Thoughts & Interpretations

Erykah Badu: Window Seat Controversy 

Erykah Badu decided to be bold and daring while creating a music video for her song Window Seat. It was viewed by several people; many responded to it negatively. Peoples' responses can relate back to articles written by Stuart Hall and Raymond Williams. The way viewers reacted and the way Badu made her video are evidence that what Hall and Williams say about culture and sending and receiving messages is true.

In an article on the Daily Mail website, Badu was quoted saying the following about her video: "I tied it in a way that compared the assassination one would go through after showing his or her self completely. That's exactly the action I wanted to display." In other words, her nudity was part of her message. Some people thought the fact that she took off her clothes was offensive; others didn't like the fact that it was filmed where President Kennedy was shot. In the article "Encoding, Decoding," Hall said that "an event must be a 'story' before a communicative event" (page 508). By filming where she did, Badu was able to create a story, and therefore, create something for people to discuss and respond to. She also helped give her story a little historical context and made a connection to the message she was trying to deliver. That being said, if she didn't film her video in that area, it wouldn't have conveyed as much meaning as she wanted it to. Something similar can be said about Kennedy being shot: if he wasn't killed, she wouldn't have had as much context for her video. The location also gave her video more meaning. As Hall said, "If no 'meaning' is taken, there can be no 'consumption'" (page 508). The way people responded is connected to how they interpreted the video.    

According to Williams' article "The Analysis of Culture," "three general categories in the definition of culture" (page 32) exist. One of them is called the documentary. He wrote, "Then, second, there is the 'documentary', in which culture is the body of intellectual and imaginative work, in which, in a detailed way, human thought and experience are variously recorded." Badu's video falls under this category because she expressed how she felt about a certain subject in video format. Williams then went on to say, "The analysis of culture, from such a definition, is the activity of criticism, by which the nature of thought and experience, the details of the language, form, and convention in which these are active, are described and valued" (page 32). This relates to the certain remarks that were made about this video because critics didn't like the way Badu decided to express herself and where she decided to do it.

On page 35, William claims, "Thus art... can be seen as expressing certain elements in the organization which, within that organization's terms, could only have been expressed in this way." Movies and videos, like Badu's, are considered forms of art. Although some people might not agree, maybe Badu decided to create the video the way that she did because there wasn't another adequate way to convey what she thinks and how she feels. Then, taking off all of your clothes and walking around naked in public is clearly something that is frowned upon. Since Badu decided to ignore this while filming, she disregarded what Williams describes as the "social character" on page 36: "The social character - a valued system of behavior and attitudes - is taught formally and informally; it is both an ideal and a mode." Based on the criticisms Badu faced, one can conclude that viewers were upset that Badu didn't conform to this character while recording. Reading about the ways some people responded to Badu's video put Hall's and Williams' reading into perspective.