Music Video: theory
There are a range of important theories we need to learn as part of our Music Video unit.
Both our Music Video Close-Study Products contain representations of black Americans. We therefore need to study a range of theories that address the representation of black or minority ethnic people in the media.
Notes from the lesson
Paul Gilroy: The Black Atlantic
Both our Music Video Close-Study Products contain representations of black Americans. We therefore need to study a range of theories that address the representation of black or minority ethnic people in the media.
Notes from the lesson
Paul Gilroy: The Black Atlantic
Paul Gilroy is a key theorist in A Level Media and has written about race in both the UK and USA.
In The Black Atlantic (1993), Gilroy explores influences on black culture. One review states: “Gilroy’s ‘black Atlantic’ delineates a distinctively modern, cultural-political space that is not specifically African, American, Caribbean, or British, but is, rather, a hybrid mix of all of these at once.”
In The Black Atlantic (1993), Gilroy explores influences on black culture. One review states: “Gilroy’s ‘black Atlantic’ delineates a distinctively modern, cultural-political space that is not specifically African, American, Caribbean, or British, but is, rather, a hybrid mix of all of these at once.”
Gilroy is particularly interested in the idea of black diasporic identity – the feeling of never quite belonging or being accepted in western societies even to this day.
For example, Gilroy points to the slave trade as having a huge cultural influence on modern America – as highlighted by Common’s Letter to the Free.
Diaspora: A term that originates from the Greek word meaning “dispersion,” diaspora refers to the community of people that migrated from their homeland. [Source: facinghistory.org]
Gilroy on black music
Gilroy suggests that black music articulates diasporic experiences of resistance to white capitalist culture.
When writing about British diasporic identities, Gilroy discusses how many black Britons do not feel like they totally belong in Britain but are regarded as ‘English’ when they return to the country of their parents’ birth e.g. the Caribbean or Africa. This can create a sense of never truly belonging anywhere.
Additional theories on race representations and music
Stuart Hall: race representations in media
Stuart Hall: race representations in media
Stuart Hall suggests that audiences often blur race and class which leads to people associating particular races with certain social classes.
He suggests that western cultures are still white dominated and that ethnic minorities in the media are misinterpreted due to underlying racist tendencies. BAME people are often represented as ‘the other’.
He suggests that western cultures are still white dominated and that ethnic minorities in the media are misinterpreted due to underlying racist tendencies. BAME people are often represented as ‘the other’.
Hall outlined three black characterisations in American media:
·The Slave figure: “the faithful fieldhand… attached and devoted to ‘his’ master.” (Hall 1995)
·The Native: primitive, cheating, savage, barbarian, criminal.
·The Clown/Entertainer: a performer – “implying an ‘innate’ humour in the black man.” (Hall 1995)
Tricia Rose: Black Noise (1994)
Tricia Rose was one of the first academics to study the cultural impact of the hip hop genre in her influential book Black Noise: Rap Music and Black Culture in Contemporary America (1994).
Rose suggested that hip hop initially gave audiences an insight into the lives of young, black, urban Americans and also gave them a voice (including empowering female artists). However, Rose has since criticised commercial hip hop and suggests black culture has been appropriated and exploited by capitalism.
Tricia Rose was one of the first academics to study the cultural impact of the hip hop genre in her influential book Black Noise: Rap Music and Black Culture in Contemporary America (1994).
Rose suggested that hip hop initially gave audiences an insight into the lives of young, black, urban Americans and also gave them a voice (including empowering female artists). However, Rose has since criticised commercial hip hop and suggests black culture has been appropriated and exploited by capitalism.
Michael Eric Dyson: Know What I Mean (2007)
Georgetown University Professor of Sociology Michael Eric Dyson has passionately defended both hip hop and black culture – Jay-Z describes him as “the hip hop intellectual”.
https://youtu.be/q6rBbT2UktU
Dyson suggests that political hip hop in the 1990s didn’t get the credit (or commercial success) it deserved and this led to the rap music of today – which can be flashy, sexualised and glamorising criminal behaviour.
https://youtu.be/q6rBbT2UktU
Dyson suggests that political hip hop in the 1990s didn’t get the credit (or commercial success) it deserved and this led to the rap music of today – which can be flashy, sexualised and glamorising criminal behaviour.
Dyson states: “Hip hop music is important precisely because it sheds light on contemporary politics, history and race. At its best, hip hop gives voice to marginal black youth we are not used to hearing from on such critics. Sadly, the enlightened aspects of hip hop are overlooked by critics who are out to satisfy a grudge against black youth culture…” Michael Eric Dyson, Know What I Mean (2007)
Hip hop debate - full video
This appears to be the full Google debate on hip hop if you want to watch more from where those extracts came from.
Hip hop debate - full video
This appears to be the full Google debate on hip hop if you want to watch more from where those extracts came from.
Childish Gambino, the musical stage name of writer and performer Donald Glover, has just released a critique of American culture and Donald Trump with This Is America.
Racking up 10m views in 24 hours and already dubbed ‘genius’ and ‘a masterpiece’, the music video is a satirical comment on American culture, racism and gun violence.
Racking up 10m views in 24 hours and already dubbed ‘genius’ and ‘a masterpiece’, the music video is a satirical comment on American culture, racism and gun violence.
1) How does the This Is America video meet the key conventions of a music video?
2) What comment is the video making on American culture, racism and gun violence?
The music video is exploring the relationship between the dancing and partying and violence that combine to make up so much of both entertainment and black life in America. To be black in America—at any given time, vulnerable to joy or to destruction. When his character is not dancing, he is killing. Childish Gambino is playing Jim Crow
3) Write an analysis of the video applying the theories we have learned: Gilroy, Hall, Rose and Dyson.
Gilroy:Black Atlantic - 'the idea of the black culture never quite belonging or being accepted in the western society even to this day’ we see this in the music video how the black people are perceived as rebels and against society. They don’t feel that their culture fits in.
Hall - Hall outlined three black characterisations in American media:
· The Slave figure: “the faithful fieldhand… attached and devoted to ‘his’ master.”
· The Native: primitive, cheating, savage, barbarian, criminal.
· The Clown/Entertainer: a performer – “implying an ‘innate’ humour in the black man.”
We see these characteristics outlined in the music video through the way that the slave figure is present throughout the video (the people running to help cover the killings. The boy running to hide the gun, person taking the body away.
The Native is the majority of people who we see in the background jumping on cars and running around the place
The Clown/Entertainer - is Childish Gambino in the music video - his character is the one who implies innate humour.
Read this Guardian feature on This Is America - including the comments below.We see these characteristics outlined in the music video through the way that the slave figure is present throughout the video (the people running to help cover the killings. The boy running to hide the gun, person taking the body away.
The Native is the majority of people who we see in the background jumping on cars and running around the place
The Clown/Entertainer - is Childish Gambino in the music video - his character is the one who implies innate humour.
4) What are the three interpretations suggested in the article?
1) He’s playing Jim Crow
2) He’s dumping us with dance
3) He’s taking on the police
5) What alternative interpretations of the video are offered in the comments 'below the line’
An interpretation a user made was that the song is ‘just music’. Another interpretation could be that towards the end of the video he is running away which could suggest two reasons... 1) he is finally free and not controlled by the police or a completely opposite suggestion 2) that he is running away from the police that want to shoot him.
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