Goldie - inner city life (Marxist)

Artist - goldie
video - narrative and performance

Marxism

This theory talked about how the media could be used for good purposes.

Dominant ideology

Dominant ideology thesis is associated with Karl marx and his claim that each historical era is dominated by the intellectual ideas of its economically and politically ruling class.

Dominant ideology means the principal ideas, values and morals in a given society.

The dominant ideology thesis asserts that working-class subordination in capitalist societies is largely the outcome of the cultural dominance achieved by the capitalist class. For Marx, the ruling ideas in a given society are always the ideas of the ruling social group.

Hegemony

Ideological hegemony arises in a situation where a particular ideology is pervasively reflected throughout a society in all principal social institutions and permeates cultural ideas and social relationships.

Inner city life is a track by goldie. This video has many readings that subvert and adhere normally sterotypical views. the lyrics 'inner city life. inner city life. We first see a aerial shot of a rural urban estate. We see a mother in a kitchen in the flat with two children. We already get a sence of a hard life as she seems single. We see electricity bills that need paying. 'inner city life' could be referencing to the hard life that takes place.

Seeing estate normally shows bad negative things in a community. We see children playing basketball. Enjoying themselves. Marxist theory talks about how the media has power in terms of delivering a message as it can be use for bad and good. The message seems to be good and just showing the struggle that can take place.This video seems to subvert what people would normally think of urban estates and the way children act. high angle shots on the kid could show society looking down on children brought up in this environment. We see close up of a child not looking to happy as if to say he not happy with the way society constantly look at him. As the camera is on him for a good few seconds zooming in to his face. We see a bmw which is a expensive car which may belong to a drug dealer of some sort or possibly stolen.

We then see a club scene of involving jump cuts of the dj and people in the club. there is a close up shot of goldie. This is a stereotype of people in these estates just partying enjoying themselves we don't see anything negative such as drug dealing of any sort. further on we see an old car getting burnt which is a stereotypical views of people who live on estates. Youth being represented to be violent. Which is unfair on youths the dominant ideology seems to be very important.

We see a aerial shot of a women on her bed having a rough time lying down she sleeps with her children struggling to cope with money as the earlier bills show.

Overall this video does link in to Karl Marxist theory as we see working class society represented in a different way. The natural media image would be youths causing trouble drugs being sold at parties. This video doesn't show any of that. Karl Marxist theory plays on the idea of the media image which can be portrayed in different ways negative and positive. this link in to the belief of hegemony as the views on a working class area seems to be reflected in this video stereotypical views are being subverted.