Representation in my music video

1. REPRESENTATION IN MY MUSIC VIDEO
Representation is the construction of aspects of reality.

2. GENDER
• Music videos often sexualise women, as well as in the media. They do this through using shots
of women dancing provocatively touching themselves or others. This creates a conflict because
women are asserting their femininity and expressing themselves sexually. However if men did
this it would be seen as wrong and offensive.
• Laura Mulveys theory supports this as she explains women are objectified in films and music
videos.
• Some artist challenge the stereotypes and never put them selves in a position to be sexualised
by men, these are artists like Adele, Meghan Trainor and Lorde. They subvert stereotypes by
using empowering lyrics and powerful vocals.
• In music videos men are usually represented as very masculine and follow the conventions of
being a traditional “real man”. They will often come across as being serious and strong to the
audience. Connell suggests that men live up to hegemonic masculinity.
• Hegemonic masculinity is competitive and reflects that men want to be dominant to other
males and subordinate females. For men to be represented in this way they come across as
heterosexual, strong and aggressive.

3. CONVENTIONAL STEREOTYPES
• Pop music videos have many stereotypical representations. One of which
includes that being sexual is a quick and easy way to attract an audience.
The music industry decides how women are portrayed according to
there physical appearance. They can do this by the way they dance,
dress or act. There dancing will often be provocative and they will be
wearing minimal clothing. Pop videos will almost always have a women
and a man to represent the women as an object. Pop videos are
commonly based around reality and therefore don’t use special effects,
they want people to be able to aspire to be like the artists. Pop music
uses a lot of iconography to represent artist how the producers want
them to come across. Pop music will more than likely have a narrative
based story line that builds on how they want to be represented.

4. CHALLENGING STEREOTYPES
• There are many artists that don’t agree with how the media portrays them
and they therefor challenge and subvert stereotype as said previously these
are artists such as Adele and Lorde.
• In our music video we are going to subvert stereotypes and not objectify the
female artist to do this we are not going to include a male in the video this
will represent the female artist as the powerful and confident artist. We will
also be using light filters and lightening to represent the happy atmosphere
as well as the artist being represented as very energetic. Close ups and low
angles are going to be used to meet the demands of the record label and
also to portray her as confident and powerful. The costumes we are going to
use and going to present the artist as trendy and stylish, we will subvert
stereotypes by not using skimpy clothing. We want the artist to be
represented as powerful and confident the whole way through the music
video to do this we will use the same level of energy in very shot and use
similar camera angles and shot, the costumes and makeup will also be
different in every shot but they will follow a similar trend.

5. POSITIVE AND NEGATIVE REPRESENTATIONS
• There are many different ways that a character in a film or music video can be
represented positively or negatively. Sad music videos are often represented
negatively they do this through using dark colour themes and dull lightening, other
factors will also help create the mood such as bad weather or damaged props in the
mise-en-scene. Happy and energetic music will almost always be represented
positively they do this by using bright lightening fun props and bright colours in the
mise-en-scene. The way the character comes across will also help the audience
decide if they are a negative or positive aspect. For example artists in raps songs are
often portrayed negatively.
• In our music video the artist will be represented as we wanted we can do this through
choosing costume, mise-en-scene and props carefully. As there is only one
protagonist in our music video with an extra we will consistently portray our artist
positively. To do this we will use bright lighting which will often be outdoors using
natural light, Bright clothing that is unique, we will also use props that represent the
artist as a chilled out, bubbly individual. However when filming the weather is
something we cannot control, if it is bad weather we will try and compensate for that
in another way by using more bright colours in the shot.

6. REPRESENTATIONS AND THE AUDIENCE
• Of course we want our representations to appeal to are target audience,
this is why conducting a survey and a focus group was very beneficial to
us as we were able to work out what they wanted to see. Our ideal
target audience member would be a girl around the ages of 17-21, she
would have a large group of friends and is very proactive.
• Because of this we chose to fill the disjuncture elements of the music
video with active aspects for example at one point the artist will be
riding a bike. We also chose to do this because a lot of the audience will
be able to relate to doing this when they were younger. We want our
music video to have realistic representations so the audience can relate
to it and there for the relationship between the audience and the visuals
is greater.
• We want the artist to be represented as being empowering and
inspirational to a younger audience as this is when they go through
challenging events in their life.