Changes it's a hip hop genre song by 2Pac featuring Talent.
"The song makes references to the war on drugs, the treatment of black people by the police, racism (explicitly the reconciliation between the black and white races in America), the perpetuation of poverty and its accompanying vicious-cycle value system in urban African American culture, and the difficulties of life in the ghetto."- Wikipedia.
Changes is a West Coast Hip Hop, it's a regional subgenre of the hip hop. The concept started from the Watts Rebeliation when an African-American motorist was stopped for the violation of the traffic, this ending up in a huge fight with the police which escalated in many deaths and fights, with the police implicated. After this event, in 1967 Budd Schulberg, known for its novels and brilliant writings, created the Watts Writers Workshop, with the aim to offer to the people from Whatts neighborhood a safe space where they could express and their feelings. This is how West Coast hip hop has born. As in most of Tupac's songs, he is addressing contemporary social issues including crime, drugs, poverty, and racism, thing that is conventional in the Weast Coast hip hop genre. The video itself it's more of an illustrative one, using the lyrics as the main basis of the visuals and creating a strong bond between the interpretation of the video and the meaning of the verses. The video illustrates sequences from Tupac's life with him performing, being chased by the police, with him in jail, with him and his family and friends, giving a big insight to the audience of how the artist's life actually looks like wit good and bads; letting his fans to enter in his life creating a personal connection with them. Many close-ups on photos with him are constructing the dynamicity of the video, meanwhile, the video is also representing the wrong perspective through media constructed the Tupac's persona, making him appeal aggressive and materialistic. But, Tupac it's proving his real personality through his lyrics, the audience started seeing him as a "symbol of resistance and activism against inequality"- this song and it's video adding great value to its reputation and the way that his audience is perceiving him. The verses have a substantial connection with the video, being directly interconnected and transmitting the same message on a deeper level. Through this music video, Tupac is representing the whole community of suburbs and the challenges that black society is confronting in hard times without justice, being stuck in poverty, crime and racism. The video also polishes the war between black and withe communities and especially white cops that were ignoring the crimes( sometimes they were actually killing people from the black culture ) and drug dealing in order to get rid of some of the governmental expenditures on their welfare.
Despite all the hate between black and white cultures, Tupac is actually hoping for a communiunion of the two, as it says that only this way the problems can be solved and a change can be made if the two cultures put first their kindness and humanity instead of showing off their pride and ego. Through this song and video, the guru of this masterpiece is raising awareness among its audience, by directly showing off the real problems and the truth itself. This can be very important for the audience, not being only a refuge where they can feel understood, but also a motivation for making an action to change the system and to put an end to this war between cultures. The video is constructed in a way that after visualized it, the audience may sit and contemplate what Tupac is talking about.
The artist it is targeting people how are interested in these social issues that he is presenting, an audience that also wants a change and people how can relate and maybe have the same issues and constraints about the society that they live in. I would say that the major audience tends to be Afro-American people, teenagers, adults and elderly as Tupac is reflecting the challenges of that specific culture, but as this song is talking about the reunion of the cultures- the "change", I believe people from all the countries appreciate and listen to this song.
When it comes to collect some effects or some specific things that I would like to integrate into my final work from this music video I think I will also create an illustrative music video and will use some of the effects like cut to the beat, many close-ups, montages, the Glitch effect (distorted TV) that where used with mastery in this video. But also there are some aspects that do not integrate with the style that I would like to conceive and with my idea of creation; for instance the integration of the interview with Tupac and the photos in the video. Also, in the video, the black and white effect can be often observed -an effect that I am not sure yet if I will use or not.
* I attached below the original music video that I analyzed, as it can be found also in other versions, or usually, the song is presented without the music video:
* Below, I put some links with sources from which I did my research about the hip hop subgenre and I read more about Tupac before starting writing about this song, to have a wider background and to get to know the artist better as well as the genre of the song and it's conventions.
West Coast Hip Hop:
About Tupac Shakur:
* Below is an interview with Tupac that really helped me to get more insights into how is he as a person and what are his values and ideas about society, also helped me understand what he wants to transmit through his songs:
Good job, Iasmina! I like your article.