RESEARCH | Analysis of Protest Song | Dave 'Black'

As part of my research into protest songs, i looked at Dave's music video 'Black'. Released in 2019, Dave's music video for the song 'Black' is a powerful exploration of black identity, filmed in three different locations: London, Manchester and Nigeria. The video implicitly touches on issues regarding black people, for example how the UK's home office continues to 'catapult' black people out of the country at any given chance. black people are more likely to end up in the UK jail system then African Americans in the US; the incarceration of Dave's collaborator J Hus is a damning indictment of our system in the UK.

The song accurately displays the nation's attitudes to blackness, and is highlighted in the lyrics itself. African American heritage is mentioned as he calls for support for the Windrush victims as well as Grenfell victims who three years on some have stilled not been housed permanently. Dave talks about how the news enjoy portraying black people as 'villains' in the line "a kid dies, the blacker the killer, the sweeter the news" and "black is being guilty until you're proved innocent", a play on words to present the unfair justice system.

Manchester City footballer Raheem Sterling features in the video alongside his M16 rifle tattoo which caused backlash in the news as the media demanded he wad removed from the England squad for 'promoting gun crime' but actually is a symbol to his vow to never touch a gun. As his tattoo is displayed in a central shot, Dave raps the line "Black is stepping in for your mother because your fathers gone", an intertextual reference as his father was shot when Sterling was just a child.

In terms of camerawork and editing, the first time we see Dave is a close-up shot where he is shown topless, done purposely to reveal and flaunt the colour of his skin, Black. throughout the video, the camerawork is controlled in order to emphasise Dave's controlled analysis of what it is really like to be black. Pan shots are used to further develop idea the idea of control and sophistication; a steady cam was most likely used to film. Dave highlights the highs and the lows, the dreaded and the familiar of what it means to be black in this day and age. Dave uses cross cutting from different locations and people to show he is not an anomaly, it is not just him who experiences these things and instead is something that has gone on for generations.

From this research into a protest song, I plan to use similar elements in my own music video. For example in Dave's 'Black', as much as it is conveying such a strong, powerful message and talking about some sensitive subjects, the music video is not melancholy and instead shows elements of celebration and shows what it is to be black in a positive way as well as explicitly stating the generations of inequality.