The 1980's were a time of big hair, leg warmers, shoulder pads, and cocaine. Lots of cocaine. During this time period many rap artists started rapping about the drug and even glorifying it. Grandmaster Flash wanted to go against this. In 1983 Grandmaster Flash released the music video for "White Lines", a song that advocated against the use of cocaine. With this song Grandmaster Flash wanted to show his audience what really happens when you start using cocaine. He also wanted to shed light on how crazy it was that people actually looked up to cocaine dealers and smugglers. He achieves his intent through a kooky video bound by an awesome funky techno beat.
The music video for "White Lines" can only be described as a coke induced nightmarish dream. All through the video there are ladies dancing in a very trancelike way and kids frolicking and dancing in the park. It's bizarre to say the least. The video is not all weird dancing though. In one scene a woman is shown lying on her stomach presumable dead with a line of coke all the way down her back. This image achieves his intent by showing the audience the reality of the drug, that it kills. By using the image of a lady dead from cocaine, Grandmaster Flash shows his audience the horrors of drug use and what it will lead to.
Grandmaster Flash also uses this video to show people how crazy it was that they looked up and respected cocaine smugglers and dealers . In the song he says "Athletes rejected, governors corrected, gangsters, thugs and smugglers are thoroughly respected". This shows how in that time period the same people who rejected public figures for drug use looked up to drug smugglers and dealers. In one scene of the video a man is seen carrying a large bag of coke. Surrounding the man are a bunch of people reaching up to him for the cocaine. In this image the man almost resembles Jesus with his arms outspread and people trying to get close enough to see him. Grandmaster Flash uses this image to show his audience how crazy it is that people were treating drug dealers like important figure. Since likening a coke dealer to Jesus is obviously an eye catching image it shows the audience how crazy it is that people are looking up to cocaine dealers.
Through the images of a lady dead from coke and a coke dealer being treated like Jesus, Grandmaster Flash shows the audience what coke really does to you and how coke dealers shouldn't be looked up to.
Grandmaster Flash also uses this video to show people how crazy it was that they looked up and respected cocaine smugglers and dealers . In the song he says "Athletes rejected, governors corrected, gangsters, thugs and smugglers are thoroughly respected". This shows how in that time period the same people who rejected public figures for drug use looked up to drug smugglers and dealers. In one scene of the video a man is seen carrying a large bag of coke. Surrounding the man are a bunch of people reaching up to him for the cocaine. In this image the man almost resembles Jesus with his arms outspread and people trying to get close enough to see him. Grandmaster Flash uses this image to show his audience how crazy it is that people were treating drug dealers like important figure. Since likening a coke dealer to Jesus is obviously an eye catching image it shows the audience how crazy it is that people are looking up to cocaine dealers.
Through the images of a lady dead from coke and a coke dealer being treated like Jesus, Grandmaster Flash shows the audience what coke really does to you and how coke dealers shouldn't be looked up to.
Thanks Chrissie. You have found an entertaining video, that reminds me just how prominently the anti-drug campaign (known in the 1980s as the "war on drugs") was featured in pop culture in the 1980s. Your analysis is quite good. Everything you write seems accurate to me. However, there are some issues with your own writing that I want to point out. First, for the most part you avoid presuming how the audience reacts to the Grandmaster Flash video. You do write, "This image achieves his intent..." which is a little awkward, because you really don't know this. Be careful. The best we can do it infer the intent based on the text we have. We never really know whether or not a speaker "achieves his intent."
ReplyDeleteA slightly bigger issue that I want to draw your attention to is the repetition of the word "crazy." Like "important," "powerful," "interesting," "strong," etc., the word "crazy" really doesn't say anything. It is an empty word. What does "crazy" mean? It is a useless adjective because it is so subjective. Unfortunately, you use it three times:
"to shed light on how crazy it was that people actually looked up to cocaine dealers and smugglers."
"to show people how crazy it was that they looked up and respected cocaine smugglers..."
"to show his audience how crazy it is that people were treating drug dealers like important figure..."
Because you rely so much on this vacuous word, you don't really advance any argument when you write these sentences. In addition, each one says the exact same thing. In a post of only 350-450 words, this is not an efficient use of space. When you have a word limit, like you almost always will, you need to make sure that every word and sentence advances your position. While everything you write in this post is correct, you could have written a more acute analysis, if you had avoided vague expressions like this.