The document discusses two music videos - Leftfield's "Afrika Shox" and Madonna's "Like a Prayer". It provides analyses of the representation of ethnic groups and themes in both videos. For "Afrika Shox", it notes the video contrasts wealthy white New Yorkers with a poor black man to represent differences between first and third world countries. For "Like a Prayer", it describes how Madonna navigates moral dilemmas between white and black characters. Overall, the document prefers "Afrika Shox" for its deeper meaning and clearer storyline compared to the more complicated narrative of "Like a Prayer".

1. Africa
shox by
Leftfield
Slide 1

2. *
* A music video or song video is a short film integrating a song and imagery. Music
videos are primary used to market and promote the sale of music recordings,
however some bands may choose create one for purely artistic purposes.
* Although the origins of music videos date back much further, they came into
prominence in the 1980’s when MTV based their format around them.
* Music videos use a wide range of style of film making techniques, including
animation, live action filming, documentaries, and non-narrative approaches such as
abstract film. Some music videos blend different style. Other music videos may be
without a set concept, being merely a filmed version of the songs' live performance.
Slide 2

3. The Lyrics
Lyrics and images interact creating meaning.
In many music videos a new meaning is added to the by lyrics through
metaphorical language, often with a amusing twist. Lyrics often rhyme and
have poetic meaning, Very often they get through to listeners by their deep
meaning and carry powerful messages that might change your view of certain
things.

4. * An ethnic group or ethnicity is a socially-defined category of people who identify with each
other based on common ancestral, social, cultural or national experience. Membership of an
ethnic group tends to be defined by a shared cultural heritage, ancestry, myth of origins,
history, homeland, language (dialect), or even ideology, and manifests itself through symbolic
systems such as religion, mythology and ritual, cuisine, dressing style, physical appearance,
etc.
Ethnicity is important as race and ethnicity are issues that must be considered in every part of
society. The criminal justice system have a particular relationship with certain cases, as does
police, the family. Race must be considered in every situation because at the moment ethnic
minorities receive fewer chances.
Representation of race in the media can consist of the same sort of rigid stereotypes that
constitute gender portrayal. However, stereotyping of race is seen as more harmful than
stereotyping of gender, as media representation may constitute the only experience of contact
with a particular ethnic group that an audience (particularly an audience of children) may
have. Racial stereotypes are often based on social myth, perpetuated down the ages.
Influential psychologists, pressure groups, religious leaders and politicians have suggested that
there is a direct causal link between violence in films, television programs and computer
games and violent real-life crime. It is argued that such media content exerts an
overwhelmingly negative effect on impressionable young audiences. These beliefs have led to
increased state control over and censorship of the media in Britain.
ethnicitySlide 3

5. *Madonna was born in Bay City in Michigan on august 16th 1958, her mum was a former dancer
which is were Madonna must get it from, her mother is French Canadian and her father is the
son of Italian immigrants and was the first in in his family to go to collage where he got a
degree in engineering. Her mother was diagnosed with breast cancer when her mum was
pregnant with Madonna’s younger sister and her mum died when she was 5 years old. She
rebelled against many things due to the fact she thought that only mothers taught manners and
her mother was not there. She was the 3rd of 6 children and knew how to handle being the
middle child but still thought she needed to stand out.
Madonna wanted to re-launch her career by coming out with the like a prayer video which got
her publicity with fans and haters and she got into the newspapers and was bigger then ever
and also she got publicity by the catholic church as the pope had banned it from the eyes of
Catholics.
Intro to MadonnaSlide 4

