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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