Intertextuality in Afrika Shox

Media Language: Goodwin's Theory of Music Videos

The 'Afrika Shox' music video could be an intertextual reference to Blade Runner, as the replicants in the film are portrayed as slaves, and are non-human characters. The black man in the video is seen as a stranger or an 'alien' and therefore this relates to the the replicants in Blade Runner.

At the end of Blade Runner there are flashing lights on the cars, which are also used around New York city in 'Afrika Shox' through the use of traffic lights and police cars. This also adds the to the electro genre of the music.



Claude Levis Strauss's narrative theory of binary opposites

Within 'Afrika Shox' the black man is portray as a binary opposite to the white people. The high angle shot of the white man suggests that he has high class and the black man has low class. This is also portrayed by the way that the black man staggers and stumbles through the streets unlike anybody else in the video.

The Rumble Strips - Not The Only Person

This video is set in London, and this is shown through the use of an underground train at the beginning. The people in hoodies and the gritty buildings portray London as quite a rough area, and adds to the genre characteristics. The lead singer's outfit also adds to the genre and helps to create a sense of the type of audience in which the video is aimed at. 

The lyrics "not the only person to get it wrong" could relate to the narrative in the video. It could be suggested that as the followers build up behind the singer, the more are confessing to be wrong in some way and could be fans of the music. Also when 'bank notes' is sung the singer drops money on the floor. The main singer knows he is more powerful than the gang and he his portrayed this way, by the way they all follow him. 

Metronomy

'Thing For Me' by Metronomy is a postmodern video because the dancing in the video is very ironic and the speech bubbles are an intertexual reference to comic books as it 'borrows' the meaning, which also adds to its low culture. Also the structure is played with by the playing with the karoke words on the screen and are replaced by meaningless words with no depth. The video is superficial because of the strange outfits and the way that the karoke comes to life.

Song Choice

Me and Holly chose the song;Tell It To The Marines - 'Flare Guns' because we thought it was an exciting track and would give us many opportunities to explore our own ideas,shots and the ability to use varied editing. The song is in the indie genre and we particularly like the opening to the song as it builds up to the start of the lyrics. The lyrics are fairly forceful and contain meanings and emotion. I think this will encourage us to use the meanings and express them into our shots by filming quick, sharp shots during the performance to emphasize the strong emotion.

Lyrics: 

It feels like the hope I found in madness
was encouraged by the news I heard that day
And my friends hold me together
And push me back to where reality is.
'Cause we don't need a reason to be sorry 
'Cause we don't need to try.

Alive, alive, alive!
We're alive and well.
"Get out this town, get out this town, get out"
"Get out this town, get out this town, get out"

As my life falls right away from me
And this time I want to fall with it.
I guess I'm scared of dying cold and lonely
My heart and lungs tire at my needs.
'Cause we don't need a reason to be sorry.
'Cause we don't need to try.

 Alive, alive, alive!
We're alive and well.
"Get out this town, get out this town, get out"
"Get out this town, get out this town, get out"

 Alive, alive, alive!
We're alive and well.
"Get out this town, get out this town, get out"
"Get out this town, get out this town, get out"

 Alive, alive, alive!
We're alive and well.

REM - 'Everybody Hurts'

The video uses interweaving narratives as it shows many different people that are thematically linked and share the same feelings and emotions. The lead singer in the video is the protagonist. He is the one who holds everybody and all the aspects together, and even the audience can relate to him. The antagonist in the video is probably the traffic jam, or could be the same negative emotion that is brought out through the characters. To show the people's thoughts, captions appear at the bottom of the screen to add to the impressionist narrative. The video could apply to the Todoravian narrative, because it does build up to a climax towards the end as all the different narratives become one when they escape the traffic jam, therefore this is the 'new equilibrium' part of the three part narrative. And the traffic jam itself would be the 'disequilibrium'.

Micah P Hinson - 'Beneath The Rose'      




Throughout this music video, an enigma code is being created by building up a mystery as to why there are snails and where they are going. The fact that it is sped up adds to the linear affect, and also helps to drive the audience towards the unanswered question. The video also follows the Todoravian narrative in some ways because, at the end when the characters appear it gives more of an impression of the narrative, and what messages are being given out. 

Arctic Monkeys - 'A view from the Afternoon'



In 'A view from the Afternoon' video, the visuals are very repetative as they include the same musician drumming throughout the whole video. It is also circular because the effect used at the beginning of water splashing over him, is repeated towards the end of the video. An enigma code is created because the audience are led to wonder why he is drumming through all the night and day, however isn't doesn't particularly follow the Todoravian narrative because there is not really a resolution at the end of the video.

Three chosen music videos from musicvideojam.com

This video stood out to me because the idea was very unique and included many orginal costumes and action techniques, such as skate boarding and surfing. The shots at the beginning are extremely fast which gets the pace going really well. The video is quite postmodern as it includes many 'silly' and artificical aspects, and I think this is really effective.

Leftfield - Afrika Shox

The genre of music in represented in this video continuously using many different techniques. For example, when the band start vocalising it is over a tannoy which is distorted which gives the effect of electro/techno music. Another feature which shows the genre of this music is the flashing lights on the taxi and the 'WALK' sign which suggests technology, it is also ironic as he cannot walk well. 

Through the entire video the scenery is gritty and grey which reflects on the genre of the music and the modern technology  such as CDs, Phones, Computers. This adds to the electric genre and it also gives the whole video a noir feel as the lighting is quite dark.

This music video is set in New York which indicates the urban nature of the genre. New York is being represented as a dystopic city which is intertextual to Sin City, as it uses dark, hopeless noir lighting and Sin city is a typical example of film noir. In the opening of Sin City there is a sense of threat and menace as a woman is killed within the first few minutes and the same atmosphere is portrayed in the Africa Shox music video.

The music video could also be an intertextual reference to Blade Runner, as the replicants in the film are portrayed as slaves to the humans. This relates to the black man in Afrika Shox who is viewed as inferior by the white inhabitants of New York as he staggers around the city. At the end of Blade Runner there are flashing lights on the cars, which are also used around New York city in the music video.

The car park is underground which indicates the underground nature of the dubstep genre.

Throughout the music video the protagonist is an outcast and a alien in a strange land. This is a metaphor of the slave trade which portrays him as an underdog to society. For example, a low angle shot is used of a middle aged white man looking down on him. This contrasts to the fact that the Africans brought popular music into the world therefore it is ironic that he is being belittled and discriminated against, connoting that the desperate black man is not human, and that his culture had been hijacked by the white artists. For example, the break dancers in the music video are white.  

The lyrics are matched with the visuals, for example, when he has his hands on the fence the lyrics are 'let's get electrified' this gives the impression of him being kept as a prisoner and trapped by the electric fence. Also the shot of him being behind fence separates us from him which could suggest he is representing Africa.