Video Deconstruction TLC- No Scrubs

NO SCRUBS

Artist: TLC

Song: No Scrubs

Album: Fan mail

Year:1999

Director: Hype Williams

Genre: R&B

TA: 15-34 both sexes

Performance

"No Scrubs" is a 1999 song recorded by R&B girl group TLC for their album FanMail. Released as the album's first single, "No Scrubs" became TLC's third number-one single and eighth top 10 single on the Billboard Hot 100. It also earned them their second Grammy nomination for Record of the Year. The single is generally considered to be one of the group's signature songs and was the 2nd biggest Hot 100 single of 1999, according to Billboard's Year End Charts. The video won the group the 1999 MTV Video Music Award for Best Group Video. - Wikipedia

1. This video is a lot different to the R&B videos of these days. But in some ways it is very similar. The outfits the girls wear; they have their belly's on show, this is still present today although many of the top female artists wear a lot less, this shows supports the male gaze theory and shows that it was present 20 years ago. The The camera shots used are slightly different: very lovw angle shots, where the camera is practically underneath the artist arn't used this days because they are very unflattering. They are used frequently in this video.

screen grabs

2. TLC consists of 3 females. They each have their own seperate scenes in this video. The shots are mainly CU of each of their faces and these are edited together. As already said very low angle shot are used as well as very high angle shots. There is also a group scene where they are all together lip-syncing and dancing, they wear similar outfits of black and silver. There is very little chroeography in this video.

Jackson Scream

3. The video has intertexual references to Michael and Janet Jacksons song 'Scream'. All the back grounds are bright white and they wear black to contrast this.