Afrika Shox Analysis

1) Media Forms and conventions

The choice of images can tell us that this genre of music is dance/hip-hop, this can be seen by the opening shot of the Police car, with its sirens flashing, signifying this is a hip-hop/dance music video, also the shots are taken from a downtown area of a city, we can see rubbish in the alley way, and rundown buildings, associating the music with the location gives us a well established idea of the genre.

Also the increase of the presence of law enforcers, first we see a Police car, with its “blues and twos on” as well as the security guard who we see at first facing the camera, then turns to reveal his true identity as a security guard, this again reveals the genre of the music video.

The only link between the lyrics and the music video that I can see is when the main character grabs hold of a fence (see above) and the lyrics are “Let's get electrified”, this is adds a sense of humour to the music video, it suggests that the fence that the main character grabbed hold of could be electrified and that he’s risking his life being somewhere where he doesn’t belong.

The music is linked to the video in some ways, but there is very high amount of random movements and actions done by the main character, this may be done to confuse and add a sense of “rawness” to the music video. But there are links to the beats and what appears on the screen, for example, when the arm of the main character falls off and smashes to the ground the music changes and the tempo of the lyrics becomes faster, it goes from “Let’s get electrified, Let’s get electrified” to “Pump it, rockin' it, stickin' it, funkin' it Africa” this is the first scene we see that would surprise the audience, seeing a arm fall off a man and shatter, like he was made of pottery, so maybe, with that and fastened tempo puts the audience into a state of surprise, and they want to see what happens, the tempo has increased, he’s falling apart, so, they think, the climax of the music video must be soon, keeping the audience watching.

The lighting is ambient, the light is very grey and almost monotone, the sort of light you would expect on a cold winters day, which is the time and season seen on the music video.

This lighting gives off a very depressive and gloomy mood, it makes the city look dirty, dark and cold to the audience, this may be done to make the city look at its worst, to emphasise the underlying story.

The use of special effects is profound, despite there being no CGI, throughout the video, the main character loses body parts as if he was made of pottery, they smash into pieces as if they were fragile, possibly signifying his fragility, and how hard and harsh the western cities are. (see right) 

The location is in a 21^st century American city, and then the main character is from a poor country, with a lack of food and water, judging by his appearance. This could be in the music video because the director, Chris Cunningham, may be trying to make out that harshness of our world compared to the main characters world and how we have become senseless to other people, for example, when the main characters arms falls off, the man who caused that, just stands and stares, before moving on, not a slight sign of remorse or guilt. This may be a sign suggesting that the western world has lost touch with its emotions and therefore the cultural signifier could be that the western worlds have become hard, emotionless and out of touch from their real self’s.

Genre

The first signifier which reinforces the hip-hop/dance and “Electro funk” is the Police car seen in one of the first scenes of the video, with its flashing lights on, this signifies that the music is hip-hop genre music, you would expect to see flashing lights in hip-hop and dance music videos, this conforms to the genre. Another convention that goes along with the idea of the hip-hop genre is the rundown buildings which are seen at the beginning of the video,  this reveals the genre, as hip-hop and dance is sometimes a suppressed genre, which often include racist, explicit or offensive terms in the songs, making this genre a “quiet” or discreet genre, not often spoken about with ease at times.  Also another generic signifier is the men break dancing, in underground car park, both the location and men dancing signify the hip-hop, dance genre.   The men break dancing shows what is connected to hip-hop and dance music, and what type of people this music will appeal to, this reveals that this music video would appeal to working class people or people who are in that circle, this idea is very stereotypical and does not occur in all people who like dance or hip-hop music. The location also reveals that this genre is “underground” and out of view from the public.  With the wet, harsh and non-ambient lighting of the car park it reinforces the ideology of the genre.

Narrative structure

Unsure of what the question is asking me to do.

The music video to me, is narrative based, the video is played out according to the song, for example, at one point it says “Let’s get electrified, Let’s get electrified, Let’s get electrified….” Then at this point the main character grabs a metal fence, which would have been electrified, revealing that the music video is narrative based.

Inter-textual references

Chris Cunningham , the director of this video makes this city, most likely New York, look harsh and almost violent. This video is very much like another video by Gil Scott-Heron called “New York Is Killing Me”, like this video, it very much goes along with the ideology that cities are dark, gloomy places, not for the faint hearted. 

Also Cunningham also refers to “Blade Runner” where the main character portrayed as a  slave and alien compared to other people. This is similar because in the black man in 'Afrika Shox' is seen to be alien from what he is wearing, how he acts and what he’s wearing. This is also shown with the urban landscape, within both 'Blade Runner' and 'Afrika Shox' there is an urban surrounding which is unfamiliar to both the main characters in the music video and the film.

Also the film “Metropolis” has been connected to the film, the characters are seen to be lining up in a “zombie” state, like the main character in the music video.

These films both appeal to the younger audience (found on IMDB), this would be the reason why Cunningham has used these films to reference in the film, to attract a younger audience, optimising the largest amount of viewers possible.