Afrika ShoxLeftfield ft. Afrika Bambaataa

Directed by Chris Cunningham

Case Study: By Jessica Doran

https://vimeo.com/73638261

GENRE + AUDIENCE• 'One characteristic that applies more frequently to electronic music is that, although, as mentioned, electronic

music has a reputation for being cold or clinical, this is also a very broad genre; and because electronic instruments allow an individual or small group to create music that otherwise might require a larger group, it is a genre that allows for both incredibly personal, experimental, or ambitious music projects.' Piers Hollott

The electronic genre creates the connotations of a more urban and busy society and so it would suggest it's audience to be of a similar background. For example; in Afrika Shox Cunnigham deliberately uses cultural signifyers such as the Starbucks sign, in order to enhance the city life, attracting a more urban audience with a setting they recognise and can relate to. Another way in which the genre is immediately established within 'Afrika Shox', is the way lighting is used to suggest the metallic nature of the city. The picture itself throughout the video continues to be tinted slightly grey in order to maintain the robotic nature of the electronic genre and the emotionless yet chaotic city.

GENRE + REPRESENTATION• This theory seems to apply to Leftfields 'Afrika Shox'. The

director of the video, Chris Cunningham, has perhaps used the cynical nature of the electronic sound/genre to explore what could be seen as a more personal or sincere subject such as slavery. The electronic sound of music works perfectly to discuss such a topic because it creates an ironic contrast between the third world and the first world, suggesting a sort of alien nature to the New York setting and also suggesting the robotic/emotionless nature of the people who live in a privelidged society yet remain careless for those less fortunate. The white race in the video seem to play the part of the robots when they reflect such a lack of empathy for a man who we assume may be a symbol for the black slavery in America or perhaps even a Veteran from Vietnam due to his attire. The electronic feel of music therefore creates a sort of distopia for this lost man against a robotic society. In specific, Cunningham makes it clear to the audience that the only person willing to help the lost and quite litterally broken man of the video, is Afrika Bambaataa . Afrika Bambaataa becomes the sort of oracle of the video and as he looks down on the black man on the floor, a bright white light blurs beside Bambaataa to represent him as the godlike figure of the video. This creates a sort of prophetic irony as the only person willing to help the black man is Afrika Bambaataa, of the same ethnicity as opposed to any of the white people who had ignored the man prior. For this, the electronic genre emphasises Cunninghams narrative perfectly. It suggest the segregation of this man against the urban sounding music, emphasising his lost character against a judgemental and programmed society.

VISUALS - CUTS• To begin with, the video cuts from shot to shot very

quickly in order to show a level of chaos to which then emphasises the single black man as lost and confused in the robotic setting. However, Cunningham directs it so that the pace of the cuts then slows down once the mans first arm shatters to the floor. The director deliberately creates a moment of recognition between the black man and white man to which shows the white mans carelessness over what has occurred. From here onwards, the cuts then remain at a steadier pace. This creates the connotations of the black man finding his way around the city and allows the camera to focus more on his injuries and the fact that the society makes him an outsider when he infact wishes to be a part of it perhaps. This can be seen for instance when he finds a dance group in the underground. Here, the white group begin to do a robotic dance to which emphasises the African man as not being 'programmed' like them. The robotic movements of the white dance group here simply reinforce a sense of standardization that they have created for themselves, their emotionless attitude towards his broken body and their attempt to exclude the African man.

VISUALS - SOUND• Visuals and sound/music are also predominantly linked

throughout the piece in order to display the shattering of the man. Every time a body part shatters to the ground, diegetic sound is enhanced against the actual music to create a poignant moment within the narrative. It could be seen to suggest the moment in which cunningham wishes to emphasise as most integral. As the audience plays the part of the society looking down on this ominous black man, Cunningham enhances the shattering of him in order to show what we are doing/what the society within the video is doing by ignoring him. It acts as a metaphor for whatever the man symbolises e.g, slavery or a vietnam soldier and a cry for help through the enhanced sound which is ignored by everyone in the video.

VISUALS - LYRICS• Lyrics are used throughout the video to link with visuals and allow the audience to

recognise and relate to the narrative. Within ' Afrika Shox' specifically, Cunningham continues to create irony through the combination of lyrics and visuals. Where Afrika Bambaataa asks the man 'do you need a hand?', Cunningham deliberately makes it obvious to the audience that the man has no hand in the first place when he cuts to a shot of the black man helpless and shattered on the floor in confusement. This ironic sentament acts as a sort of wake up call for his audience, suggesting that the man is incapable of responding to a simple question because the people around him ignored his plea for help and allowed him to shatter in the first place. We have a veuristic view of the man and seem almost like a prey upon him, hence emphasising the inequality within the video and the metaphor of discrimination that the African man may stand for in this shot/throughout. In addition here, Cunningham uses theatre practitioner Berkof Brechts Gestus technique in order to make his audience laugh at something sincere and cynical. The situation that the black man is in is horrid, yet we are made to laugh at Afrika Bambaataa's ironic statement and so the director puts his audience into the position of the robotic society and essentially make us ignore his pity for a second and laugh instead.

