Representations In Music Video- All eyes on you

What is a representation? How the artist or band is portrayed within a video (including their gender, race or class) and how it portrays elements found within the video.

Some music videos represent aspects of reality found within the society which they reshape in order to make the media product more appealing to current audience. In order to succeed the producers use stereotypical associations as it makes the videos easier to understand for the audience.

                              
This music video goes by the title 'All Eyes On You' by Meek Mill ft. Nicki Minaj and Chris Brown. This music video is based on the genre of hip hop and rap. Through this video various stereotypes have been presented, some of which include black people and some based upon the genre of the video. In this task I will be discussing examples of these stereotypes and screen shots from the music video to support my discussion.

Right at the start of the music video the representation of race and class is quite unusual, as it is presenting a counter type. Nicki Minaj and the rest of the singers are being presented as a rich and high class through this two scenes and other scenes within the music video. The stereotypical idea of black people being seen as low class and poor is definitely not the case in this music video. This theory is by Stuart Hall as he stated "The media and therefore audience often blur race and class. Often associating particular races with a particular class." As we can see through the screen shots the location is placed in a mansion which is very high class. Also, their clothing and gold jewelry further emphasises how rich they are. This is considered as stereotypical association. There's another stereotype within this screen shot which shows Nicki Minaj as being feminine and sensitive. The screen shot shows this because she is simply laying down, not put into a shot where she is aggressive or strong hearted.

Another stereotype which I have noticed within this music video is mainly about the male genre and black race. A stereotypical association of black people is shown through the mise-en-scene of this music video and the body language. The clip show typical raper associations due to their costumes including hoodies, tattoos and caps which are considered a symbol of crime. This negative representation is also seen through youth community, causing theoretical threat to the society. Another element is piercing and chains are very characteristic to this genre as well as race, as this has connotations of wealth and power, this is because gold is expensive. As I have mentioned above this also relates to Stuart Hall's theory as audience tend to blur race and class. This is applied to this example because black people are often associated with low class, because of the stereotypical representations and historical background. This could be related to archaeology theory giving a sense of 'history being the present.

In addition, the third character which is featured within the music video is Chris Brown. He also suits with the stereotypical representation of a raper for the similar reasons as I have mentioned above for Meek Mill. This includes mise-en-scene, props and physical appearance. Their body language is also an association which is focused on black male. There gestures, poses and aggressive facial expressions allow them to feel more powerful, dominant and confident.

Further on during the music video the last artist Nicki Minaj is being objectified. This is shown through the mise-en-scene, as the clothing are particularly seductive including high heels, bikini and exposing outfits. This fits into the stereotype and theory of black woman being objectified, which is suggested by Bell Hooks 'colour codes' in which black woman are sexualised particularly within this music genre and R&B music videos. On the other hand, lighter skinned woman are considered and portrayed as being better looking. This music video supports the Bell Hooks theory and the stereotypical representation of black woman. However this music video does show a counter type as the story of the music video shows Nicki Minaj as being wanted and desirable to men. This is because it shows her in love with someone. This does show that the attractiveness of woman is based on John Berger's theory which is 'Men look, woman appear', therefore this idea is not aimed at a specific race but genre.

Another screen shot which supports the theory of John Berger. The screen shot shows a man's natural objectifying woman as well as the stereotypical association of black race man being sexual. In addition, a theory which is also represented is the 'male gaze' by Laura Mulvey. This theory suggests woman are portrayed as passive objects of a male desire.This is further supported through the woman's dance and postures which also convey that they are submissive to what a man sexual wants and desires.

Representations In Music Video- Side To Side

                              

The second music video which I will be analysing is Ariana Grande song ft. Nicki Minaj titled 'Side To Side', representing pop genre. This music video demonstrates many different stereotypical associations and conatins conventions and counter types of the pop genre.

At the start of the music video we are instantly introduced to one of the artist which is Ariana Grande. The scene starts by Araina dancing on gym machines with a group of dancers behind her. From this we instantly get the pop genre conventions of back up dancers and choreography. Also through the wide angle shot we see the characters customer which is very colourful and bold, which is also associated with the pop genre. The characters are also portrayed as being very cute, attractive and they are all strongly associated with the Western beauty characteristics due to their physical appearance, they are all light skin women and slim. However, further on in the music video darker skin women are introduced however they still have some of  the Western beauty characteristics.

Further on the music video, there are scenes where both artist Ariana Grande and Nicki Minaj and the rest of the actors are being strongly sexualised and objectified. Even though they are exposing their bodies by wearing short and minimum clothing, their posing is very confident and sexual. This has a strong link to Bell Hooks theory of black women being sexually objectified in music videos,but in this music video it goes with is theory and has a counter type of this stereotypical representation, However, this music video also shows lighter skinned women being sexually objectified, which shows unclear characteristic of white woman as lighter skinned females are considered to be more desirable and fit better in the ideology of beauty. However, this the intimidating posing makes it seem unsuitable in relation to her class and race but also the music genre.

Another screen shot focuses around black woman. Nicki Minaj is being sexually objectified (Bell Hooks), this is considered as a stereotypical representation of black woman who are often dressed in revealing, minimum and tight clothe, making them seem as sexual objects of make desire. This is supported further as both of the artists are surrounded by men. This is often seen in hip hop music genre, which can be seen as a countertype for pop music genre.

