's declining mental state. It culminates in Stan killing himself, his pregnant girlfriend, and their unborn child after not getting a response from Eminem to his numerous letters. In contrast, Katy Perry's "Last Friday Night" depicts a geeky teenage girl who transforms her look to fit in at a house party, only to regret it when she is harassed by the popular guy. The video has a lighter tone and uses stylistic elements more common to pop music videos like costumes and scenes representing

1. Sonia Filipa Soares-Eusebio
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Stan
by Eminem
The music video Stan by Eminem is about an obsessed fan that doesn’t know when enough is
enough. This video is considering very unconventional in the hip hop genre. Normal hip hop videos
mention topics such as money and male gaze theory however Eminem has taken it further to send a
message out to his fans to not lose sight of what really matters while pursuing their favourite artists
and Stan the character and main focus embodies this fully.
Pathetic fallacy is a large part of this music
video as the dreary weather represents
stans state of mind/ emotions. This leads
us to believe that the video holds dark
theme that will end up spiralling out of
control much like the weather .
This goes on throughout the whole music
video, as a reminder of stans unsteady
mindset.
The room is dark to represent the
dark nature of the song/ lyrics. This is
unconventional for a hip-hop music
video and is a theme that continues
throughout the video.
This draws more attention to
Eminem’s lyrics it is unusual for a hip-
hop video, which would normally
contain male gaze theory however it
does not and so the audience stay
attentive to the lyrics and video as
they match up and deliver a message
to those listening close enough to understand the serious matter the rapper discusses.
Stan’s girlfriend is wearing blue the colour of loyalty and
bravery (despite her boyfriend’s crazy nature). This also
contrasts with the dark moody atmosphere in the air it’s
like she and her child are the only good in that situation.
(Dark lighting matching the depressing mood throughout
the music video)

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Stan the main character and general
focus of the video was wearing a
white shirt in some cultures this
symbolises an unstable mind.
The moon is white another name for
the moon is lunar. Therefore, the
colour white symbolise LUNACY.
Stories to do with werewolves often
associate with the moon transforming them or making them crazy.
The setting is that of a lower class, in (most
of his fans come from lower class society) a
rundown, old & worn house, giving a sense
of struggle.
Stan’s lost his mind in this obsession over
Eminem so it’s natural he makes absolutely
no time for work or his family.
In this image, his girlfriend needs an
ingredient they do not have so she mentions
it and Stan flips out because she is assumed to be interrupting an Eminem Advert or music video.
Stan covers the picture of him and his girlfriend by
swapping his girlfriend with Eminem this shows how
far his obsession has grown and worsened as he
cannot differentiate or stop himself from watching
him.
It also signifies the change in priorities for Stan he
feels disconnected to his girlfriend and this is a huge leap to his undoing as he has a child on the way
and his mind has completely locked on to this ideal image of Eminem, so we have assumed he’s lost
his grasp of reality.

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This is the next scene after the picture, which shows
the couple in bed together with the girlfriend and
Stan exactly where they would be in the photo by
this point we pity the girlfriend as she is ignored and
rejected for not being Eminem.
On the other hand, she is being punished for having
no idea how important Eminem is, and at this point,
she is worried for her child and herself so she is restless.
Stan has basically trapped his girlfriend in this terrible
delusion of his she can’t leave because she’s pregnant
with his child so she’s trapped in the relationship but she
stays strong because she is loyal and brave.
She is the only good pure being in the dark and broken
house.
Hip-hop music videos include lip-syncing and that is a
feature this unconventional video maintains as the main
character Stan lip-syncs when in reality Eminem is the
one rapping.
Stan’s obsession has gotten to the point he would
leave a permanent reminder on his body. Not only
that but he also wastes the money he should be
using to take care of his family on something so
stupid instead of taking care of expenses / debts.
This deepens the obsse

