Music Video: Postcolonial theory

There are a range of important postcolonial theories we need to learn as part of our A Level Media course.

We studied an introduction to postcolonial terminology earlier in the course and now can add some significant theories and ideas from postcolonialism. 

Paul Gilroy: The Black Atlantic

Paul Gilroy is a key theorist in A Level Media and has written about race in both the UK and USA.

In The Black Atlantic (1993), Gilroy explores influences on black culture. One review states: “Gilroy’s ‘black Atlantic’ delineates a distinctively modern, cultural-political space that is not specifically African, American, Caribbean, or British, but is, rather, a hybrid mix of all of these at once.”

Gilroy is particularly interested in the idea of black diasporic identity – the feeling of never quite belonging or being accepted in western societies even to this day.

For example, Gilroy points to the slave trade as having a huge cultural influence on modern America – as highlighted by Common’s Letter to the Free.

Diaspora: A term that originates from the Greek word meaning “dispersion,” diaspora refers to the community of people that migrated from their homeland. [Source: facinghistory.org]

Watch the opening to this Tate gallery video on the Black Atlantic: 

Gilroy on black music

Gilroy suggests that black music articulates diasporic experiences of resistance to white capitalist culture. 

When writing about British diasporic identities, Gilroy discusses how many black Britons do not feel like they totally belong in Britain but are regarded as ‘English’ when they return to the country of their parents’ birth e.g. the Caribbean or Africa. This can create a sense of never truly belonging anywhere.

Gilroy: “double consciousness”

Gilroy has also discussed the concept of “double consciousness”. This develops the idea of not feeling a sense of belonging and suggests that black people have to view themselves through the eyes of others – usually a white-dominated media.

This means that black audiences experience representations in the media that do not accurately reflect their actual lives. 

Additional postcolonial theories

Stuart Hall: race representations in media

Stuart Hall suggests that audiences often blur race and class which leads to people associating particular races with certain social classes.

He suggests that western cultures are still white dominated and that ethnic minorities in the media are misinterpreted due to underlying racist tendencies. Indeed, non-white people are often represented as ‘the other’.

Hall outlined three black characterisations in American media:

• The Slave figure: “the faithful fieldhand… attached and devoted to ‘his’ master.” (Hall 1995)
• The Native: primitive, cheating, savage, barbarian, criminal.
• The Clown/Entertainer: a performer – “implying an ‘innate’ humour in the black man.” (Hall 1995)

Alvarado: Black stereotypes in media

Manuel Alvarado (1987) suggested there are four key themes in black representations in the media:

• Exotic: models/costume, music artists, food etc.
• Dangerous: crime, gangs, socially dysfunctional etc.
• Humorous: comedians, film sidekicks etc.
• Pitied: poverty, charity adverts etc.

He suggested these stereotypes were an example of ‘otherness’ and were drawn from other media texts rather than reality.

bell hooks: intersectionality

hooks suggests that social classifications (e.g. race, gender, class, sexuality) are interconnected. She argued that the convergence of sexism and racism meant that black women had the lowest status in American society.

The concept of intersectionality can be applied to the Old Town Road music video by focusing on race, gender and sexuality.

Representations of ethnicity in Old Town Road

Representations of race and ethnicity in Old Town Road deliberately play with stereotypes - both reinforcing and subverting them. The landowner and his daughter in the opening scene suggests a fear of 'the other' - a classic racist trope. Yet there is a black sheriff which subverts traditional stereotypes. 

In the modern day part of the video, Lil Nas emerges into a world of black Americans going about their daily lives behind the white picket fence of the American Dream. Similarly, after initial shock, the white line dancers all seem to admire and accept Lil Nas - presenting a very different representation of race to much of American media (and perhaps reality?)

Postcolonial theory: blog tasks

Wider reading on race and Old Town Road

Read this W Magazine deep dive on the Yeehaw agenda and answer the following questions: 

1) What are the visual cues the article lists as linked to the western genre? 

2) How did the Yeehaw agenda come about? 

3) Why has it been suggested that the black cowboy has been 'erased from American culture'? 

4) How has the black cowboy aesthetic been reflected by the fashion industry?

5) Read the section on Lil Nas X and Old Town Road. What does it suggest about race and the country music community?

6) What elements of the song and music video are suggested to be authentically country and western?

7) What genres of music does the article suggest have been shaped by black influences? 

8) In your opinion, what do you think has been the driving force behind the Yeehaw movement? 

Applying postcolonial theory to Old Town Road

Revise the postcolonial theories we have studied and apply them to the Old Town Road music video: 

1) How does the Old Town Road music video both reinforce and challenge black stereotypes in the media?

2) How could you argue that the Old Town Road video challenges Gilroy's theory of double consciousness?

3) How does Lil Nas X and Old Town Road provide an example of Hall's theory of race representations? Alternatively, you could argue against this if you prefer.  

4) Are there any examples of Alvarado's theory of black stereotypes in the Old Town Road video? Why/why not?

5) How does Lil Nas X provide a compelling case study for bell hooks's theory of intersectionality?

A/A* extension task: 

Media Magazine - This Is America: Music, Politics and Protest
Read This Is America: Music, Politics and Protest in MM65 (p14). You can find this in our Media Magazine archive. This is an excellent article on the power of music video in American culture. 

This excellent Berkeley Political Review article on the Yeehaw Agenda is worth a read, expanding on the issues discussed in the W deep dive above.

Due date on Google Classroom