Moreover, Nicki Minja is characterised with blond hair style. This stood-out to me as the music video demonstrates a lot of focus to the subject of beauty and its ideologies. The representation of the black women strongly conveys that she has been influenced by the ideologies promoted by the mass media. This may show that due to her hair style and colour may give her more confidence, at the same time allowing her to fell more accepted and 'beautiful'. Also by changing her hair style it makes her fit in with the rest of the actors within the music video as they are mainly lighter skinned women, who fit into the Western ideology of beauty.

The next screen shot shows association to youth culture based around 'twerking'- a recent trend which has been very popular within young people. This is another representation of female gender, where woman are sexually objectified through exposing their body. This mainly directed towards male desires, this is because women are exposed as sexual objects. Also, this links to theory by John Fiske which is Zeitgeist, this is because twerking is a recent trend which can be seen within mass media all around the world including magazines, music videos and movies. These associations produce negative associations of young woman, who are shown to be a negative representation to older people.

The last screen shot focuses on the black characteristics, who are presenting clear hip hop characteristics. This is strongly shown through the stereotypical gold jewellery. These props create an image of a stereotypical rapper associated through the confident and aggressive poses and facial expression, this causes negative reaction in the audience. Also, this representation can be linked to commodified blackness, creating mediated view of black culture. In this screen shot we also see how she has been characterised with the bold her, yet she still showing the stereotypical representations of black culture, which is the jewellery and confident poses and facial expressions.

Overall, both music videos present many different representations of class, race and age depending on the music genre, although the modern videos sometimes include characteristics of other music videos they combine together. In both of the videos the representations were often negative, reinforcing the stereotypical representations
of all gender, race, class and age.
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ZEITGEIST: How current trends are reflected within music videos

Zeitgeist theory is based on characterising the trend of a specific time frame from different occasions which is then reflected in the present society.

This music video by Lady Leshurr titled as ‘Queen’s Speech 4’. This video shows a variety of zeitgeist aspects which are shown using intertextuality including:

In this scene of the music video there is a heart symbol shown on in front of Lady Leshurr which is referring to the popular and well-known website ‘Instagram’. This type of social network uses photos to allow friends, family or people to know what you are doing and what is going on in your life or daily routine. This application is outstanding as celebrities use it in order to keep their fan up-to-date with what they are doing and all the events that are going to happen. This social website falls under the intertextual trend in the previous months. 

Snapchat/BANTER – Another component inside the song which shows Zeitgeist theory through current trends is the reference to Snapchat application which has been one of the greatest engaging applications in social networking in the last months. Despite the fact that Instagram is concentrating on pictures, you can create your own particular profile, basically like a photograph blog. This application is very different from Snapchat. This is because Snapchat you are able to record videos and send pictures that the receiver can only see them for 10 seconds maximum, meaning you can't store them in any capacity without the other individual knowing it (because of screen shot). This application can be considered as controversial because of the time. Besides, a similar verse of the song as Lady Leshurr mentions 'BANTER', a trade of perky and teasing comments between two individuals which are regularly used inside the young culture to characterise the entertaining demonstration.

Religion (Ramadan, Adam &Eve and Jesus) – Within the music video a special effect is used in order to caption the world ‘RAMADAN’ and after the lyrics mentions ‘Jesus, Adam and Eve’ this refers to different religions. The use of these captions with in the song could be that Lady Leshurr is referring to the recent events that happened in Syria and Iraq as the Muslim’s, Christian people were immigrating to Europe as this is a continent most know for it having Christianity with few other ones, as a result the lyrics are strongly referring to these crises. 

Another arguable intertextual is that within the music video a verse refers to Bruce Jenner changing gender. This is a recent gossip that is been going around the world causing controversial ideas and opinions.

Flip Flops with socks – The music video talks about another trend which focuses on people that wear flip flops with socks in music videos. This trend unexpectedly became popular as before was considered as embarrassment and means you do not have a good taste in fashion. This became a trend after the celebrities starting wearing flip flops with socks with casual elegance not being ashamed or embarrassed by it when walking around. This shows how persuasive the media can be. By spreading few pictures of famous people the world substituted the shame with another elegant trend. This displays the power the media has and its impact on the general public.

Kyle Jenner Big Mouth Challenge ‘Big Mouth Gyal. Where your lips gone’? – Those Lyrics are mostly targeting Kylie Jenner’s ‘Big Mouth Challenge’ this is another social network trend. This is because I have looked up this challenge on Google Images and I have decided to provide a print screen of what I have seen. As you can see males and females are trying to make their lips bigger by ‘Sucking’ a cup or any round object that can cover their lips. This also shows how the media influences young people to do unpleasant things and these are the consequences of it. This also a viral challenge which people are trying to do it from all around the world also this is because of the social networks such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. Furthermore, this also shows how people are easily influenced and persuaded by celebrities without considering the consequences 

Taking everything into account, every single event above show clear portrayal of current trends and their powerful outcomes on groups, especially youth societies. The music video depicts different trends which are unique in relation to each other, despite the fact that their comparability is engaged around the long range informal communication sites which are enabling the pattern to reach considerably bigger gatherings of groups of onlookers.