Music Video Comarison - Beyonce and Stormzy

Vossi Bop and Formation

Compare the ideologies conveyed through the representations in the music video to 'Vossi Bop' by Stormzy and 'Formation' by Beyonce.

The representation seen here is of black communities, seen in New Orleans in the music video, 'Formation' seen in the ideologies and images of black culture. For example, we see the typical life in New Orleans and scenes taken from the documentary 'That B.E.A.T' about the bounce music scene in New Orleans, we also see scenes of Mardis Gras. Some of the groups we see representative of black communities are church, the hair salon or wig shop, basketball team and so on, creating the ideology of black culture. Similarly, the representation seen in 'Vossi Bop', is also of black communities but in London in the music video, and the ideologies of life in London, where the artist grew up in. For example, the the scene where he is circling around different groups of kids of where you would see them normally hang out, such as park bench, by bins or by a car. 

In the music video, 'Formation', is similar to the music video, 'Vossi Bop', from the representation of race, the artists' success and issues within their country. For example, we see a young black boy dancing in front of heavily armed police and then raising his arms up, with the graffitied message, 'Stop shooting us' the message is about police brutality. Similarly, in 'Vossi Bop' we see the issues of violence such as the scene where car windows are being smashed and issues of what young black people in London may face. 

Overall, the music video of 'Formation' and 'Vossi Bop', both shows communities in a selected area with the social and cultural context of primarily the represenation of black communities, the theory by Gilroy on post-colonialism is seen from both artists' disatisfaction with the goverment, such as the New Orleans Flood and the poor response and the lyrics 'Fuck the government, fuck Boris'. The represenation may be affected negatively of people not agreeing with the politics however the represenation brings light to the messages positively, as both also sing about being successful and is postive representation for their race.

Music Video Comparison - Vance Joy and Dua Lipa

Riptide and Break My Heart

Compare and contrast how media language is used in the music videos to 'Break My Heart' by Dua Lipa and 'Riptide' by Vance Joy.

In the music video of 'Riptide', the cinematography and editing used is similar to the genre of horror as it features scenes of women being tortured, with dark lighting. The music video also uses sharp transitions and references to 'Suspiria' with purple lighting in some scenes. For example, this is seen in a scene with a narrative of a woman being tied against a tree, who unties herself, this links to the generic conventions of horror of with dark ligthing, the mise-en-scene of the setting being in a forest all alone. In each scene most transitions to another scene are sharp as their are no smooth transition. With the intertextual refernce to 'Suspiria', a 70s horror film the use of coloured ligthing of hues of purples can be seen in Joy's music video such as the scene where the woman appears to being hypnotised creating a semantic code to the audience, the scene with the ouiji board and a woman's feet seen under a bed being dragged away. Similarly, in the music video 'Break My Heart', the cinematography and editing of coloured lights. However, the music video uses much more smoother transitions of scenes. For example, the first transition of scenes is we see her on a street full of cars and then it is kicked over and is seen as a toy car, another example is she is seen as going into a bubble bath and then we see a foamy cocktail which she went in. 

In 'Riptide', we see it as an uncoventional music video as it doesn't feature the artist of the song in the music video, which is a generic convention of music videos. For example, we only see characters in the music video. It is further unconvential as it follows no clear narrative, making it a postmodern music video as it features mixed visuals seen throughout the music video. However, in 'Break My Heart', we do see the artist feautured in the music video as the main protagonist.

The visual elements we see in the music video for 'Riptide' creates meaning for the audience as in interpreting the message the artist wanted to send, the visual elements of horror and objectification of women, leaving the audience the witness to all the scenes, in the scene where the woman is standing on the balcony with binoculars the audience appears to be spying on her from the semantic code of leaves, appearing as we are hiding behind a bush. The message could be seen as creating the message of women being weak and vulnerable conforming to the Feminist theeory by Zoonen and hooks, however it could be raising awareness about violence of women and the objectification. The visual elements in the music video, 'Break My Heart', however, creates the message of break-ups for example, the scene where she is hiding behind the wall and the different men on beds suggests all her past relationships, although similarly see this in 'Riptide', as a song about a break-up with visual codes such as the tarot cards with a narrative of how the artist's relationship was like, 'The Fool' suggests the joyful beginning and 'The Hanged Man' suggests the end of the relationship.

Formation - Representation

Formation - Representation

Formation as a reaction to historical racism

Types of Mankind (1854)

• The assumptions made in this image is that white people are at a natural higher heirarchy compared with black people. It is also assumed that white people are seen as closer to being 'human' compared to black people.
• The purpose of the image would be seen as 'education' about the supposed types of Mankind.
• The sociohistorical context of the time this image was created was slavery, a time when black people were seen to be less 'human', the image was attempting to perhaps justify that white people are more superior in the human race compared to black people who are supposedly less than.

Formation as reappropriation
https://mediastudiesnh.blogspot.com/2020/03/formation-context.html

• The ethnicity that is being represented in this image are African-American.
• The media language being used to represent the ethnicitity of African-Americans are symbolic codes of slavery of the first Africans seen from the white dresses of the Antebellum era, contructing an ideological message about ethnicity and challenging it by wearing the white dresses, which slave owners would used to wear. This creates a powerful message, especially to the target audience of young, black females. This image is a reappropriation of once-racist dresses of slave owners to now being claimed by black women.

Formation is a criticism of the response of the US government to the Hurricane Katrina disaster and its aftermath, it is a celebration of black culture.

https://mediastudiesnh.blogspot.com/2020/03/formation-media-set-product-10.html