Music Video – Letter to the Free is a product which possesses cultural and social significance. It will invite comparison with other music videos allowing for an analysis of the contexts in which they are produced and consumed.

This is a targeted CSP and needs to be studied with reference to two elements of the Theoretical Framework (Media Language and Media Representation) and all relevant contexts

Common is an Oscar and Grammy award winning hip/hop rap artist who wrote Letter to the Free as a soundtrack to The 13th – a documentary by Ava DuVernay named after the American 13th amendment (the abolition of slavery). His output is highly politicised, existing in the context of a variety of social and cultural movements aimed at raising awareness of racism and its effects in US society (e.g.: Black Lives Matter). The product can also be considered in an economic context through the consideration of if and how music videos make money (through, for example, advertising on YouTube).

Postcolonialism

Overall, this is a topic that concerns IDENTITY and REPRESENTATION. In other words, where does our identity come from? How is our identity formed? How do we understand our own identity and how is our identity represented in the local, national and global media? You can look at another post that looks at identity, representation and the self. But here it is specifically looking at identity and representation through the lens of Empire and Colonialism.

The Shadow of Slavery

Postcolonial critical thought emerged as a distinct category in the 1990’s, with an aim to undermine the universalist claims that ‘great literature has a timeless and universal significance [which] thereby demotes or disregards cultural, social, regional, and nations differences in experience and outlook’ (Barry, 2017: 194). In other words, postcolonial criticism challenges the assumption of a universal claim towards what constitutes ‘good reading’ and ‘good literature’; questioning the notion of a recognised and overarching canon of important cultural texts – book, poems, plays, films etc – much of which is institutionalised into academic syllabi.

The Link between culture, imperial power & colonialism

the power to narrate, or to block other narratives from forming or emerging, is very important to culture and imperialism

Edward Said Culture and Imperialism, 1993: xiii

Jacques Lacan

The Orient of the ‘Other’

The Idea of Resistance and Political Protest:
● When we first think about political protest, what comes to mind?
○ Attempts to change to laws or legislation
○ Organised political movements
○ Public protests
○ Petitions, marches
● However, we can look at political protest in terms of:
○ Cultural resistance
○ Everyday people
● Why look at cultural resistance?
○ Overt political protest is uncommon. When it occurs, it often results in a backlash.
○ Even if overt political protest does results in changes in legislation, it won’t necessarily change public
opinion.
○ Culture is what influences people’s hearts, minds and opinions. This is the site of popular change.
Key idea: the political, personal and cultural are always intertwined

• The idea of culture as a site of political struggle for Ghost Town see below)
• The the theory of hegemony – Gramsci

cultural hegemony functions by framing ideologies of the dominant social group as the only legitimate
ideology.

Key Concepts:
● Cultural resistance
● Cultural hegemony
● Subcultural theory

LYRICS- Instead of ‘nigga’ they use the word ‘criminal’

Black bodies being lost in the American dream

Slavery’s still alive, check Amendment 13

Postcolonialism

 Looking at identity and representation through the lens of Empire and Colonialism. ‘The Shadow of Slavery’

Challenges the assumption of a universal claim towards what constitutes ‘good reading’ and ‘good literature’.

Orientalism

The power to narrate, or to block other narratives from forming or emerging, is very important to culture and imperialism

Edward Said asked if ‘imperialism was principally economic‘ and looked to answer that question by highlighting ‘the privileged role of culture in the modern imperial experience’. He argues that Orientalism is “a style of thought based upon an ontological and epistemological distinction between ‘the Orient’ and ‘the Occident’

-Tends to rely on a binary opposition between the West and the East that most of times is misleading and destructive.

Jacques Lacan ‘the other’

He was a psychoanalyst and a philosopher. The idea that we cannot actually see ourselves as whole, we use a reflection to understand who we are / who we are not. He proposed that in infancy this first recognition occurs when we see ourselves in a mirror.

Key idea: the political, personal and cultural are always intertwined

The Idea of Resistance and Political Protest

Culture is what influences people’s hearts, minds and opinions. This is the site of popular change.

Antonio Gramsci: Italian philosopher writing in the 1930s

● Hegemonic: dominant, ruling-class, power-holders
● Hegemonic culture: the dominant culture
● Cultural hegemony: power, rule, or domination maintained by ideological and cultural means.
● Ideology: worldview – beliefs, assumptions and values

Cultural hegemony functions by framing the ideologies of the dominant social group as the only legitimate
ideology.

Subculture; Working-class youth culture

https://hautlieucreative.co.uk/media23al/wp-content/uploads/sites/58/2022/01/Music-as-Political-Protest.pdf

“We ain’t seen as human beings with feelings
Will the U.S. ever be us?” = Dehumanizing

“Slavery’s still alive, check Amendment 13” =

“We staring in the face of hate again” = Racism towards black people still hasn’t changed from all those years ago of being treated poorly.

