Analysis of a music video: Leftfield – Africa Shox (1999)

The video I shall be analysing for this task will be Leftfield’s 1999 electronica, dub, reggae song, Africa Shox. From the very first scene, you can see that they have used a nurban, inner city setting. Early on in the video, a police car is seen driving past on duty, with it’s flashing lights suggesting thegenre. These bright lights represent those in a club, highly implying the dance/electronic genre. Simply the fact that the video is set in the streets of the city of New York strongly suggests the genre, as dance or electronic is highly linked with urbanisation (as opposed to giving connotations of fields and mountains as some folk music may!). New York itself has strong connections with the genre with it being at theroots of some reggae/dub music. The main actor in the video is very much a misfit in the whole mise-en-scene. His shaggy clothes and general disadvantaged appearance are a contradiction to his big city surroundings as well as breaking the social representation group of electronic fans. There are also some shots that are taken in an underground car park, a very dark, eerie mise-en-scene. This connotes the nature of the roots of the genre, with it being less popular music, yet more dark ‘underground’ music, listened to by the minority.

In terms of linking the lyrics with the visuals, there is one stage in the video where the man is stumbling along and trips, consequently clutching onto a wire fence at the exact moment where the lyrics correspond to said visuals, repeating “let’s get electrified”. This alone implies that the fence itself is an electric one, presenting New York as a metaphorical prison, as if the man is trapped in a life of struggle, misery and confusion whilst others around him continue to ignore his pain. This portrays the city as a dystopia, like a futuristic metropolis inhabited by emotionless robots that ignore the man’s existence, much like the films bladerunner and the matrix. An example of this is in the video where the man’s hand shatters off like porcelain, and looks up to a passer-by with a look seemingly hopeful for reassurance as if hoping to be offered a hand, though is blanked as the passer-by continues walking.

The lead role in the video very much represents how black culture had been falling apart in New York, by the fact that his limbs are literally falling apart and shattering into pieces. The falling apart of this lead character could be a metaphor for how the black culture are being overrun by the white culture of metropolitan life, and how they are having their roots (referring to the reggae/dub music) taken away by the whites, having been the culture who initially came up with it; having their culture robbed from them. A better example of this is how the break dancers in the video are dancing in front of the black character to the music from which originally came from his descendents and roots. This challenges the ethnic stereotype to reggae/dub/electronica music and break dancing as it is typically more partaken in and enjoyed by a black background. The video itself suggests white dominance through such techniques as lowangle shots, which from the lead character’s point of view, imply that the black man is insignificant and being looked down upon. Throughout the video he appears lost and confused, portrayed to the audience via a number of close-up shots. This also suggests white dominance as if he has been swallowed up by the white society, alone and isolated. The message that it is clearly getting across is that being black in America is extremely difficult, to just be noticed in society and to be treated as an equal can seem impossible through the eyes of an ethnic minority.

This is England '86

This is England '86 is a recent 4-part television drama continuation of the 2006 independent film This is England; both directed by Shane Meadows. The main characters remain the same from the original film, these protagonists being Shaun, Woody, Lol, Smell, Gadget and Meggie. It follows the story of this bunch of skinhead friends 3 years on, as they look for love, fun, jobs, motivation, and something to look forward to whilst rebelling in a way that reflects their opinions of their position in the hopeless class-ridden society created by 'Thatcherism'. The anti-social behaviour of the gang was sparked by the outrage of the lack of jobs and mass unemployment at the time, and their negative views on this.

In the words of the director...

"When I finished This Is England I had a wealth of material and unused ideas that I felt very keen to take further audiences seemed to really respond to the characters we created and out of my long standing relationship with Film4 and Channel 4 the idea for a television serial developed. Not only did I want to take the story of the gang broader and deeper, I also saw in the experiences of the young in 1986 many resonances to now recession, lack of jobs, sense of the world at a turning point. Whereas the film told part of the story, the TV serial will tell the rest."

Both the film and the new series have a large relevance to our own production. A lot of the aspects are very similar, such as the dress sense, and ideology of the characters and stereotypical ska fans. The first episode of this new series was aired on 7th September this year, and having watched just parts of this initial episode it is clear that, like the film, the culture of the characters (including the music taste, dress sense/costume, attitudes and even locations used) is extremely similar to those of a generic ska fan and the general ska genre itself. Hence why it is so appropriate to use as an intertextual reference of our own video.

