Explain how the social, political and cultural contexts of media influence how audiences may interpret the same media in different ways. Use Common’s Letter to the Free to support your answer.

• Universal Music Group (UMG) is a major music conglomerate, which own the smaller subsidiaries, Viviendi, DefJam and Vevo.
• UMG has a horizontal integration, as it owns multiples music labels.
• However, “Letter to the Free” follows vertical integration as it is a song, has a music video attached to it , the song is part of the soundtrack to a film, Common talks about the song on a YouTube video and also because the song is available on Vevo.
• Companies like UMG make loads of money because they track the target audiences with what type of music they most commonly search through cookies and say for example the user really likes rap and political music, it will find more music that is related and will cater to their interest in order to get them to click onto the link to watch their video.
• As well as by getting artists to sign for their record label, UMG makes loads of money by advertising fees, because it is a relatively large conglomerate, it will cost quite a lot in order to advertise your business just before or after a music video released by UMG.
• UMG owns Vevo and in the music video for Letter to the Free, the Vevo logo is diplayed in the bottom left hand corner of the music video in order to entice the customer to visit the Vevo site and to discover more music. This is because they are being repetitively shown the Vevo logo, therefore they will want to click it because it is there and it also is a reminder about Vevo, therefore the customer will remember Vevo.
• What is unusual is that Common is a multi-millionaire, but there are many famous artists with a higher net worth and as a multi-billionaire monopoly, why can’t UMG help stop slavery?

Common

• His real name is Lonnie Corant Jaman Shuka Rashid Lynn, however, he is better known by his stage name, Common.
• Common is an American rapper, actor, writer, activist and philanthropist.
• He was born in South Side, Chicago (Illinois) on 13th March 1972
• Illinois is a place which is known for being a poverty area.
• He has completed his Doctorate Degree.
• His music is influenced by culture as he wants to spread awareness of racism.
• Common has a net worth of approximately $45 million

Letter to the Free (Music Video)

• It is from an album called “Black America Again” which is the 11th studio album that was produced by Common
• It is a song that is under the Hip Hop and Rap Genre
• It was a low budget music video
• The video is all filmed in black and white bringing a message that having a colour is less important as everyone is equal
• It is a predictable hip hop and rap music video.
• The music video is hosted by VEVO.
• There is no main story to compliment this music video.
• The black box that features in the music video is a symbol that black things can represent infinity and something that the audiences need to know about.
• It appears to be quite a radical music video because it challenges the dominant ideology
• As suggested by the title “Letter to the Free” the free are the white people and Common is trying to show that everyone should be treated equally, no matter the colour of their skin.
• The prison setting represents how the black people are “locked away” as if they are criminals, however in reality they are the same as white people.

What to mention in my essay:

• George Gurbner’s cultivation theory states that the more you release over time, the more likely their ideas, views and beliefs are to be changed.
• The video is in black and white to show the authenticity and to also mimic old fashioned videos in black and white, indicating how long slavery has been happening
• The title “Letter to the Free” and the music video setting of an old prison emphasises how the black people in the prison are sending a “letter”, which is them try to communicate with the free (white people). It is not a literal letter it is a metaphor as stereo-typically ‘prisoners’ communicate to people outside the prison (ie their family) by sending letters.
• The repetition of “Freedom” creates a sense of urgency and the repetition also helps the listener to remember the message due to how much it is repeated. According to psychology, the brain remembers things after 3 cycles, so they are repeating “freedom” over 3 times in the song to ensure that the listener will remember the message being delivered through the song – Black Lives Matter and to end slavery!
• Common has released his video with Vevo (UMG) because it can help get his message across due to the large amount of audience that UMG/Vevo attracts daily.