This post collects the mark scheme, grade boundaries, indicative content, and an 'exemplar' essay that I wrote under timed conditions.
Mock exams are not just blunt grade factories. They are designed to generate feedback. So read your feedback, read through this post, and consider: 'what can I do to do better next time?'
The exam
1 – Representation
Question 1 is based on the unseen audio-visual resource and the music video to Formation by Beyonce you have studied
The audio-visual resource consists of an excerpt (2 minutes) from the music video for Losing You by Solange. This music video was released in 2012. Solange Knowles is Beyonce’s sister.
• You will be allowed one minute to read Question 1.
• The music video will be shown three times.
• First viewing: watch the music video.
• Second viewing: watch the music video and make notes.
• You will then have five minutes to make further notes
• Third viewing: watch the music video and make final notes.
• Once the third viewing has finished, you should answer Question 1.
1. Compare how the representations in the unseen music video and the video to Formation video construct values and attitudes. [30]
In your answer you must:
• consider the similarities in how representations construct values and attitudes
• consider the differences in how representations construct values and attitudes
• make judgements and draw conclusions about how far the representations reflect social and cultural contexts
Mark scheme
Band 5 – 25 – 30 – excellent, insightful, detailed
• Excellent, consistent and accurate application of knowledge and understanding of the theoretical framework to analyse the unseen advertisement and set music video
• Analysis of the ideologies conveyed through the representations is perceptive, detailed and may be informed by relevant theories
• Detailed and appropriate comparisons of the ideologies conveyed through the representations
• Judgements and conclusions regarding how the products relate to relevant media contexts are perceptive, insightful and fully supported with detailed reference to specific aspects of the products
Band 4 – 19 – 24 – good and accurate
• Good, accurate application of knowledge and understanding of the theoretical framework to analyse the unseen advertisement and set music video
• Analysis of the ideologies conveyed through the representations is logical and may be informed by relevant theories
• Reasonably detailed, appropriate comparisons of the ideologies conveyed through the representations
• Judgements and conclusions regarding how the products relate to relevant media contexts are logical and are supported with appropriate reference to relevant aspects of the products
Band 3 – 13 – 18 – satisfactory and generally accurate
• Satisfactory, generally accurate application of knowledge and understanding of the theoretical framework to analyse the unseen advertisement and set music video
• Analysis of the ideologies conveyed through the representations is reasonable and straightforward
• Satisfactory comparisons of the ideologies conveyed through the representations, although there may be more focus on one of the products
• Judgements and conclusions regarding how the products relate to relevant media contexts are straightforward and supported with some reference to relevant aspects of the products
Band 2 – 7 – 12 - basic
• Basic application of knowledge and understanding of the theoretical framework to analyse the unseen advertisement and set music video, although this is likely to lack clarity, relevance and accuracy
• Analysis of the ideologies conveyed through the representations is undeveloped and there may be a tendency to simply describe features of the products
• Basic comparisons of the ideologies conveyed through the representations, although there is likely to be more focus on one of the products
• Basic judgements are made regarding how the products relate to relevant media contexts and some conclusions are drawn, but these are undeveloped and only partially supported by relevant examples
Band 1 – 1 – 6 - minimal
• Minimal, if any, application of knowledge and understanding of the theoretical framework to analyse the unseen advertisement and set music video, with significant inaccuracies, irrelevance and a lack of clarity
• Analysis of the ideologies conveyed through the representations is superficial and generalised
• Minimal, if any, comparisons of the ideologies conveyed through the representations are made and the response is likely to focus only on one product
• Lacks judgements and conclusions regarding how the products relate to relevant media contexts
0 – nothing
Grade boundaries (using 2025 data)
A* - 25 - 30
72% - 22 x 1.16 = 25
A – 22 - 24
62% - 19 x 1.16 = 22
B – 17 - 21
51% - 15 x 1.16 = 17
C – 13 - 16
42% - 12 x 1.16 = 13
D – 10 - 12
32% - 9 x 1.16 = 10
E – 6 - 9
22% - 6 x 1.16 = 6
Indicative content – suggestions for what may be included in a response to this question
• Exploration of postcolonial discourse. Gilroy, racial hierarchies, cultural referents, colonial iconography. Confirmation and/or subversion
• Representation of time and place. Time collapsed in Formation, similarly so in Losing You. A hodgepodge of disparate cultural signifiers
• Representation of black identity. MES of black cultural signifiers in Formation reflect a diverse and complex representation of black life in the deep south, particularly New Orleans. Losing You explores a negotiation of colonialism in Cape Town (thanks Naamah!)
