LETTERS TO THE FREE:

How can you apply the concept of Orientalism to Common’s Letter to the Free?

• The way the west characterise the black and oriental cultures.
• The video uses western stereotypes about different cultures such as the location is a prison, linking to crime and slavery.
• Links between culture, imperial power & colonialism is seen through the modern music video, with messages such as anti-racism and equality, linking to slavery and colonialism.
• The way in which imperial cultures have the power to create ideologies and stereotypes through portrayal.

How is the audience called / addressed / hailed (interpellated)? Use examples from both the lyrics and the visual grammar (shot, edit, mise-en-scene) to show how audiences are drawn into a specific subject position / ideological framework?

• The audience are included by the use of direct address, ‘Letters to the free’, addressing the free and in particular those in power to end racism and create equality.
• The audience are also drawn in through the use of explicit lyrics ‘hung from’, to create emotional responses and the desire for equality.
• Drawn in by the use of colour, black and white, representing simplicity and truth as well as division between races and cultures.

GHOST TOWN:

Where can you identify ‘hybridity’, ‘ambiguity’ and ‘cultural polyvalency’ in this music video?

Hybridity – seen through the two-toned music style of pop and ska and the mixture of races within the band members.   

Ambiguity – the deeper meanings behind the song such as unity and equality between races and culture and how the hybridity of music has positive impacts on society etc.  

Cultural Polyvalency – the music is a blend of two different popular music styles for multiple cultures which joined together and created a new joined style, embraced by multiple, combined cultures.

How is the audience called / addressed / hailed (interpellation)? Use examples from both the lyrics and the visual grammar (shot, edit, mise-en-scene) to show how audiences are drawn into a specific subject position / ideological framework?

• The audience are drawn due to the two-tone music, which was a popular style at the time and the cultural significance and messages it conveys such as equality.
• The audience are addressed by the use of local London scenes, which the audience can relate to and understand the current troubles that are occurring such as the recession and racism.
• Drawn in by lyrics, such as ‘No jobs to be found in the country’, which again conveys the struggles of unemployment and racism of the time.