Working Title:
To what extent are women explicitly objectified in music
videos such as Nicki Minaj ‘Anaconda’ and Flo Rida’s ‘Turn around’ and what
impact does this have on audiences?
Angle:
What impact are these explicit
videos having on its audience? Is this what the viewer’s simply want to see in
these music videos?
Hypothesis:
Music videos such as these
represent women in explicit and highly negative ways solely for
financial purposes rather than showing a good representation of women. Research and an essay will test this.
Linked production
piece:
·
The linked production for this write up would be
a music video which shows how women are represented, and portrayed to be. This
video would have to include some sort of sexual appearance from the females
presented in the video.
·
A documentary talking about the representation
of women talking about both sides of the argument whether these artists are
making these sexual videos for the views, popularity and financial reasons, and
forgetting about their ethical responsibilities.
·
A front cover and double page spread article talking
about the representation of women in music videos. This would be talking about
the negatives of how these women are presented and what should be changed.
Media Representations:
Women have been
represented as the weaker sex compared to men in the 21st century
music videos and have been given less
importance. These women are being taken advantage off and shown in explicit and
over sexualised ways to help the artist win over its audience and have a
financial gain. These women are used as objects and are not seemed be respected
in anyway. This may be because the music videos are just a representation of the
lyrics these artists come up with and there for they are just adding moving
images to what we may already interpret by listen to the lyrics. Although male artists are seen more too
present women in this way, female artists present themselves in this way too to
probably attract the male audience to their music videos. This is seen
in Nicki Minaj’s ‘Anaconda’ video as she
presents herself in a sexual manner which has 241,330,960views on her YouTube
page a month and two weeks later down the line. The latest trend in society is
the booty shaking which has just been on a spiral from when ‘Good Girl’ Miley
Cyrus changed how she was and her personality when she produced, ‘We Can't Stop’
in which she was twerking and being sexual with the extras in the video. This
video received 454,598,963 on her YouTube page. This was followed by her next
song when she was seen swinging in a ‘Wrecking Ball’ naked which received 709,641,600
views on YouTube. This seemed to start a trend as she was later seen twerking
on Robin Thicke on live stage for another song, which brought in more views and
controversy as he was a married man.
Media Languages and Forms:
The denotative levels of the meaning is that women
have become inferior in the way they are represented in music videos,
this is evident in a number of videos such as, 50 Cent - P.I.M.P. Remix, Flo Rida 54321
Turn Around and Robin Thicke Blurred Lines. This is also evident as women
represent themselves in this way too and don’t really support or promote the
independence of women and changing times. Women are presenting themselves in
ways they want to be seen by certain audience rather than presenting themselves
how they would like to been seen if they were dressed appropriate for example.
The connotations of the representation of these female in
the music videos, Could be that they are just used for financial reasons. This
evident as music videos which are very sexual or display women half naked tend
to get publicity for the raunchiness of the videos and have a wide range of
views by the public. This has meant that the significance of the text’s
connotation could subvert the stereotypical view of women, being strong,
independent and smart. This is because in the music videos women are shown as
flaunting their assets or using this to get their way. Female extras should be
allowed to wear whatever they want but there should be a limit as these videos can
be access on a wide range of new and digital devices. These costumes are
normally tight clothing, short or revealing, to catch the eye of the audience
and make them want to watch more of the video and this in turn means that the
audience will be listening to the song even if the lyrics were bad. Much of the
screen time is devoted to goddess-like women circling around the place in
waist-high underpants while licking or doing something with random objects.
This also involves these women dry hump whatever's closest to them a man, woman
or objects. Miley Cyrus is a good example of this as she has been seen doing
this in a number of her recent videos such as Wrecking Ball and We Can’t Stop.
This is because the videos may do a number of things to a
child’s development such as teaching children that it’s ok to appear in this
way meaning half naked and dressed in very little clothing is ok. These videos
may even change the perspective of how young males growing up see women and may
treat them as in 50 Cent - P.I.M.P. Remix
to women are show to be on dog collars with another women holding the lead.
