G324 - Representation in Music Videos

Gender & Sexuality

Men in music videos are likely to;

• play the instruments
• act aggressive
• act dominant over females
• have stereotypically masculine roles
• wear stereotypically masculine clothing (suits etc.)
• be large and muscular
• have power and wealth

Women in music videos are likely to;

• be dancing
• be wearing little clothing
• have stereotypically feminine roles (office worker, housewife, waitress, cheerleader etc.)
• be provocative
• seen/used as sexual objects- Male Gaze Theory- women are objects to be looked at by men

All of these common themes/ideas are especially apparent and most common in hip-hop/rap music videos.

For example, in the video for Candy Shop by 50 Cent, the artist is seen as basically the only masculine figure in the mansion full of women. This gives him authority instantly. He then drives up to the mansion in an expensive sports car, which shows his wealth and gives him power.

We then are shown many women inside the mansion, who are all very sexualised by the clothes they're wearing.

The male gaze theory can be applied to pretty much the whole video, as the camera is almost always focused on the women, who are either dancing, posing or looking seductively at the male artist or camera. In the screenshot below, you can see the 'male gaze' explicitly, as the artist goes up stairs and looks at all the girls standing around him.

Close ups of the artist in a fur coat and chain, again, connote wealth and power, which is stereotypical of a dominant male.

The shots where the women  are laying with the artist on the bed, or in provocative clothing with props such as whips, show how heterosexuality is very dominant in this video, as it is in a lot of music video and almost the only sexuality represented in hip-hop/rap videos.

Even when the women are given roles that would be considered respectable, they are hugely sexualised, such as the shot seen below, where we see the female as a nurse but the outfit is purely for the pleasure of heterosexual males, as it is a 'dress up' outfit that she uses to seduce the artist.

As mentioned earlier, females are often the dancers in music video and dressed in very little, which is true of this video.

Even when the video steers away from constant sexual themes, the role of the woman is still lower than the male. The male is seen driving what still appears to be a decent car, through a drive through, where the female is a worker at the fast food restaurant. This being typically considered a lower class occupation still represents the woman as lower than the male.

In pop music videos, this is also apparent, but not quite as much.

For example, in Britney Spears' video for Womanizer, the artist is seen not wearing anything at all at many points which is where the Male Gaze Theory can be applied. She is also seen as making food for a male character and is then playing a secretary, which is a stereotypically female occupation. 

In Beyonce's video for If I Were a Boy we see the artist portray the stereotypical characteristics of both genders, with some shots which support the Male Gaze Theory.

Male Gaze

Stereotypical female in the kitchen, serving the male food

Breaking the stereotypes by having a stereotypically male occupation

Regionality

In music videos the main settings are usually somewhere in America. The USA is considered the 'dream' land and places like LA are considered to be 'the place to be' and if you are there then you have 'made it' as it is a very wealthy part of the world.

Places such as London are not seen in that way, but rather the opposite. Rundown streets are often used  in urban music videos, to show struggle and are seen as lower class areas, as opposed to the glamour and glamorous lifestyle shown in videos set in American cities such as LA.

Devlin in his video for London City, in front of the London Eye. Basic and dark shot
used, with casual clothes don't give the setting a glamorous impression

The video includes many shots of dark London streets. typical of an urban music video

Ariana Grande in her video for Baby I, set in LA, sitting on an expensive car in the nice looking, sunny streets 

A shot of Ariana and her dancers in bright clothes, on a roof with a nice sunny background,
showing a nice picture of a place like Los Angeles, contrasting that shown of London in the Devlin video above.

Ethnicity

In music videos, rap and hip-hop tend to be seen as something for and by black people. Hardly any white artist make that type of music and there aren't many included in videos of these genres. 

In these videos, the black men are often seen as pimps, drug dealers, thugs and in gangs. This battles the struggle of racism, in the way that they are seen as powerful and wealthy, but also worsens the issue as these roles aren't considered very respectable and since it's only really black people doing it, they are given a negative stereotype by other ethnicities.

White people tend to be in most other genres, particularly pop, country and rock. 

Ethnicity can be used to draw in wider audiences as well, as if there was to be a mix of ethnicities in a music video, it would attract the target audiences of them all, which would boost views/sales/publicity etc.

A good example of this would be Airplanes by B.o.B ft. Hayley Williams (of Paramore)

B.o.B is a hip-hop/rap artist who would normally appeal to a majorly black audience and those whole like that particular genre, but his collaboration with Hayley Williams on this song enabled him to draw in a much larger audience than he usually would. Featuring Hayley, not only in the song, but also the video, drew in his usually audience, an audience of people who like Paramore (those who would normally like rock/alternative music and videos) as well as a general white audience  who maybe only really watch videos with white people as they can relate more to them.

Post by Mia