Dressed in Doc Martens, suspenders and Fred Perry shirts, the look of the characters is reminiscent of the whole ska era/skinhead subculture and reflects greatly the image we are trying to achieve in our own production. This such similarity lead us to use This is England as a reference. See the resemblance?!?

The Band - The Skanx: Background Info

The Skanx are a 10-piece classic ska band from South-east London.

In their own words... "Our music combines classic Ska with influences from funk, jazz and dub. We play a mix of well-known and obscure cover versions as well as our own unique material. The band features vocalists Lori and Wayne, plus the 4-piece Skanky Horns." (taken from their official website: http://theskanxband.co.uk/index.html)

Some of the band themselves in practice, including vocalists Lori and Wayne. Seen with genre-signifying trumpets!

Why choose The Skanx?

At first, our group found difficulty in deciding which band (and even genre!) to use for our A2 project. A lot of this difficulty was down to the fact we had to find an unsigned band as opposed to one of the many already signed for which we had many ideas to choose from. There was also some minor dispute over which genre to pick. In the end we all mutually agreed that a ska/mod approach would be the best way to go, seeing as it is a genre that we all enjoy and could happily get involved in. Once this was decided, we began to research British ska bands, and once coming across The Skanx via their own website (linked above) and hearing their song 'Money Grabber' mutually decided that they would be a good band to use. Some of the reasoning behind this is due to the fact that the song's title and lyrics upon hearing it sparked off a number of initial ideas for the video, being a 'money grabbing' female character. We decided that the song itself was also a catchy tune that we would enjoy working on! It gave connotations of ironic shots of high streets and businesses suffering in the midst of the recession, which we plan to play with in the making of our video.

Costumes

Because of the fact that our video is of the ska genre (particularly two-tone), we have inevitably decided to aim to follow the genre conventions by dressing our actors in costume that is typical of the two-tone and ska punk genre, based upon other texts such as This is England, and similar artists such as Madness. The aim was to create the image of a genuine two-tone ska band and ska fans.

Two-tone costume

For our actor Jack, we have taken the approach of a two-tone ska fan, and dressed him in very much literal two-tone black and white. The classic black suit with white shirt was a very prominent style worn by adamant ska fans, and is very iconographic of the genre. He is also wearing glasses that can be likened to the likes of Suggs fromMadness (although, admittedly less aviator styled!). The classic ska trilby also featuresprominentlyin our video as it too is very iconic of the genre, and is backed up by the fact it is worn by artists of the two-tone ska genre such as members of The Specials. In terms of footwear we opted for a smarter feel which fits into the category of two-tone ska, and for Jack we avoided the military boot look used by other actors that crosses into the sub genre of ska-punk...

Ska-punk costume

Also featured in The Specials’ video performance for their song ‘Too much too young’ are braces that are very prominent within the genre, which is why we unanimously decided to include them in our costume (worn by myself!). An intertextual reference that can be drawn upon from our video with reference to the braces is Shaun Meadows’ This is England where the main character Shaun is wearing them throughout the film. He also wears Dr Martens boots, which are big military style boots, which we also included in our video worn by two of our actors.

We focused very largely on the costume used in both the film This is England and TV series This is England ’86 as we felt them to both be great examples of the particular style of clothing worn by typical ska fans and potential band members. A combination of Dr Martens boots, Fred Perry shirts, jackets and braces helped us to create the ska image we were aiming for. Despite establishing the fact that our band and song are more predominantly of the two-tone ska genre, we felt that using costume from ska-punk/skinhead influences would also be beneficial to the general appearance of acting band members and overall video itself.

Concept of Identity

In this post I shall attempt to summarise the key points of the different concepts of identity that our group has been studying in the previous few lessons.

Firstly, just to clear up, the traits that are associated with modern ideas of identity are that it is given to you, as if you are born into a particular identity. That it is a stable set of attributes, fixed and very singular; meaning that one’s identity is relatively specific and does not change or shift as they grow older. Post modern views on the other hand, indicate that identity is chosen themselves by a particular person, in the forms of e.g. what media products they enjoy, how they dress, and who their role models are. It is viewed as being shifting, so that a person’s identity can change drastically over relatively short periods of time, depending on their surrounding environment. People are believed to have multiple identities, depending on the groups of people they are with and the company they keep, which is thought to be fragmented and frequently changing. Therefore you can see a clear divide between the two modern and post modern views of identity.

