The video I analysing is Chicane’s “Poppiholla”. In order to do this I will refer to several key theories notably Andrew Goodwin’s Six Point Analysis and Laura Malvey’s ‘Male Gaze’ theory.
Chicane is an electronic dance music (EDM) act and the alias of Nick Bracegirdle, an English producer. “Poppiholla” was released in 2009 on Modena Records. The video, which was directed by Joseph Kahn displays a mixture of narrative and conceptual elements. There is a clear narrative pattern; the video follows a black man in a hood walking through a town centre in a furtive manner. The close ups of his face show him looking angry and passers by glance at him suspiciously. He sees something in the distance and begins running towards it at a high speed, an over the shoulder shot shows you that it is a woman he is running towards and the audience is led to believe that he is going to attack her. He then grabs her and pushes her onto the floor and low angle shot shows the audience that a pile of bricks was about to fall on her and that he has in fact saved her life. The conceptual elements lie in the ideas behind the video, there is a strong social theme throughout within the ideas of racism and stereotypes that are represented.
The entire video is an intertextual reference to the famous Guardian ‘Points of View’ commercial in which a skinhead saves a suited, ‘City’ man from a pile of falling bricks.
The video challenges the conventions of its genre in that unlike most EDM videos there are no party or club scenes. This is an important characteristic of most dance music videos, clubs and parties would be the main environment for audiences to hear this music so naturally they are prevalent in these videos. This contradicts Andrew Goodwin’s Six Point Analysis which states that music videos display genre characteristics.
A convention which it observes is that the artist does not video in the video. This is common in dance music videos, artists within this genre are often signed to independent record labels and therefore have to submit to the demands of commercial record labels and appear in videos. Again, this is a contradiction of Goodwin’s theory which states that the demands of the record label will include the needs for lots of close ups of the artist.
There are no lyrics in the song but there is a contradictory relationship between the music and the visuals. This contradictory relationship arises from the fact that the song itself is upbeat and cheerful whereas the visuals are dark, the whole video has been shot in black and white and the themes represented in it are quite strong, this contrasts with the happy, upbeat music.
The video is not cut to the beat until around the last minute of the song, during which the pace of the music increases and speeds up. During this final minute, the man picks up speed and begins to run towards the woman.
The main focus of this video is representation of race and the negative ideas associated with it. This is emphasised by the mise-en-scene, the main protagonist is a black man dressed in a tracksuit with the hood up. There are many negative connotations to this manner of dress, wearers are often portrayed as ‘yobs’ or regarded with suspicion because the hood is effectively a way of hiding their identity. This idea is reinforced by the suspicious glances the protagonist receives as he is walking through the town centre. The over the shoulder shots as the man runs towards the woman, which leads the audience to believe that he is about to attack her also reinforce this. This is a pertinent example of the negative ideas associated with the stereotype of young black men, the audience believes that they are about to witness a crime. This relates to Goodwin’s theory of voyeurism and Laura Malvey’s ‘Male Gaze’ theory. The camera observes the attractive woman from the male’s point of view, she appears to be beautiful and vulnerable as she is busy looking in her bag. This doesn’t necessarily conform to the main ideas behind the Male Gaze theory which states that women are often objectified for the gratification and titillation of men but the camera observes her from a male point of view which is a key element in this theory. The perceptions of race and stereotype are strongly challenged in this video, the man is not the violent attacker the audience expects him to be and is in fact a hero as he saves the woman’s life. This idea of a hero does not adhere to the stereotypical image of young black men who dress in that manner.
I believe that this video is highly effective due to the reactions it generates from the audience. It completely challenges audience perceptions and I like the fact that it doesn’t follow the conventions of it’s genre through the use of generic party and club scenes but that it actually has a strong social message behind it. This is something which I would like to incorporate into my own music video.
Sophia Bendo
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