Goldie - Inner City Life
This song is about a single parent family lving on a council estate, who can barely pay their way through life. It's a narrative based video, with a starting scene of a mother washing the dishes in a cramped kitchen. There are children in the background laughing and painting, this cannotes that even though they don't have a lot of money they are happy with what they have and are having fun. Even though that the children are happy, the mtoher is upset and worried as she cannot pay the bills- you can tell this as she is holding the bills in her hand in worry, one could say she turns to prostitution to pay the bills, there is a birds eye view of a female and male in bed however they are portrayed as though they are not intimate with each other so one could guess that is getting payed to have sex with the male. In addition the setting which is shown is in black and white thus adding to the effect of poverty.
There is a shot of a BMW, which some may say is unsual to be seen in a poor council estate. they may suggest that person who has the BMW has done something dodgy to afford the car e.g. drug dealing. Marxists would say that this point reinforces cultural hegemony because some white British people might say that they are drug dealers but some other ethnic groups might say they have a good job but live in a poor estate.
The messages which are evident in the text is that everyone has problems however they all have thier own way of dealing with them such as playing sports or going to clubs; this gives them an escapsism of the reality they live in allowing them to keep their problems to one side and enjoy live. Marxists would argue that these are realisitic messages of how life is in the urban area as the lyrics and images suggest serious matters i.e. the lyrics "i long to be free" highlights the fact that life is not pleasant for these people and they long for something differentm however they are not dwelling on the fact that their life isn't perfect but are getting on with e.g. the mother doesn't have money to pay the bills but she is trying her hardest to get the money and not letting her children know the fact that there is a serious problem and she is trying to keep them as happy as possible in the derious situation.
There are various shots of the woman stressed, we can tell she is stressed as there are many shots of her wiping her forehead and washing the dishes whilst the lyrics saying ‘inner city pressure’ this may represent that the inner city life for people in high rise estates are stressed howver there are manyshots of young kids riding their bike and having fun so this could also mean that the elder people feel the pressure whilst the younger ones don't all they want to do is have fun.
All in all this song is about the inner city life how it is hard for the majority to live, but also that even though it is hard they are still enjoying theirselves and being happy.
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