Star Image Analysis


The star that I will be analysing is called Robert Sylvester Kelly also known as R.kelly who is known for his amazing voice and the songs that he has released.R.Kelly has released over nine successful albums and still going strong he has had a long music career moving from different music genres to the next which has increased his fan base and made him become more ideological powerful. However R Kelly has also been in the limelight for the wrong reasons. In his personal life, Kelly has had several sex scandals reports surfaced that he allegedly married Aaliyah while she was still minor. In 2002, a video of a man purported to be him having sex with what was alleged to be an underage girl was released and R Kelly was indicted on several counts of child pornography. Bootleg copies of that tape became widely available on the black market and over file sharing networks. After several delays, his case went to trial in 2008, with the jury ruling Kelly not guilty on all 14 counts.

When looking at are R.Kelly and the videos and songs that he has created they all show and produce a different side to him. Some expressing him as an wealthy passionate man with a lot of emotion and others conveying him as a thug living that gangster life and all these video are seen as a vehicle for stars to use to express there selves in a particular way depending on what’s going on in there life at that current time. Which R.Kelly does a lot to perhaps to enable him to have that connect with the audience and express his feelings and to generate that relationship between himself and he audience another way of saying this is that he has artistic power having control over his own image.

One famous song that R.Kelly wrote was called ‘I Wish’ which is a song recorded for the album TP-2.com it was released as the album's first single. It spent three weeks at number-one on the US R&B chart and peaked at number fourteen on the US pop chart. The song is dedicated to his mother as well as friends and loved ones who have died. In This video that R Kelly is in he expresses himself as a very emotional person with passion and deep care we see this from his performance in the video looking up to the sky clinching his fist. The tone of his voice in this video also tell the story the setting of the video shows that R.Kelly has a lot of ideological power in the video it also conveys him as an wealthy man however listening to him lyrics he stated that he would give it all up to see him mother once again. Which express how much he loved him mother and that behind the success is a person that has been wounded man and because of these types of songs allowed R.Kelly to become economically powerful allowing himself to connect with his audience expressing his emotions and feelings. In a way R.Kelly conveys that he is lost and confused when there is a pause from the music and a scene appears showing him talking to his mother asking for answers. In some scenes it shows R.Kelly with a bandana around his head and a chain and a big car which is showing Kelly as not just the inspirational emotional type but a bit of a thug.



‘Ignition (Remix)’s a song written and produced by American R&B singer R. Kelly from his fourth album Chocolate Factor. It is viewed as one of his signature songs and has been very popular in the United States and Europe. In this the setting of the video is in a club as soon as we see a big expensive car stop we immediately assume R.Kelly which is shown as that ‘guy’ his a wealth man and if people didn’t know this they know now from his with his appearance the big white fur jacket and his jewellery with champagne in his hand. It has all the classic conventions of a r n b video the beautiful women the money the jewellery his image is expressed as a party exciting character with women dancing around him n him the centre of attention and the way he shows this is his performance him jumping and dancing climbing on tables and drinking. Lyrics relate with some of the visuals for example when he says ‘mama rolling that body’ it shows clips of women dancing and having a good time.



In the final video that I am going to mention Kelly Is portrayed rather differently to the other videos I have spoke about previously but this is evidence to what I had said previously about R.Kelly having the ability to switch to different genres and adapt very comfortable which has helped him increase his fan base and become more economically powerful. The next video is called ‘the storm is over now’ which is a spiritual song expressing R.Kelly as this holy spiritual person .The video is set in the mountains probably used to allow audience to feel more closer to GOD Kelly’s appearance conveys a lot his all white outfit symbolise purity justice and peace allowing us as audience to see .R.Kelly in a more influential but powerful fashion his lyrics also help us understand his struggle but he found his faith and belief in God helped him through the hard time when singing ‘the storm is over now and I can see the sunshine’ .This tone of voice in the song expresses that he is very passionate and he seems very emotional and a strong sense of seriousness in the video and his performance in the video also shows this in the video his jumping and raising his hands toward the sky which helps us see the strong and emotional belief he has in God. At the end of the video R.Kelly falls to his knees given himself to God which also suggests a faithful and passionate R.Kelly he also shows his ideological power using a quire to bring a more powerful and spiritual effect to the video. R.Kelly like some musicians base the songs on what happens in their personal life and here Kelly expresses that he was going though tough times and truant to God and God found a way out for him so Kelly is sending out a message to his audience to always believe in God because he his the guardian of us all.