music video study (A) "unfinished sympathy" - massive attack

Unfinished Sympathy - Massive Attack

Massive Attack Information

A hip hop/electronic group from Bristol which emerged from the unique music and graffiti scene of the late 80s/early 90s. "Unfinished Sympathy" was their first ever single on a major label. Their founding memebers include Robert '3D' Del Naja, Grant 'Daddy G' Marshall and Mushroom. 

The band's viewpoints, values and ideology

• They donated all proceeds from their 2010 EP to the War Child charity.
• In 2003, they paid for a full page advert in NME (Music, Film, TV, Gaming & Pop Culture News Magazine) to protest against the war on Iraq.
• During a concert in Istanbul, they had a screen which listed the names of protesters killed during anti-government protests in 2013 with the message, "Their killers are still out there".

Key points

• An example of a performance video as the main focus is directed towards the artist or band. The focal point of the image is directed towards Shara nelson (lead singer) as she walks down a Los Angeles sidewalk.
• Could be also seen as a concept video however as the video is a one shot take (no editing for the duration of the video) and was the first music video to attempt to do this.
• Goes against codes and conventions of a music video.
• Unconventional approach to a love song.

Analysis

The opening shot Implied image of violence (probably influenced by the 1980’s gang film The Warriors and the scene where a gang member taunts his rivals by clanking small alcohol bottles together whilst stating ‘Warriors, come out and play’) puts the audience on edge, though this hint of violence is alleviated when the camera pans out and we see a pit bull with sunglasses on its face, a moment of unexpected humour that relaxes the audience.

Gang Culture  As the camera continues to pan out, we see members of a real gang gesturing and moving towards the camera in a manner suggestive of violence – the lens flare into the camera and the clothes they wear would, for a modern audience, remind them of computer games like Grand Theft Auto. To establish the setting of Los Angeles one of the people in the middle of the shot is also wearing a LA Raiders NFL jacket.

The boy with a gun As the video continues, we first see the urban mise-en-scene which will dominate the rest of the video, small townhouses with bored people sitting outside and litter strewn streets. We also see a young child with a gun ‘firing’ at the camera, an image which highlights gun culture in the USA We also see young children play with firearms, a playing which the director uses in a metaphorical manner to suggest that the USA is infantile when discussing and dealing with guns and the consequences of having them at home. 

The effect of this is very powerful, alone this is a symbolic representation of how young people growing up in America are exposed to gang culture to a point where they are replicating shooting someone. The use of a toy gun also conveying the child's innocence and how he is being slowing corrupted as the gun has connotations of potential danger or aggression.

Trip hop and urban poverty  The mise en scene of the video is deliberately indicative of a deprived area where trip hop, dub and hip hop took hold. We follow the lead singer down the sidewalk of the LA neighbourhood we see other signifiers of poverty and squalor. The mise-en-scene positions the music and the group (despite being British) as a part of urban society and its issues/challenges - which can be linked to later genres such as grime/hip hop amongst the depressing and dangerous imagery in the background, the singer looks comfortable there or it could be seen as oblivious to what is really going on perhaps connoting that it is part of her daily experience or the problems for society when the shocking becomes normalised.

Urban Squalor Many indicators in the mise-en-scene which highlights the extreme poverty of LA:

• The paraplegic Vietnam veteran we see skateboarding behind the singer 
• The sign on a door which says ‘open’ but when we look closer the door is actually gated and locked with a huge padlock across it – maybe indicating some kind of financial crisis 
• The topless male native American, complete with ceremonial headdress – representations of different cultures and ethnicities of the people living in the area.
• The two homeless people drinking what looks like alcohol out of a brown paper bag  – again lots of American films have this image of poverty and delinquency 
• The women throwing the prop of rubbish at something out of shot  – seems to be a perfect metaphor for how the government of America has dealt with urban issues over a number of.

