LIN2LAG 2019

Language and Gesture

Name: Jasmine Roberts (19904856)

Assessment 2:

'Do gestures provide additional impact and meaning to lyrics of songs that are
of western hip hop and rap genres'

‘Don’t Stay in School’

by David Brown (Boyinaband, 2015)

Introduction

Gesture is used often when we speak in our day to day conversations. Adam Kendon (2004,
p.7) defines the term gesture as a visible action used as part or a complete utterance. Though
it isn't thought about much when it comes to the use of gesture when performing music,
particularly when singing. The specific focus of this report is the relationship that the western
genre of rap and hip hop have with gesture. Understanding the relationship of music and
gesture will help us understand the form of communication that can occur.

Research Question to be Addressed and Background Literature

The research question chosen was 'Do gestures provide additional impact and meaning to
lyrics of songs that are of the western hip hop and rap genre'. This was crafted as there are not
many research papers investigating the relationship between gestures and the genres hip hop
and rap. As these genres tend to focus on music that is produced in spoken word, a closer
connection to speech. Farid Hafez (2016) defines hip hop music as being connected to soul
and jazz whilst incorporating the use of rap. Catherine Appert (2016, p.237) defines the rap
genre as a way for people to defend and represent society. A new subcategory has evolved
from rap known as “conscious rap”. Hafez (2016) uses the definition by Forman (2002) that
describes “conscious rap” as a “reflection on, and intellectual engagement with, pressing
social issues”.

Little to no papers were found on this topic, however there have been some studies conducted
with Hindi performances, the use of gestures in choirs and in modern music. A piece written
by John Jost (2011, p.23), a director of choral activities at university in Peoria, Illinois,
encourages the use of gesture and movement within choir groups to teach musical expression
as well as create a sense of community and move the audience. Another study that analysed
the relationship between music and gestures. Clayton (2007, p.93) analysed a recording of a
Khyal performance by Vijay Koparkar. The study found that the peak audience engagement
occurred at the end of the slow section of the song (known as the vilambit phase), where
gestures are more 'concentrated' (Clayton, 2007, p.93). The paper; 'Modernism as Gesture:
The Experience of Music, Samuel Beckett and Performed Bewilderment' (Schleifer, 2019,
p.91) argues that complex gestures alongside modernist philosophy, the participation of
dialogue by both speaker and listener and psychoanalysis 'provokes the phenomenal
experience of bewilderment' (Schleifer, 2019, p.91).
All these studies showed findings that were similar. That the use of gestures with music and
lyrics across different genres can make the performer feel more invested into the
performance, thus producing a more 'moving' (Jost, 2011, p.23) experience for the audience
watching.

Video/Data Description

The video selected to address the research question was the music video 'Don't Stay in
School' (2015) produced, performed and written by David Brown, the person behind internet
personality Boyinaband. This song uses ‘conscious rap’ to address the irrelevance of the
British Education System and that re-structuring needs to occur. The whole video was
analysed rather than a section to ensure continuity and relevance of the piece. The reasoning
behind this selection is that it incorporates spoken word with the genres hip hop and rap. The
video itself involves Brown directly facing the camera and performing to it. It displays torso
upwards and he prominently uses gestures with his speech in a co-timed manner. There are
two limitations with this video. The first is that Brown has edited the video which results in a
few minor jumps between sentences in the verses. This meant some gestures were cut into
slightly and did not complete the Gesture-Phrase (G-phrase) and therefore not completing the
Gesture Unit (G-unit). The second limitation was that some gestures were cropped out of the
screen due to the positioning of the camera on his upper torso. An example of this occurring
when Brown crosses and stretches his arms horizontally to convey that '[he] was never taught
how to vote' (21-22 seconds). Only one arm was present in this G-phrase.

Analysis Methods

The entire video was analysed as the research question addresses the lyrics of the complete
song. This also allows for more specific gesture to be analysed as well. The analysis was
completed using the ELAN software. In the software, it was then divided into three tiers;
'Transcription of Speech', 'Classification of Gesture' and 'Analysis of Gesture'. The
'Transcription of Speech' tier involved the use of subtitles of the lyrics and was included to
see what gestures co-timed with speech. The 'Classification of Gesture' tier involved
categorising each individual gesture into different categories. These include;

- Iconic - occur if a semantic relationship with speech is present (McNeil, 1992)

 - Emblem - meanings that are socially agreed upon and don't necessarily need a
relationship with speech (Chui, Lee, Yeh, Chao, 2018)

- Deictic - pointing movements (McNeil, 1992)

- Beats - movements that often are biphasic, are small and lack special gesture space
(McNeil, 1992)

- Metaphor - present imagery that is of an abstract concept (McNeil, 1992)

- Cohesive - the use of gestures to 'indicate continuity in speech' (LIN2LAG, 2019)

Some gestures were categorised into two or three different categories whilst very few had two
different gestures coincided. Finally, the 'Analysis of Gesture' tier broke down selected
gestures into g-phrases. Preparation, Pre-stroke hold (shortened to Pre-stroke), Stroke (the
action), Post-stroke hold (shortened to Post-stroke) and Retraction. Not all of these were
present in the gesture except for Stroke.

Results

The gestures used in Brown's 'Don't Stay in School' (2015) can be classified into two
overarching themes. Gestures that have meaning tied to them through speech and gestures
that indicate continuity in speech. However, the gesture category 'Beats' occurred in both
themes as Brown often used gestures in time to the rhythm of the song as well as using
repetitive gestures in a bi-phasic manner. Both sections use results from the ELAN software,
using all three tiers mentioned in the Analysis Methods section.

Gestures that have meaning tied through speech

These gestures can be further broken into the categories used in the 'Classification of Gesture'
in the ELAN software.

