Narrative
- The main narrative and message in Dizzee Rascal’s Dream music video is his autobiography and how he made his dreams reality. He is telling his story trough out this song, how he started doing music as hobby and dreamed about winning awards to releasing his album and over 100,000 people buying it. Dizzee is talking to the young generation and how they can make their dreams come true.
Representation
-On first viewing, the music video represents positive and encouraging message, together with the bright colours and use of muppets, the video expresses an upbeat song. We see a female pianist, white and in her 50s, presenting Dizzee Rascal to the audience. This scene is a reference to the children’s programme “Muffin the Mule” which was popular in UK, the show includes female pianist interacting with puppet mule and playing children songs on a piano. The use of these references creates an innocent child-like backdrop, which contrasts with the issues and examples shown in the video. Another sample that has been used in this music video is Captain Sensible song “Happy Talk”. This song is sang by the old woman and can emphasise that Dizzee Rascal changes the music genre like the original singer. Captain Sensible started his carrier in a punk group and later on switched to pop. Rascal is doing the same thing- from hip hop to pop.
- In one of the first scenes we see Dizzee coming from a jack in a box setting prop, he shows up right after the old woman introduces him, this connotes how even if he going out from his box (representing his usual music genre), the white woman is the one who allows him to do it, this links to the idea that majority of white people are controlling the music industry. Rascal is presented as part of the puppets in this music video, suggesting how he is part of the community that have less rights and freedom. But at the same time, he is the only one who doesn’t have strings, which means that other puppets represent his past.
- The main setting is the female pianist’s living room, which is represented stereotypically for middle class white people house. The set includes a piano with vintage window curtains, this connotes how Dizzee is under this woman’s control, and how she has more rights than him. The size difference as well shows how he is represented as a toy and preforms only when the woman tells him. She acts as a presenter/narrator and reacts to the action, arguably reflecting the ‘typical’ or ‘expected’ response of an older audience to rap music.
- The video a puppet house set prop, the building is filled with graffitis, which have connotations of vandalism. In this scene many little sketches are happening, for example two of the puppets which represent people from black community are stealing a tv, which is considered as crime. This shows how black people are described by the stereotypes. The big white eyes and smile are one of the main stereotypes for black people, the puppets have these characteristics which can be controversial for the audience. Youths are constructed as irresponsible and having no purpose in life – skateboarding, spraying graffiti. There are other examples of people from society shown in this video- the police officer is constructed as a brutal, baton-wielding white male, beating a youth, as well The Scots character (red hair, tartan) is constructed as a drunk with a lager bottle. These characteristics are based on society’s stereotypes about certain group of people.
- Stuart Hall’s theory can be consider in ‘Dream’. The video deliberately constructs the puppet characters as stereotypes to exemplify the way in which these social groups are often represented– and to demonstrate that these stereotypes can misrepresent individuals from these groups.
- Dizzee Rascal is constructed as a rebellious young black male through the dress codes of red tracksuit with a ‘hoodie’ top and trainers. He appears to be a stereotypically defiant youth who challenges authority at the beginning of the video, reinforced by the lyrics e.g. ‘reckless with no shame’. As the narrative progresses, a more positive representation of Dizzee Rascal is constructed as he describes his strong sense of purpose, hard work and achievement. Later in the video, following Dizzee’s transformation, the youths also partake of more creative and less destructive behaviour (e.g. kicking a football, break-dancing), establishing him as a role-model. This positive representation of a young black rapper challenges many negative stereotypes of this social group.
- Dizzee Rascal begins to use the microphone prop at the point where he talks about discovering music and gaining air time. The microphone connotes power – Dizzee Rascal’s voice can now be heard (literally and metaphorically), and this signifies a move away from deprivation and rebellion towards achieving his dream and becoming a respected member of society.
- ‘Dream” music video refers to “traditional white” UK culture and links to Paul Gilroy’s theory of representation. The theory suggests that colonial discourses continue to inform contemporary attitudes to race and ethnicity in the postcolonial era. The idea that civilisationism constructs racial hierarchies and sets up binary oppositions based of otherness. UK’s empire in 1950s explored new countries with the idea of expanding. Countries in Africa, the Caribbean and Asia were part of the empire. Dizzee’s father was Nigerian and his mother Ghanaian, which emphasises that Rascal’s ethnicity background is mainly from Africa. In this video we can see how he wants to show that people from colonial countries don’t have the equal rights as the native society.
In this video the white female pianist plays a bigger role than Rascal in his own music video. It emphasises how the UK empire was bigger than other colonist countries, it shows that UK were more powerful and had control over these countries.
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