Naturalistic lightingThe use of naturalistic lighting does nothing to hide the reality of the problems in LA and the use of a long take gives you a realistic and sobering look at poverty in the USA at the dawn of the last decade in the 20th Century. The long single take also means you cannot look away or ignore the problems because as the video shows you – it is everywhere the main singer goes. The long take metaphorically suggesting that the five minutes of this video is only a very, very small snapshot of a bigger problem.

Ignoring the povertyIn the video it is really important to note that Shara Nelson IGNORES all the problems that surround her, she is detached from her surroundings, not once does she take note of the injured Vietnam veteran who is skateboarding behind her or the Native American Indian or the other signifiers of a poor urban area. You could call this callous and inhumane however to understand why she would do such a thing you need to understand the lyrics of the song. She is in effect wrapped up in her own emotions, marking a moment in her life where she has to make an enormous decision. This dominates her thoughts to the extent that she seemingly ignores the problems around her.

Lost in thought

The way the camera finds Nelson walking down the street, almost by accident, also actually helps her performance because we are invited to join this moment with her as she walks forward with liberated strides, eyes skyward and totally unaware of her surroundings. Once you understand the lyrics it is then very easy to see why she is seemingly ignoring the problems around her; it is quite simply because she is not aware of the problems because she is processing issues in her own life. The reason for this uncertainty is simple, she has been hurt before and doesn’t want to be hurt again.

Perhaps the preferred meaning of the last part of the music video is to not just see deprived urban areas as backdrops for crime dramas or scary places on the news where crime happens but as places where there are a range of interesting and layered characters who go through the same feelings of love, loss, desire, boredom etc as the rest of us – i.e their lives are not defined by their poverty!

 Poverty for everyoneIn terms of representation, what is also important about this mise-en-scene of poverty in this video is the fact that poverty affects every ethnicity Usually LA urban squalor is only associated with black males and females. This is down to over representation in many TV programmes like the long running Cops show, where all the criminals seem to be only one ethnicity – in the UK, we only see working class people being chased by the police as well – this leading to damaging stereotypes where audiences believe that everyone who lives in a certain areas are the same. However in this video, black and more importantly white and Asian representations are seen in the same squalor, this suggesting that poverty in America is a universal problem which affects all poor people and not just those from a black background.

Body Language

When you watch the video also notice how Shara either subtly looks up or looks down at certain points in the narrative of the video, not really looking at the camera or other people; the slight nods indicating to me that she is thinking about the romantic problem in her life; that she is at a crossroads (also metaphorically demonstrated in the video because not only does she have to literally cross many street corners but we also see a church in the background. 

Churches have connotations of religion of course but also places where people seek reaffirmation of a faith or to seek sanctuary This hurt is mirrored by the deep dark black of her clothing almost as if she is in the process of mourning.

 Also notice that when she sings the lines ‘really hurt me baby, really hurt me’ she sings this through gritted teeth suggestive of the real pain and anguish she feels, is it any wonder she doesn’t notice things around her.

It is also significant to think that it was almost as if the camera accidently picked on her and this can be read as a metaphor that we ALL do things like Shara Nelson in the video – either when we are walking down a street or when we are alone we to think through issues in our life, issues to do with love, relationships or other significant things important to us and our loved ones.

Strong Black female lead
Significant that the lead singer is a black woman, in terms of representation the fact that a black woman has been given the space to articulate her feelings about her personal life is quite rare in an industry which places body over the mind (especially in 1990 in relation to black artists).

 As she walks down the street she is not sexualised or placed as the object of the camera or male gaze, the camera remains at a respective distance for the most part with Shara either being framed in a mid shot or wide shot, which means she is free to reflect on the decisions that she has to make in her life; very often women are objectified by the editing of a music video.

The focus being on close ups of body parts Shara Nelson is left free by the unbroken editing to reflect on her own decisions, free from the critical eye of modern music videos, this is so very important because black women in urban music videos are usually relegated to sexist or sexualised stereotypes.

Here we have an active and controlling black presence who directs the focus and who is also the gaze of the camera without resorting to her sexuality She never makes eye contact with us (breaks the fourth wall) and neither does the camera track her for body or movements for voyeuristic purposes.