Unfinished Symphony - Massive Attack: Analysis

Unfinished Symphony - Massive Attack: Analysis - Street life representation

Massive Attack uses their music video for 'Unfinished Sympathy' to represent street life in a an urban setting. They use natural lighting to indicate to us that everything that is happening in the background of the video is actually all based off real, natural events, even if it is being staged for the purpose of the video.

The camera starts of by focusing on two steal balls, that are being rolled around in a gang-member's hand. They're making a small 'clanging' sound and as the camera zooms out of the close up shot, we are shown a dog wearing sunglasses. Stereotypically, the gang's dog is on a chain and has a studded collar, which a lot of people would picture if given a brief description of a 'street' dog. The group the dog is with is clearly a gang, who are all dressed like 'bikers' and drinking beer in the street.

As the main character walks down the street, all we can see is litter in the gutters and drains. This reflects urban life to be disrespectful, and shows us they're brought up without many rules, boundaries or restrictions.

Comments

Video Analysis: Burn the Witch- Radiohead

T he British children’s TV series the 'Trumptonshire Trilogy’ inspired the Burn the Witch music video by Radiohead. The video shoes an inspector being given a tour around a small town by the mayor. The town itself seems pretty normal, neat and well under-control, however it soon becomes clear this isn't the case as we are introduced to the local residents. From trying to drown one neighbour, to tying someone else up to a tree, the inspector, and equally the audience, are quickly aware not everything is as perfect as it seems, and that the town's residents are actually violent and dangerous on a day to day basis. We see the end of the video showing the inspector being tricked into a large wooden cage-type figure, which has been similarly seen in the 1973 British horror film 'The Wicker Man'. Once locked inside its 'stomach', it is then set alight by the town's people, from which we assume the inspector is left to die, but are shown otherwise as he is see...

History of Dance Music

Intro to Dance Music : Dance music is music composed specifically to accompany dancing. It can be either a whole musical piece or part of a larger musical arrangement., and has a clear beat to which the audience usually 'move along' to. It originates from Traditional African Music, and was then developed through the Caribbean, into the USA merging into Disco. Disco Music: Disco music is a style of music which emerged in the early 1970's. It came from America's urban nightlife scene, originally formed in housed parties and discothèques. The peak of disco music's popularity was between the years of the mid 1970's to the early 1980's and features reverbed vocals due to this. The rhythm follows a strong 4/4 structure, and consists of a fast tempo and luscious orchestra arrangements. A guitar often drives the song's energy, and will most commonly be with syncopated bass lines. Another feature of Disco music is the escapist lyrics about love and d...

Research: Dance Music Videos

1) What makes all of these music videos from the dance music genre? The music's featured on each video are all up-beat and 'hip', which is why 'urban' settings and clothing's have been used throughout the video to create this representation of the 'hip hop/dance genre. A stereo-typical urban area has retro clothing and what is typically known as 'street style', which has been incorporated into both of the videos. 2) Explore how the artists are using representation to appeal to their target audience in these three videos by picking out key frames from the video to analyse: 3) What other music videos could you find from the same genre? Outline two and explain why you think they are termed dance:

Lydia's Media Blog

Search This Blog