My media work analysis on 'Afrika Shox' by Leftfield along with Andrew Goodwin's music video theories

1. Media Studies case study –
‘Afrika Shox’ by
Leftfield/Bambaataa
By Thomas Cutmore

2. Demonstration Genre Characteristics
• The music video demonstrates the genre through characteristics as it
shows the style of music through the scene that it is shot. The music video
represents a story more than a ‘performance’ (i.e. just dancing while
singing). This shows the way and condition of how black war veterans
were treated by the American society by the constant distress and
ignorance that the black veteran faces from the opposite race. There is
however some performance/dance during the later course of the music
video where the veteran finds the white culture breakdancing, but this
symbolises the idea of the white taking over the blacks’ culture in music
and dance. This idea of the black losing their culture is symbolised by the
break dancer kicking the black veteran’s leg off through the dance, which
could show that they have/are intentionally taking the black culture away
from them

3. Screenshots
Kicking the veteran’s leg off –
symbolises the idea of disabling him
to fight back

4. Relationship between lyrics and visuals
• In the music video there are relationships between the lyrics and visuals
which link to the idea of slavery and the harsh conditions that black slaves
were in. One relationship in the video is where the black veteran grabs
onto the metal fence to reassure his balance, but at the same time the
lyrics read “lets get electrified”. This amplifies the lyrics and relates to the
problems that the slaves and war veterans faced, which were the electric
barbed wire fences.
• Also in the music video where the black war veteran is laying on the floor
and Bambaataa notices he is in trouble, he says “do you need a hand?”,
which creates a irony with the lyrics as the black war veteran is missing
both hands and a leg, showing that he is truly stuck and only one person
has actually offered to help, who yet is the same race as the war veteran.

5. The relationship between lyrics and visuals
screenshots
The instrumental music fades
down quietly but still plays as
Bambaataa asks “Do you need a
hand?”

6. Relationship between the music and visuals
• The first relationship between the music and visuals is shown through the area
which the music video has been filmed, which is in New York City. In this video
the city is shown to be a ‘magnetic’ city which holds a lot of geometric patterns
such as the metallic grey sky scrapers. This amplifies the relation between the
music and the visuals as it gives a ‘feel’ to what the music is like as the music
genre is dance/dubstep/electro, the colour of the music feels technological as it
involves the use of computer and technology to create the music
• Another relationship with is illustrated in the music video is the use of vehicles
such as police cars which use strobe or flashing lights, which link to a club
experience where this music would be played with using strobe lighting.
• A final reference to the relationship between the music and the visuals is where it
uses the underground car parks for the dance routines. This amplifies the music
with the visuals as the dubstep music is seen to be generic with the underground
car parks as the music can then echo throughout the car park and the
dancers/dancing can take place over a wide area.

7. The use of geometric
and ‘metallic’
building structures
to reinforce the
‘urban’ feel to the
genre of the music
The use of the urban
underground car park
which amplified the
urban feel to the music
The use of
flashing/strobe
lights as a
reference to the
clubs that the
music may/would
be played

8. The use of close ups and motifs created
through this
• The artist uses a lot of close ups of the war veteran to show the true
feelings of torture that he is facing, creating and causing the audience to
feel sympathetic towards him as we are almost put in his shoes and/or
standing with him and seeing from his point of view, knowing how he feels
and that having an affect on us as we experience the racism and
discrimination that he is facing.
• This creates the motif of us seeing how black veterans and slaves have
been treated when they return or arrive to America, which shows the
faults and the corruption of society. This causes the video to be subversive
against the country which is seen to promote ‘freedom’ for all races as
Leftfield is British and therefore promotes his feelings against the States
through what he believes and sees in the country, which is racism and
segregation of race

9. The use of close ups to show suffering to create sympathy

10. The use of voyeurism throughout the music
video
• Us as an audience are seen as voyeurs in the music video as we are
watching this war veteran suffer his way through New York from a
perspective of someone else i.e. another citizen in the video. This is
created as we are ‘walking’ beside/along the war veteran and seeing
him go through torture as if we were there but not helping him as we
are meant to be seeing this segregation take place.
• The music video also causes us to become voyeurs as the camera
constantly focuses on the war veterans body in showing the state it is
in. As this element is mostly used on females to create a sexual image
out of them, this music video uses it in a controversial way as it
creates the opposite and yet shows a negative and in a way disturbing
view on the soldier as he is being broken down by society

11. Intertexual references
• Afrika Shox references to many other films and texts in how it represents
the scene and the characters. In it’s setting/scenery, the music video links
with films; ‘Metropolis’, ‘Blade Runner’, ‘’The Matrix’ and ‘The Third Man’.
This links/references with these films as it uses the same representation of
a dystopia to it’s setting, making the audience seem lost with the character
and almost makes out the area to be a fantasy.
• The music video also has an intertexual reference with the characters as
the black war veteran is seen to be an ‘outsider’ and almost dead/zombie
like to the way he is seen by the audience, i.e. the cloudy eyes, slurred
mouth and the inability to walk well. This almost links to Mary Shelley’s
‘Frankenstein’ as the same attitude taken towards the slaves/war veteran
and also the way the war veteran is described.

12. Mary Shelley’s ‘Frankenstein’ examples with
the music video
“The dun-white sockets in
which they were set, his
shrivelled complexion and
straight black lips”
“Eyes they may be called, were fixed
on me. His jaws opened (…) one hand
was stretched out, seemingly to detain
me”
The producer almost makes it out that black people are being
alienated and being treated harshly with segregation as if they
weren’t even human