Afrika Shox Analysis - Leftfield

Name of Song: Afrixa Shox
Artist: Leftfield; Afrika Babaataa
Year of Release: 1999
Record Label: Chrysalis Music

The video that I am analysing is Africa Shox by Leftfield with the vocals of Afrika Bambaataa. The video was directed by Chris Cunningham.

The video represents race in a variety of ways, an example it represents race is through the use of Camera Angles, an example would be in the beginning of the video, it uses a Low Angle, Close Up shot of the main character in the film, which connotes that he has power, as he is the only one being seen in the shot, and no other characters are involved.

As the video moves on to the next few camera shots, the character moves into a Medium Close Up of the shot of the main character, with the shot taken on a such public location, would then show that he is looking a bit alienated because of his race, and also due to the fact that he is dressed differently than the other characters in the shot.

The theme of alienation continues with the use of Close Up Shots, the purposes of this is that it shows the culture shock of the person because of the sudden change of culture that the character is used to, he is put in a place where everything is much more different than what he is used to.

The negative representation of Race continues right until the end of the video, when the main character gets ran over in the end of the video , it showed that even though he has unlimitedly asked for help for a few times, he will get rejected.

The video also challenges other media conventions, for instance, near the end of the video, when there is a shot of 3 men, break-dancing in the middle of a deserted car park, this challenges usual media conventions because usually the genre of hip/hop and break dance genre is usually portrayed by a person with dark skin e.g. Will Smith, 50 Cent, Lil Wayne etc.

Cheryl Cole - Call My Name

Call My Name Analysis on Prezi

Coldplay - The Scientist

The video that interests me to analyse is Coldplay's "The Scientist", which has a an alternative rock/ British pop genre.

There phrases in the song that connotes bourt going back to the beginning such as "Let's go back to the start" "Take Me back to the start" "I'm going back to the start" which shows that he wanted to go back in another moment when he was still happy, before his girlfiriend died

"Let's Go Back to the start"

"Take me back to the start"

"I'm going back to the start"










The video has good synchronisation even though, Chris Martin had to sing the song backwards in order for him to look like he is singing the song. There is only one instrumental section in the song and it is illustrated through the continuinity of the reverse narrative in which the audience would find out how the incident happend in the first place.

The record company might look at  selling this track through the use of Goodwins Theory. The music video does include a lot of close up shots of the artist (which in thsi case would be Chris Martin, the lead vocalist of the band) because the focus would be on Chris because he is the face of the band.

The use of reverse narrative has been around since the 1990's. There has been music videos that has been used reverse narrative. One of the first music videos that have used reverse narratives is the song "The Second Summer of Love" by Danny Wilson

Possible Option for Music

I came across a Website www.unsigned.com and found a artist called Alessandro and his song called Until The End of Time:



Here is the lyrics of the song:

Where are you darling?
I feel so alone.
This life’s so empty,
without you by my side,
here in the middle of the night.

Where are you honey,
I feel so insecure,
my heart is breaking,
where did I go wrong?
Without you I can’t, I can’t go on,
I count the bad days one by one.

Don’t disappear from my destiny,
time can erase all the pain,
but don't you forget all our memories,
remember I will love you ‘til the end of time,
remember I will love you ‘til the end of time.

Where are you baby?
Who’s holding your hand?
Who’s sleeps in your arms,
when I’m not with you,
I pass the point of no return,
I have no choice my heart still burns.

Please, please, don’t go away,

please, please, let me stay,
in the deep of your heart, please find a place for me,
No one will ever ever love you like I do.

These lyrics were taken from Alessandro's website: http://www.alessandronline.com/index.html