Sexism and Laura Mulvey In the music industry there are several issues to do with sexism, these are mostly down to the inequality towards women. Most of the issues are based on how men and women are also presented. Recently music videos have brought quite a bit of controversy to the table as it portrays women negatively in an objectified, sexual manner. Examples of videos that do this a lot are Robin Thicke's "Blurred Lines" and Miley Cyrus' Wrecking ball.
A part of Mulvey's theory implies that the male gaze removes womens ability to have any kind of human identity. This means that women are reduced to nothing but sexual objects that are admired solely for their physique, and not their intellectual prowess. The theory also implies that women are made to take the secondary stance so that music videos can be released and be successful.
Women also lack the ability to advance the plot line of any music video, similarly to how they perform within a movie. The only time we see women advance the plot is indirectly through the male character by directing his actions.
Muley argues that objectification of females is infectious as the media constantly creates numerous outrageous standards for women within the industry due to the standard of how significant the male gaze is.
Mulvey's text suggests that women have two roles within music videos. The first is to be viewed and admired pleasurably. The second is to be admired by the audience.
Dr no is an incredibly famous example of this, mostly due to the scene with Sean Connery with Ursula Andress on the beach.
Mulvey talks about the term Socophilia, she describes watching movies and music videos to be Socophilic practices. The definition of this is the love of watching/observing.
The majority of Mulvey's texts refer specifically to Hollywood cinema. Although the majority of her points transfer to pop without any need for clarification.
The initial sexist pop video that I will talk about is Lilly Allen's "Hard Out Here"
Mulvey's theory is easily applied to this video as it is entirely made up of women dancing is a very seductive manner, They also appear to be wearing less than what would be socially acceptable. Allen was very outspoken towards the fact that there must be more power given to females within the music and film industry. The release of Hard Out Here leads us to believe that she is in-fact a complete hypocrite as she is doing exactly what she speaks against, sexualising women. The lyrics to the song itself are very supportive of women and equality, however the dance that the women within the video do is completely against all that the song and Lilly stand for.The song implies that the only way women can bring up any inequality issues with their fellow performers is through sarcastic means such as the lyrics " we've never had it so good uh-huh we're out of the woods and if you can't detect the sarcasm, you've misunderstood" The video is highly debated as to its intentions, on one hand it may be a ploy to gain large popularity and gain a lot of money, or on the other it may be a bold statement to show people that women are infact taking charge of their own bodies. The Mise-en-scene of the video is quite simple and fits well with the objectification of women, such as the little clothing, champagne that gets poured onto the dancers and the other props that are used. It is important to note how camera angles are used within this video, it is quite often that we see the camera focus on the buttocks and breasts of the women, however staying away from Lilly, which assists with the idea that she is somewhat different from what you'd expect and doesn't need to sexualise herself.
The next video I will analyse is Blurred lines, which featured at the top of this post.
This video was highly controversial as it sexualised women in the most severe way. By having the women wear very little clothing, and the clothing they wear be mostly skin coloured, it leaves little to the imagination and infact came with an uncensored version where the women were actually topless. The "clean" version of the video does infact contain some mild nudity which means there is little escape to it. The video itself is highly sexual towards women with lines such as "you're a good girl" and "you're the hottest bitch in this place" the most direct line probably being " I know you want it" which leaves little to be guessed as to what Thicke is referring to. Mulvey's theory is very useful here as Passive and Active roles are very rarely seen in such a large way. With the men wearing full clothing and the women wearing very little. The womens role within this video is purely to be looked at sexually, the only vocal role any of the women have is simply to say "meow" which is clearly for sexual reasons. The video itself targets women as a sexual being and not an intellectual one as they purely dance around for the mens entertainment, not just ours as an audience.
The last video I will cover is Miley Cyrus' wrecking ball.
The majority of this video is spent with Miley being naked and she is quite sexual in the way that she acts. The main sexual acts are her swinging naked on a wrecking ball and licking a hammer as if it is something very different from a hammer. This is clearly a sexual reference however the song follows a very different route which has lead to some confusion as the song has an actual quite deep meaning about a previous relationship gone wrong, but it appears that Miley felt the need to sexualise herself to make the song as popular as it is. Lesser sexual acts within the video can be seen as Miley biting her lip continuously and pushing out her breasts and buttocks. There is a moment following this where Miley seems quite emotionally distressed which has lead some to believe her sexual acts are not as sexual as they appear, but infact are meant to bring her back to the natural human state and to reference her being wrecked by her previous relationship. The video walks a fine line as some would believe that Miley is proving to the industry that she can do whatever she wants, however the other side of the line is that she is playing directly into the hands of the industry by completely sexualising herself. Mulvey's theory is tested here as by following it, you would assume that the Male Gaze is played directly into this video, by having Miley work her assets to her advantage, however it is debatable whether she is infact using them for her own advantage, and taking ownership of her body.
