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.