• Representations of identity. Victimhood and power dichotomies in Formation, chaotic free-for-all in Losing You
• Representations constructed through genre of music. Beyonce’s trap/bounce hybrid connotative of violence and defiance, Solange’s 80s neo soul vibes are far less overtly aggressive
• Representation of gender. Beyonce assumes many forms, yet is often self-sexualised (a visual terrorist, according to hooks!). Solange is stylish and atypical in colourful, well-tailored suits, subverting hegemonic expectations of female identity?
• Social and cultural contexts in formation may include the American deep south, the aftermath of slavery still reinforcing social hierarchies (Gilroy), and the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina
• Social and cultural contexts in Losing You may explore the positive (???) effects of postcolonial identity in South Africa (or whatever African country students may identify; even ‘Africa’ would be appropriate as the music video never makes the precise location clear!)
• Stronger students may explore the ideological implications of such revolutionary and emancipatory ideological perspectives existing within the context of a capitalist mode of production. The function of a music video is to advertise a song, no more, no less!
• Representation of complex representations of female identity, including appropriate reference to gender performance, gender performativity, complex intersectional feminist ontologies and so on (hooks and Butler)
• A subversion of the stereotypical notion of the ‘male gaze’ (Mulvey, Van-Zoonen et al) as seen through the subversive iconography of Solange’s suit
• Exploration/eradication of queer identities. Formation’s uneasy relationship to That BEAT, Solange’s use of queer iconography through the suit/makeup (a little Grace Jones?)
• Both music videos use black hair as a representational device, with a range of black hairstyles constructing a diverse and emancipatory range of representations in both
• The symbolic annihilation of white people in both music videos
• The construction of reality in which two privileged nepo babies can use the iconography of poverty and diverse black referents beyond their own immediate experience to construct a hyperreal simulacrum
The following additional indicative content was provided by Naamah. Thanks Naamah!
Similarities:
Both videos represent the value of pride, more specifically pride in your culture, this attitude is shown through body language as people pose in both videos in a confident manner, there are lots of images of culture (montage at the start of Losing You), images of many different locations/ people in Formation, use of the Union Jack on clothing in Losing you etc. Clear challenging of Paul Gilroy’s theory – these people are clearly proud of their culture.
Both show the diversity of black culture and that diversity is valued – the videos are filled with people who are all different (Basketballer, wig shop workers, parades in Formation, Tailor shop with worker and customer, radio shop, lots of people on the streets and in the minibus in Losing You). This suggests that there are many aspects to black culture, all of which are valued and accepted (attitude), so not reducing ethnicity to simple traits (Hall) and allowing audience to pick and mix their identity (Gauntlett)
Both have the attitude that women are empowered and strong (this is seen as positive) – both Beyonce and Solange directly address the camera, are often central in the frame, have confident body language and facial expressions, bold costumes that make them stand out, Beyonce sings about being the next Bill Gates and being the one in control of her marriage
Differences:
- In Formation wealth is clearly valued and seen as a way of proving your status/ importance. Beyonce wears expensive/ designer costumes, she lives in a mansion with servants, sings about being the next Bill Gates.
- This is the reverse of Losing You where wealth is not valued (the location is clearly a rundown township, but they are still valued for their individualism without obvious signs of economic wealth). People are more interested in celebrating style, creativity, and cultural exchange through fashion, colour, and dance. Shows an attitude of joy, playfulness, and independence, even though the lyrics are about a failing relationship.
