KEY TEXT: Dream MV

Narrative:

The main message of the song is about Dizzie Rascal's dreams and how he got to the top. It is added to through the visual elements of the video and techniques employed. For example, the iconography of the microphone suggests that it is only once he gets successful that he starts to have a voice to be listened to by British society.

The video confirms the message and content of the song. The shots of the urban scene on top of the piano recreate a stereotypical version of the urban scene, with graffiti and skateboards being employed as props. There's a binary deposit of community vs police through some shots. It can also somewhat subvert the message due to the difference of scale from the white lady and Rascal, which evokes his place in Britain, a harmless artist only let into the British music scene once he changed his music from grime to a more pop sound. This also evokes the way some of his critics saw him, as a sellout. The positivity in the lyrics contrasts with the facial expressions of the woman, as she's very robotic and artificial, smiling and nodding when he says positive messages like "try and make school part of your plans". Furthermore, she frames the video, the initial and final shots being focused on her, indicating she controls Dizzie in some way and he hasn't really achieved success. This implies black people's place in the industry is threatened (or was threatened at the time) by the traditional British society.

Representation:

The video refers to 'traditional white' UK culture, creating a binary opposition with modern multicultural Britain. The female sitting at the piano represents the mainstream public's reaction to Grime when it first emerged from its underground beginnings in London. She is judging him on everything he says and does (polite disapproval), and is shocked by the violent nature of his words and actions. She's clearly wealthy, depicted by the piano, which also represents more classical genres of music. She never had to deal with the problems that Grime artists from cities did, therefore shocked and almost intimidated by what she saw, naturally pushing it away, just like the public did when Grime was on the rise.

The music video creates binary oppositions between different stereotypes. For example, the old wealthy white woman and the young less well-off black man. The 1950s sitting room has a mise en scene with a grand piano and a muted colour pallet to make it seem old fashioned, with reference to the black and white TV from the 1950s. It could also be to highlight Dizzee in his bright red hoodie which is a commonly used film technique. The room is made to look like it is in an upper class house, shown by the grand piano which implies wealth. There is another world that is constructed on top of the grand piano, a city setting with police brutality and graffiti. Because these worlds would usually be so far apart it creates a strong juxtaposition between the living room and the scene being acted out inside of it. It highlights that although the people in these expensive houses didn’t see the events in the city, it was still happening. The people in these houses would usually be very sheltered from violence, so to have it depicted on top of a grand piano which is a symbol of wealth, it creates a powerful message which targets the people who had this wealth but did nothing to help those being mistreated in the worse off parts of the country.

Intertextuality:

The lyrics "Happy talky talky happy talk, Talk about things you like to do, You got to have a dream, If you don't have a dream, How you gonna have a dream come true?" references to the musical South Pacific. The musical is about an US Navy nurse who falls for a French plantation owner, but leaves him once she finds out he's the father of two mixed-race children. She eventually comes around and leaves her prejudice aside. There's a sound clip at the beginning and Dizzee acknowledges it saying "This is too sensible for me man", which also references Captain Sensible's cover of "Happy Talk" in 1982. It is common for Grime to incorporate sound snippets from other media productions, so post-modernism is usual in Grime.

Post-colonialism (Gilroy):