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hello and welcome to my easy to
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understand Guide to the storm Z music
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video
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superheroes this is going to be
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particularly relevant for you if you are
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on the educast exam board for gcsc as it
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appears as one of the optional set music
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videos for study you need to understand
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media language representation audiences
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and industries for this music video and
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this video of mine is going to cover
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basically a little bit of everything so
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the video has quite an unconventional
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style being that it's animated quite
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unusual for a music video particularly
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in this kind of like rap genre um so
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having it being kind of very bright
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colors and kind of quite comic and
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graphic and style is quite unusual but
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it also helps to Target quite a young
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audience the bright colors are very
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kid-like it's got very positive
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uplifting Vibes and you get that from
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the music and the sound as well the bird
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song at the beginning is quite uplifting
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quite hopeful also in a music video we
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typically expect to see a lot of the
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actual artist performing we don't really
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get that in this music video although
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we're seeing a kind of Comic version of
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storm Z it's not him so it's it's quite
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different quite unconventional that
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we're not seeing him perform the vast
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majority of the music video is narrative
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based it's a story um and again that
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might be quite appealing for a young
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audience storms is represented as very
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powerful somebody to look up to to
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Aspire to be a role model and you can
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see this through the use of repeated low
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angles making him look more dominant
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there's lots of workingclass urban
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settings in this video so lots of what
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look like kind of Estates tower blocks
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lots of urban buildings graffiti and
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this is going to help it um appeal to
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quite a kind of urban workingclass
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audience particularly a British audience
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as well because it feels like a very
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British uh town and those wire fences
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along with the tight framing of the
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camera just encourages us to see these
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boys as being trapped in these areas
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stormy uses a lot of words within the
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lyrics that really um create positive
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uplifting and Powerful representations
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of young black people so for example he
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says in the lyrics a young black king
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makes young black people seem respected
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idolized powerful and dominant and this
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challenges a lot of the negative
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stereotypes that we often see in the
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media of young black men in particular
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and it creates this idea of the kind of
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young black people within this video as
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being kind of um prop like Heroes the
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use of football within the narrative
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also helps to Target quite a kind of
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working class potentially prominantly
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male audience as well it's not just men
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though he also refers to young black
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queens so it's also about targeting
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young black women as well and this
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representation of young people and in
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particular young black people as being
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very powerful is reinforced by lots of
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the superhero imagery and narrative
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within the video we see images of sto
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storm Z and his friends flying through
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the sky lots of low angles the kind of
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visual effects and that helps to
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represent them as being supernaturally
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powerful storms is kind of representing
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himself as being somebody very
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trustworthy and reliable he uses words
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in the lyrics such as keep an eye on me
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and rely on me and it makes him seem
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like he's very paternal and caring
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somebody that's going to look after
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these people we see images of him
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hugging the boys patting them on the
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head it makes him seem like quite a
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responsible adult that's there to look
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out for them we see a girl here and
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she's in quite a domestic role so she's
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chopping up vegetables she's doing the
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washing up and images of girls in
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domestic situations are quite common in
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the media the fast-paced editing in the
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shop makes it feel like she's working
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super fast and that she's very powerful
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because she's doing so much she's
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serving food to an older person and
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perhaps this reflects the idea that um
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stormy is wanting to kind of show that
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elderly people should be part of our
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communities that young people have a
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responsibility often to look out for
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them and that young people are taking
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care of their relatives and their
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families but it is creating quite a
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stereotypical representation of older
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people being perhaps quite dependent on
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younger people to look after them I
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guess it is showing quite an
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unconventional family structure though
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you're seeing a young girl with an ELD
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living with an elderly relative and so
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um it's not your typical kind of two
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parent um family structure so perhaps
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Storm's trying to represent families as
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being quite diverse and not always
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following those kind of typical ideas
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holding this kind of white light makes
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stormy and the boy feel super powerful
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um and almost magical and there's a
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really fast-paced monage here with like
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leaping on the cars and doing kind of
