This is a performance of Eminem at the MTV awards 2000. He performed parts of two songs, The Real Slim Shady and The Way I Am. I chose this because I am already a fan of Eminem and I have seen bits and heard about this performance and I was intrigued to check it out. This performance is famous for the start of the performance, which I will get into later.
This was performed at the MTV awards, which in 2000 was a massive event. As you can tell in the video there is quite a big audience, which really helps this performance. This performance taking place at the biggest award show in the world helps this performance as the first song is about how all big celebrities and award shows are fake, and he’s performing at one of them. As you can tell in the video the audience are enjoying the performance, and in this case a bigger audience works better.
As this is a solo performance, there is no communication with anyone else, however he does communicate with the audience. During the first song, when he is walking through the audience, he stops walking and interacts with an audience member. During the second song, he kneels down so he is closer to the audience. All this shows how good of a performer Eminem is as he knows how to engage with an audience and make them more engaged with the performance.
The stage presentation in this performance starts off with it not actually being on the stage. It starts off with him walking to the stage being followed by many lookalikes, this fits with the song as the song is about how there are many people like him, and he is being followed by lookalikes. There isn’t much to say about the lighting or the staging when he is on stage, as the stage was being used for many acts that night, there wasn’t much they could do. He will walk about during the performance sometimes, or he will kneel down or stand still. He does what he can to make the performance not boring. He also has a very good stage presence as it feels effortless that he is putting on this character, and he commands the stage.
There aren’t much dynamics in these songs, as most of the songs stay the same volume during the verse, the chorus is a little bit louder but not anything noticeable. Both these songs have very good rhythm, or flow as it is called in rapping. Especially on the second song, The Way I Am. The flow is very good on the first song as well and cause the verses are longer it takes more skill. The structure of both the songs is quite basic, the first song is verse, chorus, verse then chorus. However, the verses aren’t the normal 16 bar, they are longer and the rhymes aren’t just at the end of the bars they are throughout. For the second song, the structure is chorus, verse then chorus. It is the same case as the first song with the bars being more than 16 bars and the rhymes are throughout the bars.