Iconic

Iconic gestures were prominent throughout the video and gestures were placed in the iconic
category over the emblem category. This is because these gestures had semantic relationships
with the speech used. Meaning they were universally accepted gestures when the English (or
French) word was spoken.

An example of this one is when Brown speaks in French (2.35 minutes). He lifts both hands
and uses the index fingers and thumb to pinch, palm facing forward and performing a pinch
of the fingers to signal that he is talking about something small (preparation, one stroke and
one small post-stroke). This is a visual cue as he is talking in French about how little he
knows of the said language. So, while English speakers could not understand what he was
saying, the gesture could fill them in.

Metaphor

Brown used metaphors a few times throughout the music video. The same action of creating a
fist with the thumb sticking out (making a 'thumbs up') and using the forearm to throw the
thumb over the shoulder. This gesture is used when Brown sings; "but I know loads about
Shakespeare's classics" (17-19 seconds), "Never spent a lesson on current events" (31-32
seconds) and "but I was told what the ancient Hippocratic method is" (1.54-1.55 seconds).
All these examples discuss the concept of time. These three referred to the past and the use of
this gesture conveys a stronger meaning that these people are history and not present now.
This gesture is the opposite of the famous statue of Lenin pointing forward that portrays a
"bright future" ahead (Cienki & Muller, 2008).

Deictic

Deictic gestures were common throughout the music video. There were three primary points
used.

First one occurred when Brown was referring to himself. He would place his palm flat onto
his chest. Examples of this include at when 26 seconds referring to not being taught to "look
after my health" and at 2.44 minutes when singing that "[his] childhood was wasted" (the
stroke occurred on the word "my"). This was used to portray the emotions, opinions and what
he didn't learn. This makes it more powerful.

Second happened when Brown was talking about "them". At 21-22 seconds he sings "I was
never taught how to vote, they devoted that time to defining isotopes" he points forwards
with his index finger and thumb when referring to "they". Brown uses the same gesture to
when asking "do you know them?" as it makes the audience ask themselves the question,
furthering his argument.

Finally, Brown used deictic gestures to list. This happened at the 45-48 second mark and
involved both hands alternating index finger points downwards (individual strokes and
preparation) at every word of "divorced, beheaded, died. Divorced, beheaded survived". This
places emphasis on the saying Brown was taught at school and that to him, it was of
unimportance, but it still was stuck in his head.

Pantomime

This was used once at the 2.07-2.08-minute mark when Brown sings "No but learn mental
maths". It involves Brown changing his body posture and extending his right arm spreading
and bending each finger and thumb at different intervals. This was classed as pantomime as
Brown is acting like a teacher in a sarcastic manner.

This conveys that Brown believes that it is ridiculous that people must learn mental maths
and that the teachers who say this are outdated.

Double Gestures

These gestures that had both hands performing different gestures.

An example of this occurs at the 27-30 seconds mark. Brown was singing "but mitochondria
is the powerhouse of the cell". Involves the right hand (flipped due to filming to the left side)
to be raised, palm forward, fingers and thumb closed together performing a preparation,
stroke and extended post-stroke then going into the next gesture. The left hand (vice versa)
using a deictic gesture, with the back of the hand facing forwards, thumb upright and index
finger pointing the right hand performing a preparation, stroke, post-stroke and retraction.

This combination of gesture and spoken word create an iconic gesture as the left hand is
pointing to the mitochondria cell that is present on the hand. This is opposed to it being a
metaphor gesture as the cell is technically there, the music video does include a close of the
palm with the mitochondria cell on there. These to gestures create a visual meaning to the
lyric highlighting that this was the content that Brown had learned in school, making it feel
like a trivial thing for him and the audience to know.

Gesture that indicate continuity in speech.

This section focused on the gestures that were classified as a 'Cohesive' gesture. This was the
most prominent classification in the video. The reason that these actions were classed as
cohesive actions is because they do not necessarily have direct meanings to the words in the
lyrics of the songs. However, these gestures were used to keep in time with the rhythm of the
music as well as place emphasis on key words of the lyrics. Whilst cohesive gestures can also
incorporate metaphor, iconic and point gestures, 'Don't Stay in School' (2015) prominently
used beats to keep in time with the rhythm of the song. The use of bi-phasic repetition
through cohesive gestures is evident throughout.

Two examples of this was at the 38-39 second mark when Brown pinches the thumbs and
fingers together on both hands in an upward position (the back of his hand facing the camera)
when singing "I was never taught what laws there are" for the second time. The other was at
the 54 second mark when singing “I was never taught my human rights”. This had the exact
same gesture but repeating the stroke on the words “human rights” twice in a bi-phasic
manner. Whilst there aren’t any gestures to further give meaning to the sentence, it still
places emphasis on each word of it. Thus, making the audience pay attention to each
individual word, adding additional meaning.

Multiple gestures were combined to as many were micro gestures that occurred in
milliseconds before the next one occurred, making it one g-unit (E.g. 1.23-1.25, 1.50-1.52
and 2.13-2.16).

Conclusion

The analysis of David Brown's (Boyinaband) music video 'Don't Stay in School' (2015)
answered the research question "Do gestures provide additional impact and meaning to lyrics
of songs that are of the western hip hop and rap genre". Each gesture performed supplied
additional meaning to the lyrics, even if the gesture did not have a semantic relationship with
it. Future studies could be conducted into the relationship of gesture and genres of rap and hip
hop. However, ensuring that the whole body can be seen as well as an analysing a live or
unedited video would be ideal. Another study could be conducted comparing the relationship
between gesture and different music genres could add more to the field of gesture studies.
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