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Stan has a lot of flash backs to concerts and places
where he met Eminem face to face these are times
when his obsession got to the point where he tried
his best to get tickets (as this is the effort of someone
from the lower class).
‘You didn't have to, but you coulda signed an
autograph’ these lyrics symbolise Stan’s lower class
and lack of education due to how he is pronouncing and saying some things in the rap.
The basement resembles Stan’s mind and how dark,
scary and overall disturbing it is; this is his sanctuary
for his obsession his holy ground in some ways.
Stan’s girlfriend walks into the basement, which
resembles Stan’s mind-set so we assume that he
feels like she is intruding in his privacy/ space.
Moreover, this ends badly for her, as Stan seems to
have a mental break down at her intrusion into his
sanctuary.
This scene in my opinion is Stan’s mind finally snapping this
is shown through the weather being crazy strong and
dangerous so this is Stan being reckless as he is the only one
who would drive during this time.
He is losing his mind and intentionally driving to his death
however, he ends up dying an accidental death, taking his
girlfriend and their unborn child with him. Locking his
pregnant girlfriend in the car trunk is really when we realize
how dangerous this obsession is.
(He is driving to his death, as there was no way it would end with him getting out of this situation
unscathed).

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Eminem finally gets all the letters
Stan has been sending and he
begins writing back telling him that
“I really think you and your
girlfriend need each other”
however this advice has come too
late as Stan has destroyed his light
(child and girlfriend) by failing to
snap out of the darkness.
Eminem continues on to say about
how he does read his letter but he’s been busy , this adds to the sadness as Eminem advises Stan to
look around and see he has everything but Stan has already lost it and done something irreversible
Stan already killed himself and his pregnant girlfriend a week ago.
After the flash of lightening an image of Stan appears in
the window as if looking in on Eminem a final time and it
signifies that it is over/ the remnants of his memories
are left behind.
On the other hand, this may be worse he has now
achieved an ultimate level of his obsession he can now
watch slim whenever and wherever he goes and this sends a chill down the audience’s spines as it
should be over now or maybe it’s only the beginning (the ending is a tad unclear and it frightens us
more).
Last Friday night
By Katy Perry
The music video last Friday night by Katy Perry is about a geeky teenage girl who is studying but
can’t due to the party next Door, and so she goes over there in the spirit of “ if you can’t beat ‘em
join ‘em” but she doesn’t fit in due to her nerdy features. then she changes her whole appearance to
fit in with the cool crowd but in the end the moral of the video is to be who you are and don’t judge
a book by its cover as you are fine as you are.

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The beginning was like a mini film as there is a
wide shot of the house and neighbourhood
this is slightly unconventional in a pop music
video. This is also the beginning of the
aftermath (the day after the happenings)
Katy Perry as Kathy Beth Terry
wakes up from last night’s
previous events and is in shock as
all around her is a mess. In
addition, this is the
unconventional start of the music
video as these scenes are never
included but it also makes sense
as the song is called ‘last Friday
night’ so it means she is looking
back or trying to remember last night’s events.
Every time she goes to
remember, something from last
night the blurring transition is
used to symbolise the return to
the memories or the daydream
state (that the geeky person
shows).It shows the blurry image
she has of the night before.
this is the beginning of what started
off as last night’s events, she’s home
alone and the sound of the party
starts getting too much for her to
handle so she stands up to go and
check it out or tell her neighbour off.
She wears a shirt that is the colour
pink to symbolise femininity and girly
attitude (her room is girly too so it

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backs up the point that she is girly and geeky).
Rebecca Black answers the
door she links into the song as
she has her own song called
‘Friday’ and this song is joined
into Katy Perry’s song so that
everyone knows that Fridays
are the nights to have fun,
chill out, and have a party.
bright colours that symbolise a positive happy
occasion the parties theme is 80’s / 90’s which
explains all the bright colours and patterned
clothes though this is set in modern day.
Geeky boy he wears glasses and braces so we
automatically assume he is not the coolest person
at school (outcast?).
He has dream sequences of him as the knight in
shining armour with Kathy (Katy Perry) as his
damsel in distress (every teen person’s basic
thought); he starts a live action role-play that
reiterates his geeky gaming guy persona. Though
he is, better than most people who need a girl to be
busty and ‘perfect’ he actually likes her as she is.