“The caged birds sings for freedom to bring” = Could imply slaves who were caged and wanting to be free again

“Black bodies being lost in the American dream” = Police brutality

US 5% population but 25% of the worlds prisoners

1975 = 3000 prisoners

Today = 2.3 million prisoners

Postcolonialism

concerns IDENTITY and REPRESENTATION. In other words, where does our identity come from? How is our identity formed? How do we understand our own identity and how is our identity represented in the local, national and global media? You can look at another post that looks at identity, representation and the self. But here it is specifically looking at identity and representation through the lens of Empire and Colonialism.

The Shadow of Slavery

Postcolonial critical thought emerged as a distinct category in the 1990’s, with an aim to undermine the universalist claims that ‘great literature has a timeless and universal significance [which] thereby demotes or disregards cultural, social, regional, and nations differences in experience and outlook’ (Barry, 2017: 194). In other words, postcolonial criticism challenges the assumption of a universal claim towards what constitutes ‘good reading’ and ‘good literature’; questioning the notion of a recognised and overarching canon of important cultural texts – book, poems, plays, films etc – much of which is institutionalised into academic syllabi.

postcolonialism is a way of critically way of looking at culture. A key figure is Edward said. His book is called orientalism.

“the power to narrate, or to block other narratives from forming or emerging, is very important to culture and imperialism”

literature, painting, music, poetry, arts are framed the best for the west and the east is the least

Jacques Lacan ‘the other’

search for identity by looking in the mirror or by someone else. The mirror is kind of a media text. You see yourself differently and we know who we are.

The music video is a product which possesses cultural and social significance. It has a comparison with other music videos allowing for an analysis of the contexts in which they are produced and consumed.

Common which is the rapper and writer, was born March 13, 1972 (age 49 years), South Side, Chicago, Illinois, United States.
He has a net worth of £45 million and was the first rapper to win an academy award.

A subculture is a working-class youth culture, unified by shared tastes in style, music and ideology. It also has a solution to collectively experienced problems and finally a form of resistance to cultural hegemony.

– Hegemonic: dominant, ruling-class, power-holders
– Hegemonic culture: the dominant culture
– Cultural hegemony: power, rule, or domination maintained by ideological and cultural means.
– Ideology: worldview – beliefs, assumptions and values

Antonio Gramsci is a Italian philosopher writing in the 1930s

Cultural hegemony functions by framing the ideologies of the dominant social group as the only legitimate
ideology.

In the 1970s, a group of cultural theorists in Birmingham applied Gramsici’s theories to post-war
British working-class youth culture
● Looked at working class cultures like the teddy-boys, mods, skinheads, and punks – subcultures
unified by shared tastes in fashion, music and ideology.
● They argued argued that the formation of subcultures offered young working class people a solution
to the problems they were collectively experiencing in society.

Lyrics:

“We let go to free them so we can free us”

“They stop, search and arrest our souls”

“Instead of ‘nigga’ they use the word ‘criminal'”

Postcolonialism:
postcolonialism was thought as a distinct category in the 1990s with the target to undermine the universalist claims that literature has a timeless and universal significance.

The link between culture, imperial power and colonialism:
“the power to narrate, or to block other narratives from forming or emerging, is very important to culture and imperialism“

 Orientalism (1978) alongside Culture and imperialism  (1993) are key texts written by the respected academic.

Edward Said – known for the book “Orientalism” 1978, he was a critic of the cultural representations that are the bases of orientalism.
The conclusion of Edward Said’s theory was that Western writings depicted Orient as an irrational, weak, feminized ‘Other’.

Jacques Lacan, The ‘other‘
“we cannot actually see ourselves as whole, we use a reflection to understand who we are / who we are not.”
Lacan proposes that infancy this first recognition occurs when we see ourselves in a mirror.
representations of the east/ the orientation, the other are constructed through a lens of western colonial power.

“Letter to the Free” was written as part of the soundtrack to “The 13th”, the song speaks out against America’s justice system which helps to perpetuate the inequality endured by many African Americans

Cultural Hegemony:
● Antonio Gramsci: Italian philosopher writing in the 1930s

Key Terms:
● Hegemonic: dominant, ruling-class, power-holders
● Hegemonic culture: the dominant culture
● Cultural hegemony: power, rule, or domination maintained by ideological and cultural means.
● Ideology: worldview – beliefs, assumptions and values

● Cultural hegemony functions by framing the ideologies of the dominant social group as the only legitimate
ideology.
● The ideologies of the dominant group are expressed and maintained through its economic, political, moral,
and social institutions (like the education system and the media).
● These institutions socialise people into accepting the norms, values and beliefs of the dominant social
group.
● As a result, oppressed groups believe that the social and economic conditions of society are natural and
inevitable, rather than created by the dominant group.

Key Concepts:
● Cultural resistance
● Cultural hegemony
● Subcultural theory

Lyrics
“We ain’t seen as human beings with feelings” – Common states that black people aren’t seen as humans by some

“Will the U.S. ever be us?” – Common is asking if black people will ever be seen as true Americans