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unusual poses um and it's disappearing
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um it's really about making him seem
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very skilled very powerful very magical
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Supernatural and exciting we reading a
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book here again making him seem quite
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educated quite academic and the book
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He's reading is quite interesting as
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well it's a book by mallerie Blackman
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and now stormy was in the BBC adaptation
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of her book so it's kind of
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cross-promoting something else that
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stormy was involved with the actual
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Narrative of the book is a lot about um
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racial discrimination and equality so
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again tying in with this theme about
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race um and ethnicity being important in
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this music video and perhaps young
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people might see this as encouraging
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them to be more academic um seeing an
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older adult male reading a book and and
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being educated might Inspire them also
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the images of police here might reflect
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the kind of social cultural political
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contexts of police brutality
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particularly towards young black men in
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the community he continues to challenge
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some gender conventions by talking about
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women can be Kings too um and this again
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kind of makes women seem powerful
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um and dominant and he does also reflect
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a lot of issues that girls have to deal
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with on a day-to-day basis so we see a
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girl looking in the mirror looking quite
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sad and anxious um almost like she's
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judging her body and again this may
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reflect a lot of social cultural issues
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that girls have to face about body image
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and feelings of inequality and
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selfworth and particularly when she
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looks at images of her hair as well it
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may reflect the idea that a lot of young
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black girls feel um they lack confidence
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about hair because they often don't see
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images of other women with similar hair
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types in the media but when she looks at
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a poster of little Sims in the
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background um and she sees uh the girl's
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braids in the poster she then seems to
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be proud of her own hair so perhaps this
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is kind of signifying this idea that
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young people need to have role models
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that look like them in the media they
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need to be able to see people that they
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can relate to and look up to and just
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like earlier where we saw the girl being
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quite domestic in the kitchen we're now
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seeing quite stereotypical ideas of boys
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here as well so we're getting ideas here
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of boys in a classroom being quite
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academic working with maths on the board
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um and we often see um you know images
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of people with glasses it we sort of
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associate it with being kind of
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archetypal geek character in the media
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so we immediately get the idea that this
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boy is very clever very wise and we
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often see that stereotype of boys being
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more involved in kind of stem based
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subjects the tens flying through the air
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could be a kind of intertextual
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reference first of all it makes him seem
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powerful um and again Supernatural but
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it may also remind several audiences of
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different media products some people may
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see this as references to films like the
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Matrix some people may see it as
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references to stories like Matilda
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children kind of using their inner power
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or people using their inner power and
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mental abilities to kind of break
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through Society stormy saves a boy here
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um kind of Dives in and saves him from
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falling and that makes him seem quite
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heroic and some people may see this as a
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kind of reference to things like Toy
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Story as well the dad braiding his
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daughter's hair challenges some
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representations about men not being
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domestic so it's showing him looking
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after his children doing hair care Etc
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and making him seem quite paternal and
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again this is reinforced when we see the
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images of the dad with his child on his
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shoulders making him seem quite domestic
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and showing him perhaps as a kind of
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single par of
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um family so again a kind of non-typical
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family structure being represented in
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this video the black lives matter
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graffiti on the wall again kind of just
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reflecting the cultural social context
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of what was going on in the media at the
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time and we see people in masks um
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protesting kneeling down that reflects
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the covid pandemic lots of people
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wearing masks at the time um and it also
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reflects a lot of political protests
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that were happening at the time due to
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the death of George Floyd when he was
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murdered by police in America so seeing
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these kind of protests being reflected
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in the video might help bring in a
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global audience but also appeals to that
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kind of black audience who were very um
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determined to see more equality and
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justice the fist in the air is a symbol
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of black power historically that we've
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seen in the media in lots of other
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places so again reinforcing this theme
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of of black power and black equality
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within the clouds there is a kind of
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hashtag being formed with the word murky
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and this is something that reflects
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stormy's brand he actually uses this
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hashtag and he creates donations to
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Black organizations in the UK um and so
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kind of cross promoting his other
