Leftfield - Africa shox essay

The music video for leftfields - Africa shox depicts a social dystopia, however it is also suggestive that this is the current state of social affairs. The video follows a black man who appears to be homeless around a city, the man meets many people as he walks whom all seem to disregard his presence. They are unsympathetic to his (literal) deteriorating condition and poor health. The man eventually completely deteriorates from existence.

The genre of the music is electronic with elements of house and electro. The video conforms to many of the elements/ generic signifiers of these genres. The video uses a grey pallet which is a common generic signifier in electronic music. Urban settings and neon style lights conform to the house style of music video as well as some elements of the electro conventions although electro videos tend to be more vibrant.

The video is concept based with a narrative structure. The narrative simply follows a mean through a city without any clear goal. The ideological concept behind it is to send a message about the state of the world.

The video has clear inter-textual references to dystopian visions of the future such as blade runner and perhaps some of the terminator films, such connotations of dystopian visions are used to further emphasis the content of the video itself.

The video is set in new York city, it uses many of the underground systems to conform to the house style. However the main purpose of the video is to raise awareness of the current state of the world and is commenting on how slavery and the western world has fundamental altered corrupted and befouled near an entire race of people. As the man walks through the city he begins to fall apart and is not aided by anyone except a tribal looking (black) man, this could be interpreted either as how the western world is ignoring the needs of the east although they have the means to help them, this point is backed up by the fact that the man appears to have cataracts disease which is treatable but will leave the sufferer blind if not treated; many people in Africa do not receive treatment for this illness. Or it could be interpreted as how the slave trade slowly took away the cultural identity of Africans, whilst using them as slaves, eventually leading to their complete lose of all connection to their heritage. This is also backed up by the “shaman” offering to help the man whop is slowly deteriorating, a reference of how many black people decided to return to the safety of Africa after they were liberated from slavery.

The break dancers conform to the house style, but are also used to address the reversal of influences that took place during the time of slavery. This is because all modern “western” music and dance stems from African slaves who brought their up beat songs to America.

The video also represents a world that is heavily male dominated. This shows a clear opinion that the western world is in great need of a social reform and must undergo these changes quickly.