Media Terminology

Media Terminology

Social Realism: The realistic depiction in art of contemporary life, as a means of social or political comment

Postmodernism: A late 20th-century style and concept in the arts, architecture, and criticism, which represents a departure from modernism and is characterized by the self-conscious use of earlier styles and conventions, a mixing of different artistic styles and media, and a general distrust of theories.

Intertextuality: The term intertextuality refers to the process of creating references to any kind of media via another media text. In other words intertextuality essentially means for a type of media (film, television, music etc) to pay homage to another media text.

Narrative: A spoken or written account of connected events; a story.

Diegesis: A narrative or plot, typically in a film.

Ideology: A system of ideas and ideals, especially one which forms the basis of economic or political theory and policy.

Unfinished Sympathy- Massive Attack

Unfinished Sympathy- Massive Attack

The purpose of music videos is to promote the artist to the target audience and to reflect who they are as an artist. The song 'Unfinished Sympathy' by  the British band Massive Attack was produced in 1990 and released on February 11th 1991 by Circa Records. The genre of the song is 'trip-hop' but features a string section and various orchestral elements as well as the vocals of Shara Nelson who stars in the video. The lyrics show Nelson to be longing for someone in particular, while she is wary of being hurt as she has been in the past. 

The video was directed by Baillie Walsh and uses one continuous shot filmed from 1311 South New Hampshire Avenue to West Pico Boulevard in Los Angeles, California. The first shot is of a street gang which highlights the gang culture present in 1990s LA, as the group of 5-8 men are real gangsters rather than actors. The gang is made up of a mix of ethnicities, showing that the community  in the video are all of the same low social class regardless of the colour of their skin. One of the men holds the lead of a pitbull who wears sunglasses and a collar with spiked studs on.