Ill Manors music video

The Ill Manors soundtrack album was released by Atlantic Records.  The track was released in the UK on the 25th March 2012, directed by Plan B. It hit number six on the UK singles chart in October 2012 as the song won the Q Award for best track. The response from critics was mostly positive.

MEST1 Questions

1. Media Forms: What techniques does the video use to establish the setting and engage the audience?
The camera movement is very fast paced and shows several panning and tracking shots. This is used to show the story of the video as it moves in chronological order. The fast paced movement adds to the feel of  the video as it has an aggressive feel and strong/angry message. There is a range of establishing shots, medium shots and close ups used to help establish the setting as well as the characters in the music video. The characters are especially important in this video as it shows people like David Cameron and Nick Clegg (Prime Minister and Deputy Prime Minister) but in a negative representation. This video is clearly therefore against them. As this is shown at the start, it helps the audience establish what the video may be about. The sound is both diegetic and non-diegetic which engages the audience as we can see Plan B rapping his own original piece of music while others in his video are dancing to it.

2. Media Representations: How is gender/ethnicity/age represented in the video?
The Ill Manors video presents a lot of male dominance as it shows a higher ratio of males than females. It shows males in a 'remake' of the London riots which gives a message that they were the main gender to lead the London riots, not females. This therefore gives them a negative representation. Females are still shown in the background causing disruption/violence/smoking, buy are not at the forefront of the video. Both white and blacks are strongly represented and shown throughout this video. This again creates a negative representation of both ethical backgrounds, as the violence and terror is caused by them in the video. They are also shown outside council flats, showing where they live which represents Council House and Violence (CHAV). The Ill Manors video shows a typical teenage stereotype, as the teenagers are the rioters and the police are the defenders. It represents the young to be clueless and disruptive while elders try to stop it. Medhurst's theory of stereotypes said that they are a shorthand for identification, they can carry judgement and therefore can be negative. In this case, teenagers are a shorthand for violence and negative representation which are shown in the Ill Manors music video. Dyer's theory of stereotypes can also be applied. Dyer said that those with power stereotype those with less power. In this video we can see the police targeting and attacking youths, who have less power than the,. enforcing the stereotype.

3. Media Institutions: In what ways is the video typical of music videos and what values does it promote?
The Ill Manors music video is typical to those of regular existing music videos as it promotes angry lyrics of those who are have harder lives than others. In a way it shows Experiencers from Audience profiling-Values,attitudes and lifestyles as they are a median age of 25 and pour into physical exercise and social activities. The people in the video are seen smoking and socially hanging out together. The video is promoting the negative image of teenagers that everyone see's, foe example the 2011 London riots. However, the deeper meaning to the song and lyrics is that there is a reason behind what these youths are doing and what they have done. The video was made not for stereotypes to reinforce their view on youths but to see and have an understanding on the feelings of these youths and most are often misunderstood.

4. Media Audiences: Who does this text/ artist appeal to and why?
Ill Manors and Plan B largely appeals to youths and teenagers who are interested in this type of rap music and understand and agree with the lyrics of the song. This would relate to an audience of a C2, D and E socio demographic. This is because it is set in a low class area and presents those particular types of characters, therefore audiences can relate to it. Using Young and Rubicams Psychographics, this would mainly appeal to Strugglers as there are in the D/E demographic and buy alcohol and junk food. They have few skills. These are the type of people represented in the music video, therefore I believe this is the target audience that can relate to the song.