Suit & Tie by Justin Timberlake featuring Jay Z

Suit & Tie is an R&B/Pop song by Justin Timberlake featuring Jay Z, the song was the first released under his third studio album the 20/20 Experience. The music video was directed by the famous movie director David Fincher, who worked with Timberlake in the Social Network. The song is shot entirely in black and white, but uses this in a different way compared to other music video which I have analysed such as Mercy.

The music video gives this mid-20th Century looks, through the use of a band that could be found in bars and clubs of the time, with the artists singing with old style microphones. This old fashioned appearance is further added by the black and white used. Instead of doing this to make the setting dark and gloomy, it instead goes well with the mid-20th century look through everything being filmed this way. But also it goes well with the song title Suit & Tie through a suit and tie being black and white. This music video uses the effect very differently compared to the other artists.

The songs setting also changes, throughout switching between a stage with the artist performing and a music studio. The stage scene has some great lighting on the artist and uses lenses flairs on the light making them brighter giving this connotation to the audience of the glamour and showbiz of music which can be added through the fashion everyone wears in the song. The scenes in the recording studio I believe are added as a way of showing Justin Timberlake is back in music after going into acting for a long time. Many of the scenes also include the artist editing the song not just singing.

Many silhouettes of the artist are used; this suits (If you pardon the pun.) the black and white premise of mid-20th century and suits and ties which all carry the colours of black and white. Also not seeing the main artist clearly can be connoted to being on stage where certain lighting techniques are done to make a silhouette effect. This is very evident through the song being set on a stage.

In conclusion, Suit and Tie is very useful in research to my music video as it demonstrates other uses of black and white instead creating dark and evil emotions to the audience. Also the music video shows how black and white can be used to make good visuals such as silhouettes and using the lighting to make the audience focus on the artists more.

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