- In Formation there is the clear attitude that women need to assert their power –‘Get in formation’ suggesting that women should support each other and work together to make sure they are in control/ powerful and not subjected to the patriarchy (bell hooks). It borders on almost aggression ( Beyonce gives the finger, reference to hot sauce in her bag, aggressive facial expressions)
- Formation has a strong political message/ attitude about the need for resistance and protest, there is imagery of police cars, a little boy dancing in front of armed officers, and graffiti saying “Stop Shooting Us” highlight police brutality and systemic racism. There is a clear attitude about the way minority group have been exploited (bell hooks), anger at injustice, and a demand for change (‘get in Formation’ suggest working together to bring about social change Van Zoonen).
- Women are clearly valued for their physical beauty – Beyonce and her dancers are dressed in quite provocative costumes that reveal a lot of skin. Supporting Van Zoonen and her ideas about the objectification of women’s bodies in the Media.
- At times Solange does this, but it seems less provocative and many her costume are suits and cover her body. This offers up the attitude that women don’t need to sexualise themselves to establish power/ status or appeal to the male gaze to be acceptable and that there are more ‘versions’ of what it means to be a woman so audiences can ‘pick and mix’ representations to construct their own identities (Gauntlett).
- It clear that Beyonce is more valued in her video than Solange’s is in hers. Beyonce has ‘self represented’ herself as being more powerful than others (she is most often in the centre of the frame, dressed in a more expensive/ different way to her dancers, references to ‘yellow bone’ in the lyrics etc) suggesting the attitude that she is more important due to her celebrity status. Solange on the other hand is often pushed out of the frame by other people (e.g. in the minibus) which show that she is not the most important one in the video suggesting a more ‘equal’ attitude towards people.
- Men are constructed differently in the videos. In Formation it could be argued that men are a little less valued in terms of how they are constructed via ML – they are in the background of shot which also feature Beyonce, they are dressed as servant (in uniforms that don’t suggest wealth), while they do feature in montage moments they have far less screen time than the women, the lyrics suggest that Beyonce has power/status over her husband etc. The is a clear lack of a patriarchal attitude and dominance of men. In Losing You there is not such a clear hierarchy of women being in control
Judgements and Conclusions:
Cultural context
- Beyonce is working in America (mainstream music industry) which idolises success/ status which is often defined by wealth/ economic success. Beyonce is representing the ‘American Dream’ of success and highlighting in an idealised/ hyperreal/ exaggerated way that this it possible for black Americans (but not really the reality for most) so it is not surprising that this value/ attitude is central to construction of representation
- While Solange also works in the American music industry, it is more in the indie side which is less focused on wealth, she has also chosen to highlight a very different culture, namely an African country that has been affected by colonialism and is offering up a very different representation of a less well-known culture but in a positive (yet realistic way)
- Formation clearly references slavery in the deep south of American and the persisting issues of inequality in America that still dominate in the post colonial era (impact of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans as shown in the setting, footage from documentaries/ news reports, Beyonce on top of the police car, ‘what happened in New Orleans’ at the start of the video) and the suggestion of institutional racism in the police force (police lined up facing a dancing child, ‘Stop shooting us’ graffiti, reference to Black Lives Matter, MLK etc) reflecting current issues in America at the time of release.
Social context
- Both videos are moving beyond post colonial ideas surrounding the representation of ethnic minorities as this was a common ideology at the time both songs were released therefore there are a more positive/ uplifting/ less stereotypical representation/ values/ attitudes towards ethnicity.
- Both represent women as equal to men, just as powerful and important, again reflecting the values/ attitudes/ ideologies of the time in which the text was made. There is less evidence of patriarchal values and attitude esp in Formation.
- It could be argued the Solange offers up a more nuanced, progressive set of values and attitudes surrounding the representation of women. There is less objectification of the female body which is not so true of Formation reflecting that there are still very contrasting values and attitudes toward some aspects gender representation in society.
