Textual Analysis

N-Dubz ft B Trouble - Love For My Slum

This is one of the texts that I will be looking at. The music video represents life in the slums, which is where the group N-Dubz originated from and what life was like for them. This text shows 'Dappy' one of the members of the group N-Dubz being involved in a lot of criminal activities, for instance at the beginning of the video, Dappy is shown getting arrested by the police. With someone like Dappy seen getting involved in illegal activites in which the police have to get involved as the lyrics connote that he does not care about the police 'Ive Never Had Love For The Feds'. So, this could mean that he is doing this on purpose. So, by the audience seeing Dappy getting involved in criminal activities, this could create a hypodermic needle affect for the audience, in which they inject in what they see is going on in the media. Especially, young people, who idolise Dappy, will see music videos such as this getting involved with the likes of police and will think it is okay to do so, due to someone like Dappy being able to do it and has yet got so far. Moreover, it is scenes like this in music videos that causes debates in whether music videos should be censored, as the content in the music videos could lead to a bad affect on youths in society today.

Moreover, there are direct close-ups of Dappy, which draws attention to him. This makes him the centre of attention in the video, as everything, he is doing, people will notice. Another scene in which, Dappy is stood outside a block of expensive luxury flats with a "rich kid" who is trying to look like a gangster. Then he grabs the rich kid by his coat, pulls him toward him, and punches him in the face. The silent boy falls instantly to the pavement. This again connotes violence and could be the reason as to why crime rates are rising and relate to grime music, this is due to the type of messages that are given off in grime music videos. Using, this music video as an example, raises the issue of whether music videos such as this, should be censored and regulation should be more strict due to the content that is shown in these videos. Also, this music video raises the issues of moral panics, in which people are becoming concerned about the content that is being exposed to young people, as it could lead to them carrying out these act of criminality that is shown in the videos.