ABSTRACT

Scholarship on the relationship between Lagos and Nigerian cinematic practice often focuses on the video film, emphasising the city’s symbiotic relationship with Nollywood. This article is an attempt to expand the purview of the debate by arguing for the music video as a significant cinematic product capable of yielding a more complex picture about the city and the forms of cultural expression it fosters. Using Brymo’s “1 Pound (The Documentary)” as a specific example, this contribution explores the appropriation of the city into the performer’s image. Through a close reading that takes into account the different components of the music video form, I highlight the ways its multisensory qualities are deployed to engage several narratives about the city while simultaneously creating a unique image inextricable from that of Brymo, the star. Lagos, I argue, ultimately transcends a one-dimensional background for the enactment of the video’s narrative and becomes a character itself.

摘要

关于拉各斯与尼日利亚电影实践之间关系的学术研究通常侧重于视频电影，强调该市与诺莱坞的共生关系。本文试图通过论证音乐视频作为一种重要的电影产品来扩大辩论的范围，能够产生关于城市及其所培养的文化表达形式的更复杂的画面。以 Brymo 的“1 Pound (The Documentary)”为例，这个贡献探讨了城市对表演者形象的挪用。通过仔细阅读，考虑到音乐视频形式的不同组成部分，我强调了其多感官品质的部署方式，以参与关于城市的多种叙事，同时创造出与明星 Brymo 密不可分的独特形象。拉各斯