'Black Heart' textual analysis

 

Our next textual analysis will be on Stooshe - Black Heart.

The mise-en-scene of the piece follows the hitherto cultural code, the protagonists are dressed similarly to show their unity, and we see many 'vintage' props around them, such as podium staging and vintage camera -also integrating with the retro cinematography.

There are several shots of the female in red sporting a romance with one of the actors in the video, suggesting a narrative romance is taking place, but we see his diverted glances at another girl in the cast... which we can interpret the song is directed at him and his 'black heart'.

The choreography for the piece, instils the era and style we aspire to have, with rhythmic, synchronized movements from all participants. We also noticed the types of movements along with the singing, e.g., movements with microphone stands, are similar to those utilised by 'The Supremes'. 

There is various focus on the three protagonists, but is namely often focused on the one singing a verse, which all three partake in. We see stabs of the narrative consistently, in keeping with our chosen style, whilst still sporting a vintage flare.

Upon the climax of the song, the girl in red (who is blatantly being taken for a fool by the boy at the beginning) is central to the shot, allowing viewers to see her disappointed/hurt reaction to her partner 'playing away from home' -Then the girls sport their feminine attitudes, integrating with The Marvellettes glamorous style and desire to be respected, showing the boy with the 'black heart' that nobody takes them for a fool.

To conclude, we have chosen to take this video as inspiration for our piece and use conventions vis-à-vis Andrew Goodwin, lyrics fitting visuals/ narrative to create our interpretation of a vintage song, and promote it to a contemporary audience. We hope by doing this, we'll be successful in constructing a 'retro' style piece and make our target audience (16-20) aware of the different phases/ representations of women, in a vintage setting, but with females they're familiar with and of similar age.