Dizzee Rascal - Dream

 Representation:

There is a white woman, puppets and Dizzee Rascal as a similar size to them. The puppets who represent working class people living in urban environments and them being on the woman's piano shows how rich white people basically own the country and control everyone as them being puppets referencing the saying 'we live in a white mans world' but it includes the rich women this is seen literally as the characters are in the woman's house saying that they live in her world. The fact that Dizzee is not a puppet and has "got no strings" shows that he is in more control over his life due to his fame however in the start and the end, the woman is the one to let him out his box and put him back in, showing that white people who control his world stop him from going far in his career.

The woman - She is a white, upper class, polite woman which is stereotypical of white women in England. Throughout the video she makes many facial expressions showing her opinions on Dizzee and the puppets, that she doesn't like it much but has to deal with it, like when Dizzee comes out the box she seems on edge and weary or when the police puppet is fighting with the two puppets she seems as if she is repulsed about it. The character of the woman is from a 1950's children's toy ad Muffin the mule.

In the video the puppets are seen to be doing things and wearing things stereotypical to working class people in urban areas, such as two black men stealing a tv or two black people fighting a police officer or the boys leaning against the off-license 'cat calling' and flirting women walking past. The appearance of the black puppets are big wide eyes and a big nose which is a very racist stereotype called golliwogs but is no longer used much at all due to how bad it is.

Captain sensible-Happy talk where Dream was sampled from. Captain sensible was a punk artist and moved to pop which could reference Dizzee's move from grime to pop. This move is quite controversial as it seems like Dizzee is abandoning his roots and through that his original fans are leaving him as he's moving into this childish genre of music, but the lyrics show that he's moving up in life.

The video has a very light and playful tone (linking to the reference to Muffin the Mule ad) as it has toys and has a playful colour palette like baby blue which is typically shown with young kids as a passive colour. But if you look deeper into the video and cultural references it has a darker tone, like the off-license and police brutality. Also throughout the video there are references to Dizzee's rise to fame, like where the woman shows his first album and a poster saying pirate radio where Dizzee put his first album.


Gilroy's theory

Post-Colonialism is that even though we no longer have colonies, the representation of these groups are still affected by that time. This can link to the Dream music video as it still shows that the lady, who is presumably British, basically controlling Dizzee and all the puppets as if she is more powerful and she is the one to help and control them,  like in colonisation where the British were 'helping' the countries they colonised. It shows the binary opposite between British post colonialism culture and traditional white empire.

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