The above image is a trial I created using randomly generated images, wikipedia pages and quotes. The purpose was to learn how to use photoshop to create a potential digipak cover image. Through this I was able to take a simple image of eggs and manipulate it to resemble an oil painting that is dripping. This works in contrast to the name of the band, that actually means a subspecies of beetle, but to the ordinary person it is an unrecognisable word that seems to be fading away in sync to the image.
I learned how to use photoshop to liquify an image, and then turn it into an oil painting. With this knowledge I will be able to then create an image for my Digipak that resembles something semi professional.
The leaflet in this digipak continues with the theme of candy floss. By doing this it links up the digipak to create a fun and playful feel to it whilst still maintaining its professionalism.
We can see Katy Perry on the leaflet's image and this displays her to be dressing up as possibly a princess, her crown indicates that she is possibly a queen, and also relates to the idea of the 'Teenage Dream.'
The two CDs that are included in the digipak have been patterned to look like candy, one resembles a doughnut whilst the other resembles a candy cane. Interestingly the Candy cane is the same pattern as her bra in the video. You could also make a connection that the album is supposed to be a sweet pleasure for people, similarly to candy.
The song list on the back of the digipak is coloured red. This makes a good contrast for the candy floss and assists it to stand out.
The front cover image is somewhat provocative as she is nude whilst laying on clouds. This sticks with the candy theme and appeals to teenagers with the sense of it being candy and sweet. This also can be seen as her audience broadening as it appeals to men as well as women.
Digipaks tend to consist of a gate-fold paperboard or sometimes a card stock. Outer binding that has one or more plastic trays. These are used to hold CD's or DVD's attached to the inside of the case. This means that the CD is contained within a cardboard flip out case instead of the standard plastic hinged case.
Digipak styled packaging is often use for singles or a special edition version of a CD's album. Tall digipaks, DVDigipaks, are used as a premium package for DVD's and DVD sets. These are common to have at home, as film trilogy's or TV series tend to come in them.
Within a Digipak, it is common to find photographs, these tend to be of the artist or someone else that is involved within the process. You may also find the track list. this is almost essential for all Digipaks. Digipaks leave room for a band or artists personal information. This is aimed towards more intense fans that would want to find out ore about their chosen artist easier.
Digipaks also contain a barcode and QR, also a logo for the record company. Depending on what digipak you buy, it may also come with a membership poster or other special offers.
The first location that the group planned to use was Kings Cross train station. After a bad break up, our character is found here, the fact that the video starts at a train station could be implying that she is traveling towards something better. Filming at a train station as busy as Kings Cross may be problematic though, so we figured we may have to use a less popular station like Becontree instead.
The second location that the group had in mind was the dance studio at Eastbrook, this is a good location to film the amplified part of the music video, it is an open space which means that the shots will not look messy and will be easy to edit together, giving the video a more professional feel. The idea with this location is just to have the artist sing into the microphone, nothing overly fancy, just shots that look nice and crisp.
The third location that will be used is Central Park. The idea behind this scene is to show the artist and her ex-boyfriend in a happy light with the use of flashbacks. This is a good location for a scene like this as it is where a couple might go just to spend time with each other. These flashbacks will help convey the notion that the relationship started off as a good one.
Although I was not able to attend this day, the group filmed the first scene to our music video! We had a slight change in location as the dance studio we planned to use had been book so instead we used one of the Drama studios at our school. We also had a slight change in costume as our artist had misplaced her plaid so instead she wore a plain black t shirt as this would contrast with her hair and make her stand out. Overall we had a successful first day filming; we managed to get a large variety of great shots which we cant wait to use.
Synopsis: Our chosen song is about a relationship that ended badly so we decided to have a narrative based music video. We felt that this was the best option as the lyrics are easy to transform into a story effectively. We decided specifically on a non linear narrative; the first shots are going to be after the break up and flashbacks are going to be used to show the relationship from the beginning to the end. As well as using flashbacks we're going to use an amplified studio like setting thats repeated during the chorus. These shots will just focus on the artist singing into a microphone. At the start of the video the artist is going to be seen getting onto a train. We decided this was an effective idea as it symbolises that she is going on a journey both physically and emotionally. At the start of the journey she is upset about the break up and throughout the shots she is seen looking through photographs of them together, but by the end of the video before she gets off the train she is seen deleting them photos. This will suggest that by the end of the video she has stopped holding on to the past.
Key Genre Conventions: The song we have chosen is of the pop/country genre as it is catchy and upbeat and contains lyrics about love and relationships. As the song we have chosen is of the pop genre our video will contain many close ups of the artist. As our song is also of the country genre we will also add in some typical conventions of country videos such as an acoustic guitar and plaid clothing. Our video will also establish a trade mark for our artist; her bright red hair. We will also make sure that our artist is dressed in stylish fashionable clothing as this is another key genre convention of a pop video.
Through our Audience research there is an array of things we could do. Firstly there are interviews, we will conduct these by taking a selection of people from all social groups and then question them as to their preferred type of music video and how they watch them, we can also do questionnaires and surveys to ensure that we get a fair and justifiable results. We will do this through survey monkey and video recordings.