6. * A girl on the street witnesses an assault on a young woman. Long shots commonly occur in the
video and whilst the woman is getting assaulted the lighting is dark letting the audience know
the atmosphere is negative therefore creating tension. Afraid to get involved because she
might get hurt, she is frozen in fear. A black man walking down the street also sees the
incident and decides to help to woman. But just then, the police arrive and arrest him. As they
take him away, she looks up and sees one of the gang members who assaulted the girl. He
gives her a look that says she'll be dead if she tells. Close up The girl runs, not knowing where
to go, until she sees a church. She goes in and sees a saint in a cage who looks very much like
the black man on the street, and says a prayer to help her make the right decision. He seems
to be crying, but she is not sure. She lies down on a pew and falls into a dream in which she
begins to tumble in space with no one to break her fall. Suddenly she is caught by [an African
American woman] who represents earth and emotional strength and who tosses her back up
and tells her to do the right thing. Still dreaming, she returns to the saint, and her religions
and erotic feelings begin to stir. The saint becomes a man. She picks up a knife and cuts her
hands. That's the guilt in Catholicism that if you do something that feels good you will be
punished. As the choir sings, she reaches an orgasmic crescendo of sexual fulfilment
intertwined with her love of God. She knows that nothing's going to happen to her if she does
what she believes is right. She wakes up, goes to the jail, tells the police the man is innocent,
and he is freed. Then everybody takes a bow as if to say we all play a part in this little
scenario."
Slide 5 like a prayer synopses

7. *
*There are three ethnic groups used in ‘Like a Prayer’. They were:
*White Italian immigrants. This was portrayed by Madonna, who is a
white Italian American. She was scared, influenced by the other
white ethnic group due to fear, and she was guided with support by
the black community.
*Black. They are the helpers, angels, saints, the gospel choir and the
general community. They were portrayed as the good people in the
video.
*White. The white people in this video were portrayed as the bad
people. They were aggressive, criminals and they bullied other
people.

8. * In the lead up to the release of her fourth studio album, Like A Prayer in 1989, Madonna had
signed a promotional statement deal with Pepsi. The deal which gave the singer $5 million to
do several commercials for the soda company, would at the same time feature and promote
her music. Pepsi produced a two minute long advert a Pepsi branded music video, that would
premiere the single "Like A Prayer" in over 40 countries at once. It was a huge deal. On March
2, 1989, the highly looking forward to the advert, In that Pepsi version, Madonna reflects back
on innocent images of her own childhood before being transported to some kind of upbeat,
retro song-and-dance number that looks like it's taking place on the set of West Side Story.
People who no doubt did not actually watch the video created most of the controversy. While
everyone is entitled to his own sense of shock, with the benefit of 20 years of hindsight, the
outrage caused by the video is not terribly interesting. What might be more fruitful is
attempting to understand where the video's imagery, themes, and narrative come from, what
it could actually mean--if anything at all--and how it serves its purpose as an advertisement
for Madonna.
This make huge effect on audience :
-Italian blocked a video
-everyone was talking about her
Slide 8 Desired effect on audience

9. *Leftfield originated in London England in 1989, until 2002 when they
split, but regrouped in 2010 and are still together today. The two members
of Leftfield are Neil Barnes, and Paul Daley. Neil Barnes entered the
music industry as a DJ at the Wag Club. In 1989 Barnes was inspired by
Afrika Bambaata and decide to attempt creating electronic music, which
resulted in the track ‘Not Forgotten’ which was released on the Rhythm
King label, as well as ‘More Than I Know’.
The name Leftfield was originally used by Barnes for the first single but it
was then made the name of the group. Because of the legal dispute
involving Rhythm King, they could not release their own music.
9. Leftfield history

10. *
The opening shot is of a large characterless building, typical tilt or
establishing shot of the business world. It is a low angle which
connotes intimidation and also places the building in a position of
power, this symbolises the wealth and power of America and New
York City, whilst also belittling the veteran/zombie. The way that
the sky is clouded with smog also contributes to the feeling of a
business city - limiting the vision of the citizens and restricting
them.
The second establishing shot of the police car immediately sets up
a feeling of harm or danger. The non-diegetic sound of the siren
connotes the idea of New York as being an unimagined place; an
undesirable, unfriendly and frightening place. This is represented
by the siren symbolising trouble, crime and chaos. The cut
between the police car and the security man dressed in yellow also
suggests a society controlled/restricted by the authorities, who
may well be corrupt. The fact that the security/police man is
white also reinforces the idea that society is controlled by a white
authority. The lights of the police car could also represent the
genre of the music as they are almost like strobe lights, further
signifying the electronic/progressive house genre.

