1998 hit, "If I Could Turn" is a song performed by Hip-Hop Artist R Kelly. It was the 5th song release from his album "R..", the song gained much success and is still known today as one of his most famous songs. The song possesses a slow tempo which is typical of Kelly's style during his early career. The song not only received praise from his homeland, it also had international success peaking in the UK Chart at no. 2, aswell as making a top 10 place in the charts in 11 countries outside of the US.
This is one of Kelly's early more inspirational songs that we spoke about when we researched him earlier in the project. The theme of the song, is one of which many people can relate too. It also advertises his profile as a good guy working in the Hip-Hop/R&B genre. Showing his deep regret for past mistakes. The slow style of the song, brings out the emotional lyrics and this is a reason the song is so popular.
The relationship between the lyrics and visuals is easy to notice from almost the start of the song. As this is an emotional ballad. It is a perfect chance for the video to portray the artist as a multi-talented soul singer/rap artist. This is how he gains his unique "good guy" character despite working in the rap industry, where all artists are stereotypically involved with drugs and guns etc. The start of the video shows a lot of quick cuts including a close up shot showing the girl looking at a picture of herself and R Kelly and then a close up of her face follows, showing her crying. The rest appears to be flashbacks of the past times that have put him in the situation he currently finds himself. It shows him going with his friends and not answering the phone from a girl he is seeing. This shows R Kelly to be youthful and make mistakes, but also be able to admit his mistakes and try to make up for them. It also shows that he is not a player, like his R&B style shows him to be in most of his videos.
There is a long pan shot of him singing, this is in sync with the music and the long cut shows him writing whilst he is singing. This could have been included into the video, as he wrote the song himself, and he would have wanted others to know of his writing skills. This shows that he is not only a singer but he is capable of songwriting aswell. From here a series of shots which have been edited are shown in the video. It shows him doing simple things that he normally does, but backward. This promotes the idea of the song title. By seemingly having the power to turn back the hands of time. There are a wide range of shots showing R Kelly alone singing, this shows his loyalty to the girl involved in the video, and also that he is thinking whilst he is alone, about trying to persuade the girl to be his again. The video uses the style of him doing things backwards throughout the duration of the song. The cutting of the song is quite slow as the song is slow and it doesn't have to keep up with a fast beat. It mainly shows him on his own thinking about past mistakes.
In conclusion, this video is a great video as it is trying to construct the artist as a "good guy". It shows his other talents rather than a R&B artist, by showing him singing a slow ballad, and advertising the fact he can also write songs. This song appeals to a much more mainstream audience, showed by his international success with it. The lyrics and tempo of the song go back to his routes of soul singing at church. But shows that he can do it as a solo artist. It portrays his inspirational and sensitive side as a person. This video is very clever and shows you some of the talents of R Kelly that you might not originally think he had.
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