1. Music Video and…
…representations

2. Music video and representations
• Brainstorm key representational issues in Music Video
– Gender
• objectification of women/’soft porn’ (uncensored version of Robin Thicke,
Timberlake?
• men as objects – the ‘female gaze’
• Challenging Stereotypes
– Age and class
• Youth – wealth, fun loving, sweet and beauty - the cornerstones of advertising
• working class chic – the street cred of coming from the streets
– Ethnicity
• African American rappers as pimps and drug dealers
• the rise of ‘urban’ and ‘r&b’ – rejection of the institutionalised racism of the past
and more emphasis on success
• Black meets white (two markets=more cash)
– Region/place
• LA as the sunny nirvana where the American dream is realised
• London as the grimy-limey capital – or wishing it was more like the US?
• NZ as US
• New York as a city of excitement, diversity and opportunity
• Ibiza as a centre of decadence and den of iniquity - clubbers paradise

3. Task
• Choose a representational focus
• Create a digital presentation (ppt or Prezi for
example) of a chosen music video/artist linked to
the concept of representation. Post it on your
blog. Key prompts:
– Who/what is represented?
– How are they represented?
– Analyse mise-en-scene and camerawork especially
– Could anyone be offended by this representation &
why?
– Does it conform to a stereotype?
– Does it challenge or subvert stereotype?