Representations of men
According to Goodwin's theory, music videos often have voyeuristic treatment of the female body. We may apply this to recent videos such as:
Here, a seemingly normal innocent girl transforms into a stronger female, however along with her power gain comes a sudden loss of clothes and exposure of her body. This may adhere to Laura Mulvey's theory of the "Male gaze". Perhaps the people in charge of the music video creation were male, therefore the video was produced from a man's perspective, by men and for men. On the other hand, this asks the question whether the female audience would really aspire to be like the character in the video and use their sexuality in order to have power.
Another key example is:
From a Disney star to being presented as someone who openly uses her body to attract the audience. The video further displays hedonistic behaviour, which complements the lyrics, which also encourage parties, drinking etc for leisure. Young girls may aspire to be like Miley Cyrus or "Hannah Montana", thus there has been much controversy over Miley's drastic transformation:
According to this article, The Parents Television Council issued a press release declaring that her VMA performance “substituted talent with sex.”
Vernallis notes that establishing shots and CUs are frequently used to reveal the diegesis. The multiple party scenes in the above video evidence this, and also connect to Goodwin's ideas of the lyrics "we like to party/ we can't stop" connecting to the visuals and music, which is fast-paced and upbeat.
Is it fair though, that while so many other female artists have videos presented in similar ways, using their sexuality for publicity, that Miley Cyrus received so many hits. This brings about the effect that target audience has on the representation of a star. As a disney girl, the core audience would have been the younger female audience and children, hence the outcry from The Parents Television Council. On the other hand, let us look at some other examples.
The video consists of barely any clothes, lots of booty-shaking and the lyrics are also highly sexual. This contrasts to Rihanna's original image of innocence and youth. he video is also highly stylised and more focused on Rihanna's body and dancing than on the actual song or any narrative.
On the other hand, this adheres to Goodwin's theory that lyrics and visuals relate in a music video. The song is highly sexual and therefore the music video also should be. The dance music and sexual lyrics are amplified by the music video; the intention of the music video to begin with: to draw attention and promote the song.
While The Saturdays tend to be more covered up than other females in the music industry, the video has some hints of sexuality from the short shorts and low tops that the girls are wearing,. The dance at the end is also quite sexualised and employs "hairography" or female hair-flicking, and some quite "inviting" poses.
We may see from the above examples that the female image has become more and more exposed and sexualised over time. This may be to keep up with the growing demand of today's harder-to-please male audience and also as the music industry is male-dominated.
This representation is very different. From the following examples, we may investigate.
Here, Conor Maynard starts off in the video very well-dressed. This appeals to the female audience as he is attractive and he also provides an aspirational figure for the male audience. Throughout the video, he is in no way sexualised and even on the more intimate part of the narrative, he is still in control. All his costumes connote a cool, sassy young man, and do not play on his sexuality, but instead on how powerful he is, and how good he looks. The lyrics are supported by his external look, and he appears in power and extremely independent.
Similarly, Justin Timberlake has a very attractive, fashionable external appearance. He is lit flatteringly to his complexion, hair and costume. He is also foregrounded against his backing dancers and band, therefore takes importance. The shot types and angles are plentiful and he is well promoted as a star i.e his versatility as a singer and dancer, not to mention appealing widely to the female audience for his good looks and to the male audience as a role model.
The band is dressed in casual dark clothing, giving the appearance of unity,. and the lead singer is at the front, with many low angle shots, thus giving him power above us. He appears in control and his movements are constantly tracked by the camera. The video focused mostly on the narrative and performance. During the performance, the movements go naturally with the singing and cuts to other band members depict that the lead singer is not the only focal point (unlike many female stars often are).
According to Vernallis's theory, the narrative here is disjointed, but follows an easily understandable sequence. It is difficult to draw a link between the narrative and the lyrics of the particular song, however we see that the performance and the narrative appear to be set in the same location (on different floors) and the ceiling collapse at the end suggests a connection, as Vernallis states between the narrative and song,
From these examples, it is quite clear that male performers are nowhere near as sexualised as the female ones. While their looks are used to appeal mainly to the female audience, they are not exposed or seen through a voyeuristic eye. This may be because it may "put off" the heterosexual male audience, and the music industry are trying to maximise audience reach.
