REPRESENTATION CASE STUDY

CLASS/ETHNICITY

STEVIE WONDER - LIVING FOR THE CITY (1973)MARVIN GAYE – INNER CITY BLUES(MAKE ME WANNA HOLLER)(1971)

MODERN RELEVENCE/ LINKS TO BEYONCE FORMATION VIDEO(2016)

MARVIN GAYE INNER CITY BLUES(MAKE ME WANNA HOLLER)

BACKGROUND

In 1998, co-writer James Nyx Jr. recalled, "Marvin had a good tune, sort of blues-like, but didn't have any words for it. We started putting some stuff in there about how rough things were around town. We laughed about putting lyrics in about high taxes, 'cause both of us owed a lot. And we talked about how the

Marvin Gaye’s 1972 single ‘Inner City Blues’ “depicts the ghettos and bleak economic situations of inner-city America, and the emotional effects these have on inhabitants.” The music video serves to highlight these situations Gaye presents through his lyrics.

MARVIN GAYE

“Marvin Gaye April 2, 1939 – April 1, 1984 was an American soul singer, songwriter, and musician. Gaye helped to shape the sound of Motown in the 1960s, first as an in-house session player and later as a solo artist with a string of hits, including How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved By You) and I Heard It Through the Grapevine, and duet recordings with Mary Wells, Kim Weston, and Tammi Terrell, later earning the titles Prince of Motown and Prince of Soul.During the 1970s, he recorded the concept albums What's Going On and Let's Get It On and became one of the first artists in Motown to break away from the reins of their production company.Gaye's later recordings influenced several contemporary R&B subgenres, such as quiet storm and neo-soul. Following a period in Europe as a tax exile in the early 1980s, Gaye released the 1982 Grammy Award-winning hit "Sexual Healing" and its parent album Midnight Love.On April 1, 1984, Gaye's father, Marvin Gay Sr., fatally shot him at their house in the West Adams district of Los Angeles.”

INNER CITY BLUES(1971)

government would send guys to the moon, but not help folks in the ghetto. But we still didn't have a name, or really a good idea of the song. Then, I was home reading the paper one morning, and saw a headline that said something about the 'inner city' of Detroit. And I said, 'Damn, that's it. 'Inner City Blues.' ” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inner_City_Blues_(Make_Me_Wanna_Holler)

STEVIE WONDER LIVING FOR THE CITY

BACKGROUND STEVIE WONDER

“Stevland Hardaway Morris (May 13, 1950),known by his stage name Stevie Wonder, is an American musician, singer, songwriter, record producer, and multi-instrumentalist. A child prodigy, he became one of the most creative and loved musical performers of the late 20th century. Wonder signed with Motown's Tamla label at the age of 11 and has continued to perform and record for Motown as of the early 2010s. He has been blind since shortly after birth.

Among Wonder's works are singles such as "Superstition", "Sir Duke", "You Are the Sunshine of My Life" and "I Just Called to Say I Love You"; and albums such as Talking Book, Innervisions and Songs in the Key of Life. He has recorded more than 30 U.S. top ten hits and received 25 Grammy Awards, the most ever awarded to a male solo artist, and has sold over 100 million records worldwide, making him one of the top 60 best-selling music artists. Wonder is also noted for his work as an activist for political causes, including his 1980 campaign to make Martin Luther King, Jr.'s birthday a holiday in the United States. In 2009, Wonder was named a United Nations Messenger of Peace. In 2013, Billboard magazine released a list of the Billboard Hot 100 All-Time Top Artists to celebrate the US singles chart's 55th anniversary, with Wonder at number six.”

LIVING FOR THE CITY (1973)

Similar to Marvin Gaye’s Inner City Blues, Stevie Wonder’s ‘Living for the City’ depicts the bleak situations of the poor black community living in inner-city America. The video serves to again highlight the issues presented and give an idea of the severity of the situations. The album ‘Innervisions’, which Living for the City was released on, arguably contains lyrics throughout explaining these struggles, with songs such as ‘Visions’ highlighting the dream of human equality.

INNER CITY BLUES ETHNICITY REPRESENTATION

The focus of the track and video is to highlight the inequality of the African-American community and the white American community with the authorities/law enforcers. Marvin Gaye presents his, and many other’s, situation through the lyrics as well as the video, Gaye has chosen to represent his own culture/heritage proclaiming pride and highlighting the struggles he and many others faced. Throughout the video poor areas are shown alongside shots of a solemn representation of the poverty-stricken African American community. Shots of individuals alone in small housing, or overcrowding in even smaller spaces paired with the lyrics “this ain’t living” presents the extreme depravity they faced, and which many still face today. Lancan’s theory of audience engagement suggests that the audience have a more in-depth engagement of texts that represent them whether it be through gender, age or in this case ethnicity. Gaye would have chosen to present these issues both to highlight them to the authorities, higher classes and white Americans but also to allow a sense of community and togetherness within the African-American community.