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interests and his other campaigns and
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what he does for uh people in the
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community and the hashtag helps to
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Target active audiences a lot of people
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will go online to then find out what the
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hashtag is about there's the
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alliteration black beautiful and brave
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and this alliteration helps to reinforce
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that message to audiences we see a girl
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here playing football and that
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challenges some gender norms for the
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young female audience and she's wearing
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a Marcus rashford top um which again
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links into another young black role
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model within the Sporting Community but
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also ties in with what rashford was
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doing historically at that point in 2020
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which was campaigning for free School
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meals um and more support for young
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people particularly young black people
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but not just young black people um
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within impoverished communities in
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Britain so we've seen people playing
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football we then go into this graphic
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match of the DJ buttons and that kind of
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maybe reflects typical career
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aspirations of young people and the DJ
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seems to have multiple arms coming out
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of him uh being able to operate
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different things at different times
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maybe makes him seem super powerful and
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very hardworking it's a kind of Montage
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of lots of different families and people
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hugging and embracing and that adds to
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this feeling of kind of diversity and
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inclusivity and seeing him with images
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of a kind of glowing Earth within his
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hands again makes him seem super
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powerful like he is in charge of the
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world on the screen at some point we see
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um some graphics that say RP Chadwick
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Bosman he died in August 2020 and this
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music video was released in the December
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of that year Chadwick Bosman obviously
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super famous for being in many films but
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in particular black panther where he
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played um you know an incredibly
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powerful superhero that was seen as a
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massive role model to a lot of young
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black children so paying respects to
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other black role models that may have
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inspired Generations in fact he mentions
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multiple black Role Models within the
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video so for example he mentions Venus
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Williams he mentions Serena Williams
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Simone biles so trying to include both
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male and female black role models to
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show that black people can be wealthy
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successful powerful and important when
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the video is released it was actually
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released early in schools in Britain so
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it was shown within schools that had
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opened up it made it have an exclusive
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feel and as though it was particularly
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targeted at young people and it came
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with an exclusive message from stormy as
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well giving them kind of like an
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inspirational speech the rap genre and
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other stormy videos typically have a
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slightly older young adult audience so
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perhaps young men predominantly in their
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kind of early 20s or late teens this
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video definitely has a slightly younger
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audience with the kind of animated feel
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the fact that it was released in a lot
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of schools so this is quite a different
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audience to his usual one he actually
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uses some lyrics from Kesha white song
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Someday from the Tracy Beaker theme tune
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uh Tracy Beaker being a children's TV
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show on the BBC maybe about 15 20 years
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ago um it had quite a cult following so
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maybe that music there might be
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recognizable to his older fans bringing
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in those more kind of millennial
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audiences that may remember the Tracy
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Beaker show the video was promoted on
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his website and on his social media too
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and that helped it reach quite a wide
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Global audience despite it being quite
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British in its appearance when stormy
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first started as an artist he was very
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lowbudget he didn't have a record label
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he started out promoting his music on
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things like YouTube and Spotify um and a
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lot of his first music videos were made
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with virtually no budget at all this
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music video as you can see through the
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animations and the graphics has a
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substantially higher budget than his
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first one 2020 he was signed to uh Def
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Jam which is part of the universal
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record label group and obviously that's
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a much bigger company and so this video
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reflects the much higher budget that
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that would bring the animation studio is
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called tuente uh they're an Argentinian
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company um and they produced this video
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in just eight weeks which is quite
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astounding really um they used quite
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simple backgrounds to cut down on the
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amount of Animation they had to do and
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this did help to reduce costs the
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director was actually kind of
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interviewed previously and said that
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they really did directly take influence
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from um animations uh like Spider-Man
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into the spiderverse so you can see the
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similarities in the style the director
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wanted to retain the British kind of
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feel to it but also wanted to bring in
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influences from anime like Akira and
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Dragon Ball so that was my easy to
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understand guide to this music video if
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you'd like any other videos make sure
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you subscribe to my channel and leave
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any comments below and I'll see what I
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can do can do