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the popular guy as most guys likes the
‘perfect’ girl that has a big bust and is well
proportioned however when he walks in he
gives Kathy (Katy Perry) a dirty look as she
isn’t his type of ideal girl.
Right after he gives her the look he goes
straight for the pretty girl and starts showing
off trying to win her over but then again how
can she not win him over if he is the whole deal he
has the abs etc.
He wears a varsity jacket, which symbolises the
guy everyone likes and talks to the way he has
been acting so far, is also symbolic of this perfect
guy image he has going on for him.
Rebecca doesn’t want her to feel bad so she sets out on the
task to make her look like his type to get this guy’s attention
and she starts changing her clothes hair and makeup so as to
make him notice her and she works her magic on her
changing all the geeky things about her.
Kathy changes into a different person all together she wears bright
clothes and clothes that match with the 80’s 90’s theme the house party is
using however, she changes her whole image she’s showing so much more
skin than before and the colours she is wearing are eye catching and make
people turn to look at her.

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On the stair case as she walks down they
use a dramatic tilt shot to show her off
more and it is the beginning of the male
gaze theory which is often in a pop music
video she dresses up and shows herself off
to get the guys attention (girl has to be
beautiful to get guys attention).
Wii game ‘just dance’ is what they are playing
together and it’s ironic as Katy Perry is
featured in it and they’re playing with the
character names as if to emphasise the
difference in the person in the videos.
She’s become the focus of the party right now, her makeover
has made her into a ‘popular’ which is weird as when she
changes appearance and keeps her personality she’s
considered so much more popular. And it just highlights
societies need for beauty and perfection as they could only
truly accept her when her appearance changed to match her
spectacular personality.
She’s begun using much more sexual gestures and this is
contributing to the stares she’s getting from the males in
the room as they find her to be very pretty and so she’s
enjoying the attention and acting in accordance to what
popular people would do she’s just trying to fit in.

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He was a saxophone player in the 1980’s and is
used in this video as her uncle Kenny and he
adds to the theme as he uses an instrument
that’s mostly associated with the time period
the party is themed after.
she gets so drunk by the end that she’s a
tad bit reckless and takes the party to
her house next door and (naturally) her
house gets wrecked by the immature
and totally wasted teens.
In the photo she’s dancing with the
popular guy but it doesn’t seem like
she’s as bothered by his presence as she
was before she seems a lot more calm
about him being near her like she can’t remember what she saw in him to begin with (or she’s just so
drunk she doesn’t care).
This taking people to her home is going to end up getting her in trouble with her parents, at least
that is what we expect.
Well at this point in the video we think it’s for the
best that she shouldn’t have changed as she gets
harassed by the popular guy thinking she’d fall for
his charm instantly. However, she seems to hate
the groping and his behaviour towards her, this
shows that it was not worth it to change your
appearance for someone who only wants your
body.
Even after she shows her disgust, he still only stares at her body
furthering our belief that male gaze theory has come fully into play by
this point.

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the geeky guy (knight in shining armour) sees him
harassing the girl he likes and stops it, this shows that
not all guys only look at women for their bodies as he
seems to seriously like her as she is and so he fights for
her.
He takes out the guy that is supposed to be stronger
and better than him with one punch.
The guy that sees her for who she is and how
she is puts her glasses on her and makes sure
she is ok and gazes at her lovingly.
Faced all his trials and prevailed saved the
damsel in distress happily ever after.
At the end of the video there is the film ending
with the parents coming home and finding the
house a mess however they go lightly on her and
tell her about when they were young we
assume this is because they are rich and don’t
really have to worry about this stuff, as they
have money.

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Compare and Contrast the two music videos
Stan is different from last Friday night (L.F.N) as they come from different genre’s Stan’s a hip hop
and L.F.N is a pop. L.F.N has a much more of a conventional music video than Stan does however;
they both have their unconventional traits (Stan being completely unconventional).
L.F.N uses cuts to different scenes as if taking pictures, which explains all the pictures on the blog
however Stan’s scene changes on the beat, and so they differ once again in the transition from scene
to scene.
In L.F.N, they use very intimate camera shots like the tilt shot when she descends the steps, which
focuses on her body and just adds to the male gaze theory, as if a guy were looking at her. Stan also
uses intimate shots around the main character example would be the close ups to Stan and
Eminem’s face as well as the girlfriend these personalize the link between the character and
audience.
However, all in all the videos where polar opposites Stan was much more dark and depressing (dark
theme) and L.F.N was brightly coloured with great positive mood and setting they both had good
messages however the similarities were few.
Stan is based off the poor background whereas L.F.N is based off a rich family, you see the difference
between the two as Stan has his ‘girlfriend’ pregnant whereas the rich family is married with a
daughter.