This document analyzes and summarizes the music video for Toto's "Africa" across several sections. It notes that the video follows conventions of a traditional pop-rock music video by featuring stage performances of the band. While the lyrics relate to Africa, there is little connection between the lyrics and visuals. However, there is a stronger relationship between the music and visuals as the audience can see the band playing their instruments. Cultural references to Africa are made through props. The video has a performance-based focus without a narrative.

1. africa
toto

2. andrew goodwin - demonstrates genre conventions
this music video follows the
conventions of a traditional pop-rock
music video as it incorporates stage
performance of the group. whilst the
performance is being presented to
the audience, a lot of emphasis is
placed upon the instruments as there
are various close-ups of guitars for
example, or the drum kit.

3. andrew goodwin - relationship between lyrics and
visuals
the main relationship that the lyrics have
with the visuals is that of disjuncture. the
lyrics of the song relate to the continent of
africa, and although there are cultural
references with the use of props, there
isn’t much harmony with the music video
actually amplifying the lyrics. however,
there are small parts in the video where the
visuals are illustrative. An example of this
could be that when the word “rain” is sung,
rain is shown to be pattering on the ground.

4. andrew goodwin - relationship between music and
visuals
without doubt, there is more
relationship between the music and
the visuals than there is with the
lyrics and the visuals. the
performance aspect of the video is
helpful because the audience see the
group playing the instruments as they
hear it. this is a traditional convention
of a pop-rock music video of the time.

5. andrew goodwin - demands of the record label
again, the performance aspect of this
music video is helpful in terms of
creating an image for the artists.
each member has their own close-up
at some point in the video so the
audience are able to differentiate
between each of them. the lead
singer naturally is featured more in
the video because he is the one that
creates that central image for his
band.

6. andrew goodwin - notion of looking
usually, it is a female that would be dancing
and drawing attention so that there is a
voyeuristic treatment of the female body to
subconsciously entice the viewer into
watching the video. however, the woman in
the video isn’t presented in such a sexualised
way. she is covered fully in loose clothing and
doesn’t look into the camera as what might be
expected. on the other hand, there is an
element of scopophilia, especially for the
audience, because they’re watching the
woman when it is as if she doesn’t know
they’re watching her, because she doesn’t
acknowledge the camera once

7. andrew goodwin - intertextual references
there aren’t any explicit references
to famous films or other t.v
programmes as such, however, there
is a lot of cultural reference,
specifically and obviously to the
continent of africa. the use of props
makes this evident, for example
zebra skins on the wall or, most
importantly, the african instruments
that the group are usings to create
their music.

8. andrew goodwin - performance, narrative or
concept
because there is no explicit narrative
or concept that the audience can
follow in the video, it is very clearly a
performance-based music video. this
is easily determined by the consistent
featuring of the the band playing
their instruments and harmonising
with the main singer on a stage.