what's the deal with the ubiqitous use of slo-mo in contemporary music videos?

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especially hip-hop videos.

the slo-mo seems to be used in tandem with hip-hop's frequently bloated (and hackneyed) sense of bombast/self-importance.

but it also seems to be an inadvertent "sign" of something relatively lowbrow. or maybe that's just my own prejudices?

just saw a lil' wayne video where almost everything was in slo-mo (including those stock shots of someone walking down a crowded sidewalk). more "arty" hip-hop videos by, say, kanye or nas will utilize slo-mo more infrequently, if at all. but even the "arty" videos seem to accept the rhetoric of slo-mo = Important Things Going On.

this reaches absurdity when you have a slo-mo shot lingering over, say, ashanti getting up from a sofa.

YOUR THOUGHTS ON THIS PHENOMENON:

― amateurist0, Tuesday, 28 February 2006 03:25 (twenty years ago)

continued influence of "sippin' on some syrup"

― Fritz Wollner (Fritz), Tuesday, 28 February 2006 03:31 (twenty years ago)

This thread has been mocked by an administrator.

― ham'ron (dubplatestyle), Tuesday, 28 February 2006 03:31 (twenty years ago)

oh noes it's the hiphop SS

― oops (Oops), Tuesday, 28 February 2006 04:29 (twenty years ago)

ilx sucks

― amateurist0, Tuesday, 28 February 2006 06:36 (twenty years ago)

am, it's because, despite the expensive-looking cars and women, hip-hop artists are very poor, and can only afford enough film stock for about two minutes of shot film. the solution they've found is to slow this down, to cover the whole song.

― The Man Without Shadow (Enrique), Tuesday, 28 February 2006 09:13 (twenty years ago)

amateurist rent one chappelle show for yr answer

― j blount (papa la bas), Tuesday, 28 February 2006 09:28 (twenty years ago)

there might be some roots in some particularly corny porn, yr andrew blake type stuff, etc., hair metal clips did this a good bit too, anything to suggest the epic, lend profundity to the mundane, or to enforce a gaze (with hip-hop i'm guessing it's a good way to counteract the beat?), i'm sure you can trace a straight line to peckinpah.

― j blount (papa la bas), Tuesday, 28 February 2006 09:37 (twenty years ago)

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