Media Studies case study –‘Afrika Shox’ by

Leftfield/BambaataaBy Thomas Cutmore

Demonstration Genre Characteristics

• The music video demonstrates the genre through characteristics as it shows the style of music through the scene that it is shot. The music video represents a story more than a ‘performance’ (i.e. just dancing while singing). This shows the way and condition of how black war veterans were treated by the American society by the constant distress and ignorance that the black veteran faces from the opposite race. There is however some performance/dance during the later course of the music video where the veteran finds the white culture breakdancing, but this symbolises the idea of the white taking over the blacks’ culture in music and dance. This idea of the black losing their culture is symbolised by the break dancer kicking the black veteran’s leg off through the dance, which could show that they have/are intentionally taking the black culture away from them

Screenshots

Kicking the veteran’s leg off –symbolises the idea of disabling him to fight back

Relationship between lyrics and visuals

• In the music video there are relationships between the lyrics and visuals which link to the idea of slavery and the harsh conditions that black slaves were in. One relationship in the video is where the black veteran grabs onto the metal fence to reassure his balance, but at the same time the lyrics read “lets get electrified”. This amplifies the lyrics and relates to the problems that the slaves and war veterans faced, which were the electric barbed wire fences.

• Also in the music video where the black war veteran is laying on the floor and Bambaataa notices he is in trouble, he says “do you need a hand?”, which creates a irony with the lyrics as the black war veteran is missing both hands and a leg, showing that he is truly stuck and only one person has actually offered to help, who yet is the same race as the war veteran.

The relationship between lyrics and visuals screenshots

The instrumental music fades down quietly but still plays as Bambaataa asks “Do you need a hand?”

Relationship between the music and visuals

• The first relationship between the music and visuals is shown through the area which the music video has been filmed, which is in New York City. In this video the city is shown to be a ‘magnetic’ city which holds a lot of geometric patterns such as the metallic grey sky scrapers. This amplifies the relation between the music and the visuals as it gives a ‘feel’ to what the music is like as the music genre is dance/dubstep/electro, the colour of the music feels technological as it involves the use of computer and technology to create the music

• Another relationship with is illustrated in the music video is the use of vehicles such as police cars which use strobe or flashing lights, which link to a club experience where this music would be played with using strobe lighting.

• A final reference to the relationship between the music and the visuals is where it uses the underground car parks for the dance routines. This amplifies the music with the visuals as the dubstep music is seen to be generic with the underground car parks as the music can then echo throughout the car park and the dancers/dancing can take place over a wide area.

The use of geometric and ‘metallic’ building structures to reinforce the ‘urban’ feel to the genre of the music

The use of the urban underground car park which amplified the urban feel to the music

The use of flashing/strobe lights as a reference to the clubs that the music may/would be played

The use of close ups and motifs created through this• The artist uses a lot of close ups of the war veteran to show the true

feelings of torture that he is facing, creating and causing the audience to feel sympathetic towards him as we are almost put in his shoes and/or standing with him and seeing from his point of view, knowing how he feels and that having an affect on us as we experience the racism and discrimination that he is facing.

• This creates the motif of us seeing how black veterans and slaves have been treated when they return or arrive to America, which shows the faults and the corruption of society. This causes the video to be subversive against the country which is seen to promote ‘freedom’ for all races as Leftfield is British and therefore promotes his feelings against the States through what he believes and sees in the country, which is racism and segregation of race

The use of close ups to show suffering to create sympathy

The use of voyeurism throughout the music video• Us as an audience are seen as voyeurs in the music video as we are

watching this war veteran suffer his way through New York from a perspective of someone else i.e. another citizen in the video. This is created as we are ‘walking’ beside/along the war veteran and seeing him go through torture as if we were there but not helping him as we are meant to be seeing this segregation take place.

• The music video also causes us to become voyeurs as the camera constantly focuses on the war veterans body in showing the state it is in. As this element is mostly used on females to create a sexual image out of them, this music video uses it in a controversial way as it creates the opposite and yet shows a negative and in a way disturbing view on the soldier as he is being broken down by society

Intertexual references

• Afrika Shox references to many other films and texts in how it represents the scene and the characters. In it’s setting/scenery, the music video links with films; ‘Metropolis’, ‘Blade Runner’, ‘’The Matrix’ and ‘The Third Man’. This links/references with these films as it uses the same representation of a dystopia to it’s setting, making the audience seem lost with the character and almost makes out the area to be a fantasy.

• The music video also has an intertexual reference with the characters as the black war veteran is seen to be an ‘outsider’ and almost dead/zombie like to the way he is seen by the audience, i.e. the cloudy eyes, slurred mouth and the inability to walk well. This almost links to Mary Shelley’s ‘Frankenstein’ as the same attitude taken towards the slaves/war veteran and also the way the war veteran is described.

Mary Shelley’s ‘Frankenstein’ examples with the music video

“The dun-white sockets in which they were set, his shrivelled complexion and straight black lips”

“Eyes they may be called, were fixed on me. His jaws opened (…) one hand was stretched out, seemingly to detain me”

The producer almost makes it out that black people are being alienated and being treated harshly with segregation as if they weren’t even human