The soul genre of the piece lends itself to present these issues, with American soul music beginning during the civil-rights era in the late 50s and 1960s, it held platform for African American artists to explore the inequalities they and many others faced.

“Soul music reflected the African-American identity and it stressed the importance of an African-American culture. The new-found African-American consciousness led to new styles of music, which boasted pride in being black.” (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soul_music#Detroit_.28Motown.29_soul)\

INNER CITY BLUES POWER/STATUS REPRESENTATION

Power and status in the video are heavily linked with the representation of ethnicity, simply those in power or enforcing the law are white Americans and those struggling in poverty are African-American. The lyrics and video present the white cooperations and government against the black communities, the lyrics “money we make it, before we see it you take it” reveling he extent of the inequality between ethnicities, with controlling white powers leaving nothing to those in desperate need. The reference to the high taxes the government demanded through the lyrics and visuals creates a binary opposition between the two classes; with constant shots of deprived areas being placed with such lyrics, the audience see the extreme inequalities. The reference to the government’s high demand of money from the community is also revealed in songs such as ‘Sunny Afternoon’ by The Kinks (“the tax-man’s taken all my dough”) or ‘Taxman’ by The Beatles (“one for you nineteen for me”), although these do not explore the effect of ethnicity within this.

The shots of the white policemen alongside the lyrics “crime is increasing, trigger happy policing” reveals the extent of police brutality against ethnic minorities, the shots of the two white policemen attacking a black man presents the brutality faced by ethnic minorities, and, although this song and video was released in 1971, this brutality is still prevalent today. The many stories of the black community being attacked by the police force is something that has been relevant in society for many years, the music video serves to highlight this issue and spread light on the horrific nature of these incidents. Beyonce’s 2016 track and video ‘Formation’ presents these issues, with a shot of a wall spray painted with the words “stop shooting us” clearly referencing the severe violence the black community still suffers from both the police force and other civilians. The track was also released on February 5th coinciding with 17 year old African-Amercian Trayvon Martin’s birthday, who was killed due to racist police brutality.

LIVING FOR THE CITY ETHNICITY REPRESENTATION

The representation of ethnicity is largely similar to the Inner City Blues video, with shots of deprived areas paired with African-American people. Similar to Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder has used his personal experiences to depict the situation of the African-American community; with the genre again being soul and the fact that this is clearly referenced in the video with shots of a soul music shop, it presents the struggles they faced/still face, and allows for the audience to either gain an insight or find a sense of community. The lyrics throughout, “living just enough for the city” present the extreme poverty faced. The soul reference also may reflect the cultural identity presented in the piece and adds something which this audience can relate to.

The video also presents a montage of the poverty-stricken people, just as Gaye’s video does, with shots of the homeless black community and the decrepit housing surrounding them. The inequality is heightened by the juxtaposition of the shots of the white people in power, from policeman to government. The lyrics and visuals highlight the amount of work the African-American community does and the lack of pay/reward for this. The shots of the older black man and white woman handing him his pay alongside the lyrics “his father works some days for fourteen hours, and you can bet he barely makes a dollar” clearly present the vast inequality between the ethnicities.

LIVING FOR THE CITYPOWER/STATUS REPRESENTATION

The video clearly highlights the inequality of power between the ethnicities, as Marvin Gaye and Beyonce present the white police brutality, Stevie Wonder creates binary opposition between the white police and black community with a shot of a white policeman patrolling an African-American neighborhood, this reflects both the status of the two ethnicities and possibly the brutality faced because of this.

Stevie Wonder clearly presents the white government juxtaposing the black civilians. The shots of the rich white governments in their housing create a binary opposition to the shots of the deprived streets of the African-American people, again revealing the extent of the lack of ethnic minorities in power and the inequality this creates.

The video also presents the rioting of the African-American community, just as the soul genre reflects the civil rights era, the rioting that occurred reflects the vast inequalities faced and presents again this sense of a binary opposition between those in power and those made to live with the consequences of that. The shot of the burning photo of president Richard Nixon serves to again present the feelings of complete disregard government held for the African-American people, and their reaction to this.

Gender is also briefly presented through the use of the shots of signs such as ‘girls girls girls’ presenting the idea that many young black women were forced into becoming working girls in order to survive. This is something not presented in Inner City Blues but was and still may be a prevalent issue.