Orphans and the Ghetto

So first, I want to talk about something that I found super intriguing. Maybe it’s just because I am a nerd and I am sure it applies to all of our projects in away. While I was finding all my sources, I noticed a train of events. Or… correlation? Either way I suppose. The original musical number “It’s the Hard Knock Life” came out in 1982. The musical is about orphans during the great depression in the 30s. Jay Z’s adaptation came out in 1998. If we really dig and look close we can see that all of these things lead into the next.

First, it is about the great depression. During this time there was a lot of political tension and great economic struggles. (Hence families giving away their children for better resourced). This caused some major ghettos to form which was seemingly why they put out the song when they did in the 80s at the end of the red scare. The red scare and cold war, where political tension was very present, and brought about more ghettos for the lower classes. This led into the 90s where Jay Z took a look at the sing sung about the kids of the great depression, presented to the kids in the cold war, and adapted it for the kids in the 90s ghettos. Whaaaat…? Mind blowing.

I hope all of that made sense.

 For the semiotics elaboration, I want to focus on the opening  melody /rap and how the scenes differ for each apparatus .

Annie https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0bOH8ABpco	Jay Z https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VF-5uZ4krHE
“It's the hard-knock life for us , It's the hard-knock life for us! Steada treated, We get tricked Steada kisses, We get kicked! It's the hard-knock life! Got no folks to speak of, so It's the hard knock row we hoe! Cotton blankets ...steada wool! Empty bellies ...steada full! It's the hard-knock life!”	It's the hard knock life (uh-huh) for us. It's  hard knock life, for us! Steada treated, we get tricked. Steada kisses, we get kicked. It's the hard knock life! From standin' on the corners boppin'. To drivin' some of the hottest cars New York has ever seen. For droppin' some of the hottest verses rap has ever heard. From the dope spot, with the smoke Glock. Fleein' the murder scene, you know me well. From nightmares of a lonely cell, my only hell. But since when y'all n*****s know me to fail? F**k naw…”
The main signifier (as a whole) that we see is an orphanage full of little white girls complaining about cleaning their huge place to live in both lyrics and video.	The main signifier (as a whole) that we see is the black children living in the ghetto hanging out  in the streets and living their lives.
Let’s break down the signifiers and look at the signified.	Let’s break down the signifiers
The orphanage: generally, the feeling orphanages give us are sad, dirty, lonely, poor, scary, unsafe, anger	The ghetto/the streets: the general vibe seems to be scary, unsafe, kind of filthy, gangs, homeless, together yet alone, poor
White girls: I think class can play a big role in this. All the kids there are white and this plays into that they came from higher class families and are now living The Hard Knock Life.	Black kids: Of course class is seen here. They are of lower class hanging out in the streets because they have nothing better to do.
Sad cleaning: Gender!!!Gender roles are at play here. The lady that runs the orphanage is making the girls learn how to keep the place clean. And the fact that they are so unhappy doing so. They have been given up during the great depression, so they must have come from a higher class and are now being forced to clean their own living space.	The living their lives bit: I think it is important to notice that the kids are happy in this scene, unlike the orphan girls. They are happy in their circumstances because they came from nothing and they’ve lived the struggle for so long.
How do we get to these interpretations?	How do we get to these interpretations?
Syntagmatic and Anchorage	Syntagmatic and Anchorage
I think the biggest sign here that leads us to interpret this scene is the sequencing of the musical number. We start off with the girls super tired and an angry reparative note sounding. They are all stomping around and trying to get to cleaning. The way the music sets up the number is a big tell. We know its going to be harsh and angry.	I think the biggest sign here that leads us to interpret this scene is the way the scene starts out. We hear the cars honking and we see the graffiti on the walls and a group of kids happy to see each other. The beat starts off in a higher, happier pitch and we get the drums playing from the beginning. This creates the sense of it being a lighter tone about a heavier topic.
The scene then moves to the singing. Annie is looking awfully angry with furrowed brows and a harsh tone. The girls around her are also angry and harsh. We know they don’t like their poor life in the orphanage and are upset about being there.	The next thing we hear and see is the kids in the corner store. Their voices are still harsh (It sounds like the exact track from Annie), but we can still see that it is more lighthearted. We can tell that they are aware of the struggle, but they aren’t going to let it get them down.
In the next few seconds, we can hear some of the girls giggling. In spite of their hate of being in the poor orphanage, we get a peek at their childlike ways. Yet, they are still complaining about the things they don’t have. Like their parents or “proper” blankets. (But in the end we know that Annie gets adopted into a rich family).	Jay Z starts rapping now. He is talking about the luxuries of being in the ghetto. Again, setting the tone that life isn’t so bad when you really take a step back and look at what you do have.
Paradigmatic and Articulation (I am so confused!!)	Paradigmatic and Articulation (I am so confused!!)
There were choices made here about what the location and characters would look like. Why did they choose to cast all white characters?	In this adaptation the setting and characters are much different. The characters are black and the setting is in the streets/the ghetto.
In this original version of It’s the Hard Knock Life it is important to note that the characters are white. It is in a big city New York.	I DONT KNOW