'Stan ' Analysis

Here is Eminem's 'Stan'. Within the music video the colour scheme is very dark and has an intense feel due to the gloomy surroundings and foreshadows the rest of the video with violence and death. The video is narrative and has two main characters and shows each of their lives which contrast massively one being the fan, the other the star.

The fan who is named 'Stan' is presented to be 'crazed' and 'obsessed' as during the music video we see his basement, which has been dedicated to Eminem and we see that he has feelings of great desire to meet him. We also get a sense that Stan's life is deeply unsatisfying for him regardless that his girlfriend is expecting a child as he seems completely engrossed with Eminem. During the video the lyrics also suggest that Stan is extremely angry and releases this anger onto his girlfriend using violence and also states that he self-harms giving an overall negative representation towards this character.

Eminem is shown in two different ways, one with his star image and the other as a 'normal' person. When a star, we see him on the stage performing to thousands of fans and contrasting to this we see him being an 'ordinary' person reading and writing alone. This links to Richard Dyers theory of paradox 1 where he states that the 'star must be simultaneously ordinary and extraordinary for the consumer'. Towards the end of the video, we also see him whilst writing a letter, offering advice to Stan and also includes a signed autograph suggesting to the audience that Eminem does care and wants to help showing that he is not just a performer but actually a normal person (this is also highlighted by his clothes he is wearing including his glasses suggesting his intelligence).

Throughout the video we get a sense that tension is rising as the situation between Stan and his girlfriend rapidly spins out of control and Stan becomes more and more aggressive due to Eminem not responding to his letters. As things build, we see the girlfriend (played by Dido) enter the basement and she becomes confronted with the true extent of his idolisation which creates an erratic response from Stan which then leads to the next scene of Stan sending a final message to Eminem. In the last 2 minutes we see Stan drive off the bridge with Dido in the boot ending in a tragic consequence, however a solution is created for the video due to the end of the difficulties for both Stan and Dido (Stan with his obsession and Dido within her abusive relationship).