11. In this shot, the audience is placed on the same level as the
zombie meaning that they share the same second class
position., by doing so Leftfield may have been aiming to
emphasise with the black man and allow the audience to feel
sympathy for him and realise his pain. The zombie has his
hand against the wall and stumbles, this could be connoting
the idea that he is weaker, perhaps not used to this kind of
society. This could be a possible link to the slave trade
through the 16th and 19thcenturies, as many of the
individuals suffered greatly from the unusual surroundings
and oppression or to how people of the buisness land do not
have sympathy for those of third world countries.

12. *
* Mise-en scence
'Africa Shox' by Leftfield would be in the Dance, Electro, Techno, Progressive House type
genre, meaning that it is reflected in the video, choreography, cinematography and Mise-en-
scene to appeal to the demographic, of which would be 20-25 year old people, mainly male.
The obvious reference to slavery and racial issues suggests that audience would also be of a
more middle class status and be relatively well educated due to the whole video being an
extended metaphor for racism.
The video is set in New York showing a direct link to the genre and a tribute to a legend of
the genre of hip-hop/electro/dance/electro-house.
Afrika Bambaataa is a DJ who one of the originators of hip hop and the development of the
hip hop genre and is also the father of electro funk.
* S.C.E.L.P.
Setting- New York city (financial capital)
Costume-ragged clothing, contact lenses to make his eyes cloudy
Expression-Sad, confused, scared, shocked, frightened
Lighting-dark, dim
Positioning-Close up shot, Medium shot

13. *
The main character in the video is as if he’s isolated from everyone else and a
misfit of the miese-en-scene in the video. You can clearly see the difference
between the main character and everyone else in the video with the way the
character is dressed in tatty, ripped, dark clothes. Its almost like the character
isn’t seen as a human being. There is also a sense of confusion with the way the
main character presents himself and his facial expressions, almost as if he has
been placed in a strange new world. The main actor can also be perceived as a
metaphor for the slave trade which could represent the slave arrival in America.
You can see that the main character is malnourished because of how skinny he is
compared to the other people in the video who are obviously well fed.
The fact that when the main character is in clear need of help and the white man
ignores his cries for help shows the attitude of the western world to problems
such as malnourishment and lack of money.

14. Overall, we decided that we preferred Leftfield ‘Afrika Shox’ over Madonna ‘Like a
prayer’ this is because we believe Leftfield has a deeper meaning and people can gain
more knowledge from the music video while on the other hand Madonna’s music video has
a less powerful and more complicated storyline, we often got confused while watching
‘Like a Prayer’ whereas we knew straight away what was happening in scenes of ‘Afrika
Shox’.
Madonna, ‘Like A Prayer’
In this music video there are a variety of ethnic groups represented in
contrasting ways such as; Villainous, heroic and target. Throughout the videotape
Madonna faces villains and wrongly accused roles and has to make moral decisions based
on her conscious. This is seen in the scene where Madonna comes face to face with the
ultimate dilemma where she either had to save herself or to save the African American
for the crimes that the white men committed. The music video could have taken another
route to achieve the message they wanted to get across because the Pope banned the
music video due to her chosen outfits and actions as it was counted as inappropriate even
though there was Catholic imagery presented in several scenes. Also the music video
went global through the media due to the ‘inappropriate’ scenes even though Madonna
wanted to provide a ‘message’ not for the media attention.
Leftfield, ‘Afrika Shox’
In the video ‘Afrika Shox’ there are two extremely different ethnic groups
used to create a statement to the audience. First World County Citizens and Third
World Country Citizens are portrayed contrastingly to show the different between the
two ethnic groups. Throughout the music video we learn that equality reached breaking
Slide 15