2. A BRIEF DEFINITION.
• Representations are how director’s
portray different constructional
elements to create a reality that they
wish the audience to see. It’s very
similar to the term ‘verisimilitude’ and
this reality is constructed through;
props, costumes, people and
particular cultural identities.
3. FURTHER EXPLANATION
• Applying this concept to music videos,
you find that they represent a variety of
different elements in the same ways you
would find them represented within film.
These elements include representations
of; race, sexuality, gender, nationality
and also cover political and personal
views upon things such as war,
environmental concerns, drugs and
crime.
4. APPLYING THIS TO THE GENRE
‘POP’
• When you apply this concept to ‘Pop’ Music
videos, you evidentially find that all pop stars
use a VERY high amount of representations
within their videos. They are required to
maintain a certain image upon camera and
stage that they wish for the audience to
see. Since Pop video’s target audience’s
are mainly teenagers and young adults
there’s an incredibly high demand for the
video’s to be overtly sexualized.
5. AN EXAMPLE ‘KATY PERRY’
As you can see Katy Perry has
a very sexualized image that she
portrays in her music Videos
and overall image.
6. VOYEURISM
• Voyeurism is another concept that
comes into representation. The term
comes from a Psychologist called
‘Sigmund Freud’ and describes the
desire of one to gain erotic pleasure
from watching a subject that is often
unaware of being viewed. This differs
from the term ‘sexual display’ where
one is inviting the attention.
7. FURTHER EXPLANATION
• This theory however has been opposed from many
arguers that within music videos that due to the fact
filmmakers are predominantly male, that women’s
presence within music videos is solely for the purpose of
display and not used in a ‘narrative’ or one that isn’t
derogatory.
• A justification of this purpose is to encourage and
facilitate a voyeuristic response from the target
audience which presumes a ‘male gaze’ regardless of
whatever gender the viewer may be. This draws the
male audience in and excites them as they feel a sense
of power and control over the display.
8. HOW VOYEURISM IS ACHIEVED
• When working on this idea of displaying women, director’s use
many techniques to show the female star’s body off to the
audience. They do this by using mise-en-scene (Clothes or
lack or clothes, settings, props and lighting), camerawork and
editing with fragmented body shots emphasizing certain
aspects of her body.
A perfect example of this is the music video; ‘Rude Boy’ by
Rihanna.
• When the lead singer is male, this concept still applies
however the women are used as dancers to become
adornments to the male star’s ego.
9. EXHIBITIONISM
• This term describes the emphasis on an artist’s performance
and self-display in ways such as; dancing or posing to show off
their status, skills or image.
• An example artist of who this applies to is Lady Gaga who has
become a multi-millionaire celebrity and is a powerful and
independent female artist. From her huge influence upon her
audience and other female artists she’s gained a completely
unique image that portrays sexual and gender representations
in her music promos. All these displays are sexually
provocative from how they move, sing and act on screen and
are in complete control of inviting the sexualized ‘male gaze’.
• This has been labeled as exhibitionism, the opposite of voyeurism.