Teacher 'exemplar' response
Please note that while a teacher (me) wrote this, it is very far from perfect. For one thing, I did not explicitly refer to values and attitudes by using the language of the question! While I did refer to many values and attitudes, this was generally implicit. This would potentially limit my mark, depending on how strict the examiner was. Basically, my own feedback to myself is: "use the terms values and attitudes if the question asks me to talk about values and attitudes!". Secondly, I would not be marked down for guessing 'Nigeria' for the setting of the Solange video. But I was totally wrong. It is a township outside Cape Town in South Africa!
Representation refers to the ways in which a group of people, an issue or an event are reconstructed by the producer of a media product. Representations are constructed through media language, and they present an opportunity for the producer to demonstrate their ideological perspective. In this essay, I shall argue that both the music video to Formation by Beyonce and the music video to Losing You by Solange use the language of postcolonial identity to construct a complex representation of black people, both in Nigeria (?) and in the south of America. However, both music videos construct this identity in different ways, for different political reasons.
The music video to Formation primarily constructs a version of America where black people have been ignored, impoverished, and yet have thrived in terms of constructing a rich and powerful culture. Firstly, the destruction. Formation opens with an introductory establishing montage constructing New Orleans in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. The MES of flooded streets is anchored through the long, lugubrious tracking shots of desolate and largely uninhabited houses. Then we cut to the master shot: Beyonce, lying atop a police car, constructed through BEV and BCU, wearing a glamourous yet faded 70s dress, and drawling her lines to the camera. The police car is apparently floating in the middle of an expanse of water, constructing a diametric opposition between the confident yet vulnerable Beyonce, and the inherent hegemonic power of the police. This forces and positions the audience to either accept her punishment, or to empathise with her plight, a difficult and deliberately problematic positing. Elsewhere, we see further montages of squalor and deprivation. This ultimately constructs a reality where black people are vulnerable and neglected, and desperate for help.
Not so in Losing You. In stark opposition, the colour palette of Losing You (LS) is washed out, gorgeous, super high key lighting, with streams of natural sunlight washing through the Nigerian streets. Once more we see a choppy opening montage, which is entirely conventional of the music video. Yet here, Solange is not engulfed in water and alone; instead, she is engulfed with the constant MES of people and almost struggles at times to address the camera. Two wonderful shots: Solange dances awkwardly (and yet stylishly) outside a traditional Nigerian barber and is gently pushed away by the power of the shot. This gorgeous mid shot allows the audience to fixate on the MES of the hand painted signs as much as Knowles. Second shot: the de facto master shot. A crowded car, with Solange constantly pushing toward the camera to let herself be seen as the other passenger’s crowd around her. Here, Solange is constructed as confidently losing herself in the melee of Nigerian life, an African American her becoming part of the complex African diaspora. These shots are not just useful in constructing a complex representation of black identity in a globalised world, they also provide the video an edgy, stylish talking point.
This is not to say that Formation lacks this joy of living. Quite the opposite., While LY presents a cool, calm existence in the chaos, Formation constructs black working-class identity as an act of casual, cultural defiance against the wishes and forces of hegemonic postcolonial rule. This can be seen in the frequent use of close ups of aspects of black southern cultural heritage. The CU of sea food and other creole food, the CU of Beyonce’s braids swinging energetically as she leans out of her car, and the CU of batons being twirled in a parade filled with energy and excitement. Here we see black people as poor, but not victims, and presented their unique cultures in a way that will be thrilling and appealing even to black Americans, such is the hyper specificity of the representations on offer here. Paul Gilroy argued that media intrinsically constructs a hierarchy of importance through media language, where black people are subordinate to white. Here we see (almost) exclusive representation of black people in an alarming and delightful array of different representations, not simply the ‘token black’ stereotype reinforced by mainstream media. In this sense, the representation black people that Beyonce presents are far closer to the intersectional utopia that bell hooks presents, although it should be noted that hooks were highly critical of B. This will be explored below.
