Ill Manors music video

 

Ill Manors Song/Video:

"Ill Manors" is a hip hop protest song by English singer and songwriter Plan B. The track was released in the United Kingdom on 25 March 2012 as the lead single from the Ill Manors soundtrack, a film which Plan B also directed. The song was written in reaction to the 2011 riots across England, and specifically Plan B's perception of "society's failure to nurture its disadvantaged youth."

Ill Manors received mostly positive reviews from music critics and peaked at number six on the UK Singles Chart. In October 2012, the song won the Q Award for Best Track.^[

The song was first played on BBC Radio 1 on 27 February 2012 and immediately after was available for streaming online on YouTube and Soundcloud. The single was released as a digital download on 25 March 2012

The music video for "Ill Manors" was filmed on 17 February 2012 and was directed by Yann Demange. The video expands upon the themes of the song, and uses footage from the 2011 riots in London. David Cameron and Nick Clegg, the Prime Minister and Deputy Prime Minister of the United Kingdom both feature in the video, despite not being mentioned in the lyrics. However, Cameron's "Hug a Hoodie" campaign is alluded to. Some footage of the video was filmed in the Ledbury Estate in Peckham, one of the locations of the riots in London.

 Ill Manors Album:

Ill Manors is a soundtrack album by British musician and rapper Plan B released on 23 July 2012 as the soundtrack to the film of the same name. Several songs were used in the film Ill Manors, although some of the recordings were completed after the release of the film. The record was mainly produced by Al Shux and Plan B and also features collaborations with Labrinth, Kano, Takura Tendayi and John Cooper Clarke. Ill Manors debuted at number-one on the UK Album Charts and received positive reviews by critics. The album was nominated for the prestigious Mercury Prize.

On 8 February 2012, it was announced the album would be released on 7 May via Atlantic Records. Shortly after, the album's lead single, Ill Manors, premiered however was officially released on 23 July. 

MEST 1 STYLE ANALYSIS 

How does the video challenge or reinforce dominant ideologies in Britain?

The Ill Manor's video as a whole fails to challenge the negative and stereotypical ideologies of urban youths and other features of the video.

The music video unintentionally enhances and reinforces the negative ideology of urban youths in Britain. The music video glamorises violence through its constant depiction of youths vandalising properties and being violent. Plan B passionately defends the youths he calls "chavs" and states that we should not judge them on their appearance or background in interviews and lectures, such as his Ted X lecture. Yet the music video effectively portrays urban youths wearing hoodies as violent and uneducated, therefore only reinforcing the negative dominant ideology if teenagers and urban youths in Britain. Another dominant ideology reinforced by the video is the negative portrayal of the government and politicians, as Plan B frequently criticises the government, politicians and the "broken system" in Britain, a negative perception shared by most of Britain.

The video however does also challenge some positive stereotypical ideologies. For example in the music video the positive stereotype of police men is challenged. This is done when there is a shot of a policeman hitting someone without provocation, challenging the positive stereotype.

The video represents the male gender in a negative light as the video features mainly males being violent. Ethnicity is another feature of the video. In general ethnicity of the violent youth is mixed, however as a whole there is more black people in the video which conforms to the stereotype that black people are violent, uneducated and often live in poor urban areas. 

The video is typical of most music videos, especially in the rap genre. This is because the video is very fast paced and chaotic. This is shown effectively through the use of very short shots and quick transitions. However the video is more violent than most music videos in general, due to the fact that Ben Drew wants to shock his audience and gain their full attention as he raps his political message.

The music video would appeal to the young population it talks about in the video as this is generally the age group that listens to rap music. It is seen as a lower class form of music that is unlikely to be listened to by highly educated individuals. The age group the video would appeal to is the psychographic of strugglers and aspirers, and the demographic of E-C1. The video appeals to these audiences by being extremely fast paced and full of action to keep their young audience interested. Very little text is also used as young and uneducated people will be put off by large amounts of text. The video also uses some short cartoon sequences of David Cameron which is an effective way to entertain a young audience while talking about politics, another subject that youths may be put off by.