The video I chose to analyze was “Don’t Touch My Hair” by Solange. The song comes from her album titled, A Seat at the Table, which was released in 2015. The video has a vintage look laced with diverse black hairstyles, eclectic fashion and interpretative dance moves. There are various scenes and camera angles used which include a simulated basketball game, a church choir, women at a swimming pool and dancing inside and outside an observatory. The song and video is about black women and their hair. A black woman’s hair is an extension of her identity. This is defined by how the artist equates her hair with feelings, pride, glory and her soul. The video seems to have a three-fold purpose. It speaks to people who are not of color, the black
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Their hair can be used as a resistance to reject constraints put on them. Per Race in America, our country defines what is normal as “whiteness” (p. 26). The third audience the artist speaks to are her fellow black women. The lyrics she uses say “…. rolled the rod, I gave it time, but this here is mine…” (Solange). She is reminding herself and those like her to embrace themselves. It is not all just about hairstyling. If her hair is also her feelings and her soul, it is the time invested in herself. A black women’s hair can be a form of resistance and not restricted by how society says it should look. Two scenes display the artist and four other black members with natural hairstyles, carrying jugs and buckets of some sort of liquid on their heads in one (2:33) and then not carrying them in another (2:39). With this, she seems to give homage to our ancestors who carried jugs of water on their heads to show there is strength in our hair and us while at the same time, the liquid could be interpreted as chemicals, seen at 2:50. There is a pushback not to conform. The observatory scenes speak of self-examination. She goes from outside to inside and the lyrics “what you say to me” (Solange) defies that anyone can question our choices in hair or otherwise. Our hairstyles do not have to be made to seem aggressive as outsiders think, but should freely be expressed in the diverse styles shown throughout the video. There are also moments of what look like celebratory dance, meaning celebrate our hair and the different ways we can present it
Their hair can be used as a resistance to reject constraints put on them. Per Race in America, our country defines what is normal as “whiteness” (p. 26). The third audience the artist speaks to are her fellow black women. The lyrics she uses say “…. rolled the rod, I gave it time, but this here is mine…” (Solange). She is reminding herself and those like her to embrace themselves. It is not all just about hairstyling. If her hair is also her feelings and her soul, it is the time invested in herself. A black women’s hair can be a form of resistance and not restricted by how society says it should look. Two scenes display the artist and four other black members with natural hairstyles, carrying jugs and buckets of some sort of liquid on their heads in one (2:33) and then not carrying them in another (2:39). With this, she seems to give homage to our ancestors who carried jugs of water on their heads to show there is strength in our hair and us while at the same time, the liquid could be interpreted as chemicals, seen at 2:50. There is a pushback not to conform. The observatory scenes speak of self-examination. She goes from outside to inside and the lyrics “what you say to me” (Solange) defies that anyone can question our choices in hair or otherwise. Our hairstyles do not have to be made to seem aggressive as outsiders think, but should freely be expressed in the diverse styles shown throughout the video. There are also moments of what look like celebratory dance, meaning celebrate our hair and the different ways we can present it