Textual Analysis Of Candy Shop - 50 cent

Name: Curtis James Jackson III
Signed To: Interscope Records/ G Unit
Song: Candy Shop
Released In: 8th Febuary 2005


50cent's Candyshop has one distinctive narrative from the lyrics we can gather 50cent's narrative of the video is about a candyshop which we can see at the very end of the video. However the lyrics use a pun in the fact that they turn an innocent 'candy shop' and turn it into an sexual meaning for example the fact 50 cent says 'let you lick the lollypop'this combined with the setting and 50 cent being surrounded by lots of women in provocative clothing would suggest the candyshop has a diffrent meaning. Althought at the end we see the reality picture of a candyshop we see that the term candy shop can symbolize diffrent things to diffrent people eg in 50cents head it has a sexual meaning wheras in another persons head it is just a place where you buy sweets from eg when the women say 15.89 we see its just a normal sweet shop

The music video to 50 cent's Candy Shop has many stereotypical conventions of a Rap/Hip-hop genre music video. An Example of this would be the use expensive jewellery (eg the diamond pendent)also clothing and cars which suggest fame and also 50cent having alot of money in order to afford these which is typical of rappers to have alot of jewellery.We also see 50 cent has alot of tatoo's which is also a stereotypical feature of a rapper in order to make them look more macho. However the music video does go against some of the conventions of a rap music video for example the setting you dont usually see a rap video set in a haunted mansion therefore we see that 50cent has tryed to go against the typical conventions.

Another stereotypical convention used by 50 cent is the representation of women for example the mise-en-scene used eg women dressed in various provocative outfits which could suggest they are sex kittens is typically what would be seen in Rap/Hip-hop videos. There are also elements of dominatrix eg the fact one of the women has a whip in her hand. However this is important as although feminist would say this is a typical video in which a man is using a women to dress provocativly and therefore they would claim it is a patriarchal video. However post-feminists would argue that the fact that the women has a whip would suggest that infact the women is in control and has been empowered there for the video is not patriarchal as 50cent is being dominated by the woman. Also although there is a clear example of the male gaze being implicated through the provocative outfits which the women in the video are wearing there is also a female gaze being shown aswell through the clip where 50 cent has no top on so the video is not just biased as to showing the male gaze but it also has something for women aswell.

50 Cent is signed to Interscope records which has big artists along with 50cent such
as black eyed peas,Dr Dre and Kelis.This shows that the record label is a sucessful one as all of these artists have made alot of money from the music industry and they also have alot of music videos out. The video was distributed on the internet via Youtube also on tv through big music channels like Mtv Base. This was most likely done because the artist knew that most music fans watch music channels like mtv base and therefore targeted the biggest channel in order to promote the video and himself aswell.

The target audience for this video is from about 16+ and it is more likely to be men.This is due to the genre the fact that it is a Rap tune more men are more likely to be intrested in this genre. Also another reason why this video is more likely to be aimed towards men is due to the fact of the content within the video itself the use of alot of women the video is more likely going to apeal to men due to the application of the male gaze. The audience might recieve a pleasure from watching the video due to the diffrent situations presented throughout the video for example the costumes which the women are wearing may able to the audience,also some of the props for example the whip depending on the type of things the audience like can result in the pleasure they get from watching the video.