Losing you also considers postcolonial identity. However, the hierarchy here is if anything more complicated, and not simply because the cast is exclusively black. As noted, while poverty here is an absolute, there is no trace of victimhood, only the joyful expression of culture. And unlike Formation, that presents a specific representation of Louisiana microculture, Losing You presents an immersive wash of iconography from a variety of different world cultures. This can almost instantly be noted through the MES of the dapper Nigerian man twirling a union flag umbrella. A later ECU sees him sipping tea, lit by the high key gorgeous Nigerian sunlight. This powerful diametric opposition constructs a powerful representation of postcolonial identity. While not erasing the devastation and inherent racism of colonialism, it still does present an exciting and fascinating depiction of Nigerian identity. The MES of the barber shop signs, beautifully yet cheaply manufactured, boast British and German haircuts alongside black and beautiful (quote?) skin treatments, demonstrating and constructing a reality where black identity is decidedly more complex than simply skin colour. This influx of cultural iconography can be seen throughout the video. The specced up bicycles reference European cultural norms, again forming a binary opposition the harsh yellow if the Nigerian sand on the floor. In this way, we see black people represented as powerful, beautiful, filled with life, and vastly more complex that mainstream white hegemonical ideological perspectives may suggest.
Moving beyond representations of race, there is a clear and considered difference in the representations of femininity constructed in both music videos. As mentioned previously, hooks considered Beyonce a ‘terrorist’ for hijacking media language and constructing a world where to be powerful is to be sexually desirable. I doubt that hooks would see much to dispel her views in formation. While there are a range of complex referents construct black people as powerful in the face of adversity, Beyonce consistently self-sexualised. The MES of her dance routine in the swimming pool sequence is a perfect example of this. Her movements are aggressive, powerful, and emphasised through the MES of her backing dancers. Her tight, figure-hugging leotard emphasises her musculature. It is clear that the preferred reading is to understand her as a beautiful and yet powerful woman. Liesbet Van Zoonen argues that gender is constructed not through biological differences, but in this case through media language. Wit the MES of her tight, sexualised costume emphasising her curves (perhaps Beyonce’s USP, a fact recently emphasised by her bottom being almost comedically emphasised in a recent Levi jean commercial!), we see a stereotypical construction of women only being powerful through their hegemonic attractiveness. This is emphasised through the production of the music itself: a dry, percussive, aggressive recontextualization of New Orleans bounce music, stripped of the queer lyrics, and now fixated on Beyonce’s status as a powerful and rich woman. In one telling shot, we see B making a ‘money’ gesture with her hands’ and directly addressing the camera, delivering the iconic line ‘if he fuck me good I’ll let him take a ride in my chopper".
Yet, and finally, Solange, is most at odds with her siter in her self-construction of her sexuality. Firstly, this is contrasted through the choice of genre. Unlike the aggressive trap beats of Formation, Losing You is a gorgeous, mellow, 80s inspired anthem that features swashes of keyboards and less demonstrative beats. We see Solange dancing in mid shot and MLS throughout the video, never accompanied by backing dancers, only totally impassive citizens going about their day. Solange dresses in striking, gorgeous, fabulously tailored suits that emphasise not her curves, but her tall, even skinny frame. Her make-up is feminine, but more striking than Beyonce. While she is clearly hegemonically attractive, and constructed as an attractive woman, she is never sexualised. It is difficult to contextualise Solange into the framework of Mulvey/Van Zoonen’s make gaze. Even intradiegetically she is resolutely ignored by the men and even women in the video. This stylish and performative presentation of gender clearly demonstrates how gender is fluid and that norms evolve over time (Van Zoonen), while also presenting an intersectional set of references that will appeal to a diverse range of audiences (bell hooks), and even constructs a complex, performative construction of gender that is highly likely to provide an inspirational framework of identification for her many target audiences (Butler). This is all reinforced through Solange’s performance. She dances stylishly yet awkwardly in her skinny suit, constructing a world where to be a woman (black, cis, Nigerian, American, etc) can be many different things.
In these many ways, we have seen how representations of ethnicity and gender have constructed a complex set of social and cultural meanings for the many audiences. Perhaps negatively, however, we must conclude that even though these images are positive and even emancipatory, they still exist for the sole purpose of selling these songs within a capitalist system, and that while we may take inspiration and change our lives through their existence, they solely exist to make as much money as possible in the most efficient way possible.
Solange’s representation as a woman is infinitely more nuanced.
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