The actual phrase ‘Find Your Tribe’ brings about a number of connotations and implications about today’s youth. It actually implies that people’s social groups are actually more than just a social pass-time, but are of much greater importance being likened to a tribe, a close group that people are accepted into. It also implies that youth are having to ‘find’ a place where they can fit in, most often a social grouping in which the people involved listen to the same music, dress similarly, and have the same media and general interests! The way that it is stated as ‘Find Your Tribe’ is almost phrased as though it is a command, an order that must be followed! Almost as if to imply, if you don’t find somewhere to fit in, you will be left as an outcast.

Michel Maffesoli is a French sociologist, who was the originator of a study entitled ‘the time of tribes’, and believed greatly through his research into identity and social groups that the mass culture of old, where essentially all youth would listen to the same music dress the same etc. has disintegrated. Now youth groups are much more divided and have far more specific interests and opinions. This is a task I had been given to write a short couple of paragraphs of a possible speech that Maffesoli could give getting across his ideas of today’s modern ‘tribes’.

I, Michel Maffesoli, am here today to present to you all a speech, regarding “The Time of Tribes”. So sit back, relax, and absorb my words of wisdom.

It is to my belief that today’s youth no longer all follow each other like one big united group of sheeps in terms of their media culture. Said ‘mass culture’ of mon generation! has disintegrated, and insteads of every peoples listenings, readings and watchings all of the same things, they instead choose to listens, reads and watch what they desire themselves, depending on their clique (other little friends) also choose to do.

The groupings of childrens today is not nearly as sturdy as previous generations; instead of one large brick wall of a solid group, they are instead tiny fragmented leaves, crumpled, worn and torn apart (like brown, crispy autumn leaves, not the lively summer kinds.). if one children is to wear a particular waistcoat, all other childrens in their teeny social groupings will all buy the same waistcoat. If Tiny Stryder is to buy Adidas trainers, all other childrens buy Adidas trainers; like sheeps they are.

Soundtrack: The Skanx - Money Grabber

We listened to a selection of The Skanx's songs having selected them as our band. Money Grabber stood out to be our overall favourite, duly to catchiness and upbeat tune, but mainly because of the connotations the song brings about. Both the name and lyrics brought about a flurry of ideas regarding the composition and narrative of our video. It's upbeat, fast pace is reminiscent of such bands as Madness and The Specials.

Potential Actors!

Friends, Jack Sauverin and Isobel Bailey (whom played the female character in our group's AS thriller production) kindly gave up their time over the holidays to come location hunting, and to get some pictures and small pieces of filming in costume for our early footage.

Jack is a large enthusiast of the whole Ska Punk genre and greatly enjoys the music, so would be brilliant to have as part of our cast! Izzy is also interested in the genre, and has a great eye for fashion so would also be an important asset! She is pole position to be playing the role of the woman in our video who is the main, stereotypical 'money grabbing' female. This idea was brought about obviously by the song title itself and lyrics including 'money grabber'.

Madness - One Step Beyond!

Ska/Ska Punk band Madness with their famous song One Step Beyond. Examples of the 'madness walk', an interesting idea that we thought possible to use in our own video, having attempted on our photoshoot in the previous post, shown at around 1:24.

Initial location and costume ideas photoshoot

Over the holidays, with the help of a couple of our friends and potential actors (Jack and Izzy), our group went roaming the suburbs of norwich, namely the Anglia Square area, for possible location ideas for our video whilst bravely fashioning a few simple costume ideas. These are a small selection of the snaps we collected.







Attempting the 'Madness Walk' as seen in Madness' video 'One Step Beyond'! We thought this dance to be very appropriate as it is a perfect fit to the ska genre we are researching and is also an example of intertextual reference by referring to the fact that it use used in many madness music videos.





We unanimously agreed that the urban background was iconic of the ska/punk era that we are covering, and hence fits the genre well. The extensive amount of graffiti also merges nicely into the genre.

In terms of costume on the day, we experimented with some iconic army surplus boots, large shirts, braces, trilby hats and smart/casual suits. The styles are iconic of the genre and hold an uncanny likeness to those used by the characters in both the film and tv series 'This is England/'86' directed by Shaun Meadows. This being one of the media products we took ideas and inspiration from. The boots, braces and shirts are extremely similar dress.