INTERTEXTUAL REFERENCES:• Throughout the entirity of the music video, Chris Cunningham fills 'Afrika

Shox' with intertextual references to suggest what the African man is representative of, and the atmosphere/symbol of the urban city setting. A strong intertextual reference to which creates the suggestion that the man is perhaps representative of peoples attitudes towards slavery, is the referencing to Mary Shelley's 'Frankenstein'. Within this novel, there is an extract which discusses the disenfranchised. In Afrika Shox, we are discussing a similar attitude, with the treatment of slaves. For example; in Chapter 4 Shelley writes ' I saw the dull yellow eye of the creature open; it breathed hard, and a convulsive motion agitated its limbs'. The author discusses 'the creature' as alien to the speaker and unatural. Cunningham takes this same view for the way he portrays how the white people of the city react towards the African man. As Shelley describes the 'agitated limbs' she makes it sound frightening and monstrous, similarly to how people react to the African man within the video. The African man in the video is weak and in need of help and so his limbs seem also 'agitated', similarly to how Shelley tells us of 'the creature'. Cunningham therefore perhaps uses this reference to label the African as an outsider within an urban/white societies eyes and explore the same ignorance perhaps explored within Shelley's novel as she makes Frankenstein speak of 'the monster' as inequal, describing it as inhuman and as 'a creature'.

In addition to this, another line within Shelley's 'Frankenstein' supports this intertextual reference. Where she writes 'one hand was stretched out, seemingly to detain me', the speaker of the novel acts/references once again as the white people and first world society in 'Afrika Shox'. The speaker takes the monsters actions as a threat where she says 'to detain me', when in fact it may have been out of weakness or companionship. Similarly in 'Afrika shox', the African stretches his hand out for help from the white man. Two white men look at him wearily and confused and don't help him but walk away, similarly to how Frankenstein then 'rushed downstairs' in Shelley's novel, deserting the creature as if it's a threat because it looks different to himself.

INTERTEXTUAL REFERENCES

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Another intertextual reference to which Cunningham makes within 'Afrika Shox' is the reference to The Matrix. The entire Matrix trilogy can relate to Afrika Shox specifically due to it's links to geometrical shapes and the metallic world that enhances the trapped distopia that the lost African is thrown into. The actual concept of The Matrix however is what specifically seems to be referenced through Cunninghams direction. Morpheus explains to Neo that 'You are a slave born into a prison in your mind'. This strongly references the idea that the African is isolated, he is a slave in the sense that people are making him below them. However, this prison that he is trapped in (quite litterally as he plays the china doll of the video, eventually shattering to pieces) is only created within the peoples minds and the 'social norms' in such a society because in reality the urban and very much modern setting of New York (noticable from the shot of the Twin Towers) shows that slavery is in fact illegal, as is racial discrimination (however it does still occur). This displays Cunninghams concept of discrimination as something that humans create within their own minds, it is not something we are born to believe and through this he emphasises how we are all equal, the white people within the video just choose not to believe this.

INTERTEXTUAL REFERENCES

• Having touched on how the Twin Towers represent the time period of the video, they also act as a strong reference to capitalism. The very first shot we witness is a mid shot of the Twin Towers and immediately emphasises the video as an urban New York setting. The twin towers of New York's World Trade Center stood as the symbol of American economic might and by using them to begin the video, Cunningham introduces a metaphorical link to capitalism that excludes the African. Morover, the towers in the video act as binary opposites against the idea of capitalism and exploitation of the third world to which the white people throughout the video clearly uphold. For example; it is the first world society that causes the Africans body to obliterate and shatter. He is surrounded by a booming, capitalist city which breaks him litterally, for instance, the white breakdancer kicks his leg off and in the end he is shattered by a passing taxi. Hence, symbollically representing the components of a capitalist society breaking the third world. Also demonstrating the sequence of events to which all adds to showing the metaphorical exploitation that the twin towers first introduce to the video.

DIRECTOR + INFLUENCES• It would seem that Cunninghams motif

of a sort of distopia world can be seen in many of his video's. Here, in Portishead's 'Only You', Cunningham once again translates to his audience a blurred conception of the world, similar to the robotic portrayal he gives within 'Afrika Shox'. Instead, he uses the slow pace of Portishead's song to create more obvious connotations of a dark and strange world. This is different to Afrika Shox however, where Cunningham doesn't make it so noticable to the reader that the world is a distopia, but a robotic and urban planet that doesn't welcome outsiders. The same robotic motif is also featured in others of Cunninghams music videos, such as Bjork's 'All is full of love' where he litterally turns Bjork into a robot.

Bjork: https://vimeo.com/43444347

Portishead: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TmDkzVvherk

DIRECTOR + INFLUENCES

• 'Cunningham remains a relentlessly experimental film-maker with a slightly deranged imaginative streak shaped by the sci-fi films and electronic music he devoured in his youth. He has the air of a contented outsider, someone who is obsessive about what he does but unbothered about its commercial impact. Chris Cunningham is a very contemporary kind of pop artist, an almost invisible presence whose influence on the mainstream is virally pervasive. The frenetic, wildly inventive videos he made for Aphex Twin ("Windowlicker", "Come to Daddy") and Björk ("All Is Full of Love") redefined the form and have been plundered relentlessly by less gifted directors. For the latter, he made Björk into a robot. His very disturbing short film, Rubber Johnny, made in 2005, again using an Aphex Twin soundtrack, features "a hyperactive, shape-shifting mutant child". It remains an all-time YouTube favourite, which perversely brings him close to despair. '

• http://www.theguardian.com/music/2010/apr/18/chris-cunningham-interview-sean-ohagan

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