This may have a negative impact on these children’s development and mess up the
society and world we live in at the moment as these. This is because this
starts have a very large fan base.
Sex and music are intertwined. This has led to a promo
being over sexualised. This is clearly shown in the Pussycat Dolls promoting a
song. This promo consisted of the video being shots of the Pussycat Dolls
rubbing body glitter on their inner thighs.
Narrative
In relation to the narrative the audience are positioned
to view the video for pleasure and satisfy their male or female gaze. This view
contrasts the stereotypical view of women now in the 21st Century of
being independent. Most media now are described as having a feminist ideology,
meaning it promotes the idea that women are the equal of men and should not be
discriminated against on the grounds of gender or role.
Genre/ Media Institutions
The genres of these music videos which contain these
explicit videos are mainly Rap and Hip-Pop. This is different compared to back
in the days when rap and hip songs such as 2Pac - Keep
Ya Head Up were mainly about the lyrics and the main artist in the video. This
video received 34,089,568 views on YouTube and 2pac was and still is a
well-known artist a. Compare this figure to the latest explicit video of Nicki
Minaj which received 241,330,960 views. The difference in the videos is how the
artists are presented. Cash Money
Records is the record label in which Nicki Minaj is signed to and the label
consist of other artist who also present female extras in the downgrading ways
she does. These artists consist of Lil Wayne, Tyga and The Game. Universal
Music Group is the distributor worldwide and the largest music corporation in
the world with a revenue of $6.552 billion in 2013. These artists are signed to
Cash Money Records as they produce
songs which link to the genre of the label which is rap and hip-pop.
Media Values and Ideology
The main value that is being presented is the
representation of women as the weaker sex and has been shown to be less
important compared to men. This reinforces the traditional stereotypes of women
being the inferior sex and perceived to do the labours of the household and not
capable of matching the working capacity of men. The way men have been
portrayed in music videos is mainly dominant. You also get the rare videos
where females show themselves in power with men in the background, but in these
videos thy also portray themselves as a sexual objects to get more views. When
females put males in the background they always seem to be muscular and just
have a dominance with their presence.
Media Audiences
The targeted fan base for the music videos would be the
demographic of both males and females that are aged between 12 years old and 35
years old who would be in the social classes of B, C1 and C2. As these
institutions are mainstream organisations they would target the audience of mainstreamers.
These songs and videos are also for inspirers, as they make the audience want their
flash and expensive lifestyles. According to Bulmer and Katz theory of uses and
gratifications there is evidence of escapism, as the audience is known to
escape reality and avoid there real life problems and relieve stress form work.
The audience pleasures consist of using women as a sex object to attract the
male gaze which is also clear to see. My reading and evaluation is heavily
influenced by my age, gender and background.
SHEP
Social
The social issue is how women have been represented as the weaker sex compared to men in the 21st
century music videos and have been given less
importance as they are shown in explicit and over sexualised ways to help the
artist win over its audience.
Historical
Economical
The music industry made around $16.5 billion in revenue
in 2012 and it is slowly making financial improvements since its decline from
2005.
Political
The political side of this argument is that there is a
promotion for encouragement of women's rights on the ground of the equality of
the sexes.
Issues/Debates
Representation and
stereotyping- This directly links to my study as the question of how female
stereotypes are presented, in particular the under-representation of women and
the stereotypical representation of male artists.
Media effects-
This links to my study as it’s about the influences video has on its audiences and
also the impact of them.
Moral Panics- Influence
the videos have on the younger viewers, and how parents may become concerned.
Media technology
and the digital revolution-Portable technology has allowed younger viewers
to access the material unsupervised as there isn’t a strong enough level of censorship
and parent control as the new technology is aimed at the younger generation who
understand it more compared to these adults.
Regulation and
censorship- There isn’t a strong level of censorship as these children can by-pass
the simple age restriction with a fake birthday for example.
Theories
Semiotics
Gender and ethnicity
Marxism and hegemony
Audience theories
Genre theories
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