Joshua Media Blog

Beyonce delivered her message during performance of new single Formation at halftime during Super Bowl 50 Her backing dancers appeared dressed as Black Panthers activists with all-black outfits and signature black berets  Several dancers also appeared in an image holding a piece of paper reading 'justice 4 Martin Woods, a black man shot dead by around a dozen police in San Francisco after refusing to drop a knife The Black Panthers were an armed group involved in the black power movement of the Sixties and Seventies They followed the teachings of men such as Malcolm X, who advocated the use of violence to overcome oppression 

Collage from JoshuaDudusola

Intertextuality  - The use of muffin the mule, the lady is supposed to be a motherly figure that looks down on Dizzee in a patronising fashion. This idea can be shown in the use of a long shot that displays the lady and Dizzee but as Dizzee is smaller in size the levels adds to this idea of her being above him. This again can be linked to the idea of her race being higher than him.  Muffin the mule is a children' show meaning that its use in the video gives the idea of childhood and nostalgia which can be linked the the title of the song as children dream for success. Dizzee's reference to black face and minstrels shows link to the racism and the use of black people being used as entertainment. This links to Stuart Hall's theory as the derogatory use of minstrels can be linked to his use of the entertainer when looking at other ethnicities in media. Dizzee could be using these images to reference racism and the empowerment of black people as they move away from oppression a...

Eye-line match is when we see the women playing the piano look at the puppet police fighting the puppet black males and we are then shown the fighting after we see a reaction shot which captures her reaction to the violence which we could infer as in shock due to her gobsmacked facial expression and sort of trying to avoid the violence by going into a sort of ducking position which connotes fear towards the violence and she would be gobsmacked because she appears privileged due to her expensive looking costume and wouldn't be used to violence because of her privileges. The use of the prop of the button which is attached to the white policemen helps exaggerate police brutality as we are presented with the policeman hitting the black male in the head which isn't right from the policeman as it is only to be used as self defence and not as a weapon to start fights; this helps create sympathy towards black people.  We see an eye-line match of the two blackface puppets tak...

Hip hop codes and conventions from JoshuaDudusola