Letter to the Free Flashcards
Language Representation
Who wrote LTTF
Common
Common is signed to what company?
ARTium/Defjam
what is ARTium/Defjam
media industry run by black entrepreneurs that allow artists to have control over how they’re represented in music
Lyrics by Billie Holiday ‘Strange Fruit’
‘Southern leaves, southern trees’
Who was Billie Holiday
Influential black jazz singer who sung about lynching of black people in America
Lyrics that show support for Black Lives Matter campaign people
‘For America to rise, its a matter of black lives’
What is BLM campaign
Black Lives Matter 2013
activist movement against police brutality and racism
Lyrics that criticise previous presidents
‘Shot me with your ray-gun, And now you want to trump me’
What did Reagan do?
1981-89
used ‘war on drugs’ to start process of mass incarceration of ethnic minorities
Lyrics used to describe the outdoors
‘a pastoral scene’
How does LTTF offer an alternative to mainstream version of black racial identity
- reveals complex history
- identifies structural inequalities as cause for criminality and violent stereotypes
- Common is a positive representation of a black man =counterpart to negativity (politically and historically aware, inteligent)
Hybrid Genre
black + white and slow movements more conventional for Jazz and Blues (black history)
song conforms to hip-hop and rap
bricolage of styles
what was the 13th amendment?
document- abolition of slavery
mass incarceration
disproportionately large numbers of African Americans in US prison system
How does LTTF depict African Americans?
from the POV of an AA, song uses elements of traditional music from AA culture
When was LTTF published
2016, when America saw a rise in racial violence
How do the lyrics conform to Gilroy’s theory of post colonialist
marginalises/dehumanises ethnic minorities
lyrics show AA are still treated as outsiders by dominant ethnicity
‘they stop, search and arrest our souls’
Double consciousness- Gilroy post colonialist
more than one identity
African Diasphora and American
no excessive noise
ironic juxtaposition when drummer plays loudly
challenges its ability to constraint behaviour
black and white aesthetic
History: connotes early photographs and media footage
Realism: symbolism of facts as connotes style of traditional newspapers
Low key lighting
Darkness reflects heavy topic of mass incarceration
Lightness reflects narrative of hope, but is fleeting and doesn’t fully illuminate performers to show they don’t have a solution
performer’s profile
subverts conventions by obscuring features so they can’t be identified as heroes
long shot makes them to small to be distinguishable
mid shot uses lighting to obsucre
they communicate the problem but do not provide an answer
coherent visual style
each shot is clearly part of the music video and creates meaning
black square
shields viewer from reality and hides the truth
intense black symbolises a lack of knowledge and understanding about US prison systems
