1. Jessie Lycans
Zach Pauley
FYS 100
Music Video Analysis
Gender Roles
Song Title: Just a Girl
Artist: No Doubt- Gwen Stefani
Directions: As you closely watch the music video, answer the following questions with as
much detail as possible.
1. What are the men/women doing? (Dancing, sitting, swimming, etc.) They are dancing,
sitting, and playing music. Gwen is in a nice powder room with older female maids watching
over her. The men are able to get out of the room they are in, but it’s dirty and trashed.
2. How are the men/women dressed? How much skin is revealed? Almost everyone is fully
clothed except some of the women are wearing tube tops showing their stomachs.
3. Are there more, fewer, or the same number of men as women? There is the same number of
men as women in the video.
4. Describe the body language of the men/women: are they sitting, standing, gyrating,
mugging, etc.? Gwen is aggressively dancing for her frustration.
5. Do the men/women have power? How do you know? Men, because of the lyrics.
6. What³s the message of the song? The remaining problems of double standards that are still in
society. That if the girl does the same as a man, it’s negatively viewed.
7. What type of music is the song? Punk Rock
Music Video Analysis
Race
Song Title: Black or White
Artist: Michael Jackson
2. Directions: As you closely watch the music video, answer the following questions with as
much detail as possible.
1. What races do you see represented? The races that are represented are Native Americans,
Asian, Caucasian, African, and Indian.
2. Are there any dark skinned women shown? How many? There are about five dark skinned
women shown.
3. What is the race of the person at the focus of the video? Originally African American, but
changed the appearance of his race to Caucasian.
4. What are the black/Latino/Asian/white/Native American/Pacific Islander people doing? It
appears that they are doing some sort of Native dances and Michael Jackson is joining them.
5. What³s the message of the song? The message in my opinion would be that race shouldn’t
matter because we all are one species and all share this planet.
6. What type of music is the song? Pop
Music Video Analysis
Sexuality
Song Title: Talk Dirty
Artist: Jason Derulo
Directions: As you closely watch the music video, answer the following questions with as
much detail as possible.
1. Describe any sexually explicit body language: The women dancers provocatively dancing
towards the men and whispering in the men’s ears.
2. Who is more sexualized • men or women? Both? Women
3. Are there sexually explicit lyrics or messages? Yes,
“First class seat on my lap girl. Riding comfortable, cause I know what the girl them needs, New
York to Haiti, I got lipstick stamps on my passport, you make it hard to leave. Been around the
world, don’t speak the language. But your booty don’t need explaining.”
4. How are subjects of the music video dressed? The women are wearing revealing clothing
based on their cultures, most of the men are fully dressed, and some parts of the video. Jason
Derulo is half dressed.
3. 5. Describe the relationships between the men and women: Are they long or short term?
Casual or serious? There isn’t a relationship and they are very causal in the video.
6. What³s the message of the song? He’s wanting the women to speak sexually to him.
7. What type of music is the song? Pop-Rap; R&B
Music Video Analysis
Materialism
Song Title: Thrift Shop
Artist: Macklemore and Ryan Lewis
Directions: As you closely watch the music video, answer the following questions with as
much detail as possible.
1. Describe the products that are highlighted in the video: (cars, jewelry, clothes, etc.) The
bicycles, the Delorean, the big furry coats worn by the men, the shoes with Velcro, all kinds of
different clothing.
2. Are any brand names shown? No
3. How is wealth defined in the video? Wealth is defined as one man’s trash is another man’s
treasure. Finding value in things that other people don’t find value in.
4. Are products mentioned in the song lyrics? Yes.
5. What³s the message of the song? That you don’t need all the money in the world to have the
nice things you want and it shuns the culture of expensive, excessive high fashion.
6. What type of music is the song? American Hip-Hop/ Pop
Music Video Analysis
Violence
Song Title: Till It Happens to You
Artist: Lady Gaga
4. Directions: As you closely watch the music video, answer the following questions with as
much detail as possible.
1. Describe any violent lyrics in the song:
Cause until you walk where I walk, this is no joke
Till it happens to you, you don’t know how it feels
These lyrics may not straight forward talk about violence but the violence can be seen
when you think about what the lyrics are talking about which is sexual assault.
2. Describe any violent body language: Violent body language is seen in the video when the
attacks are actually happening with the different cases of sexual assault that is portrayed.
3. Describe any violent actions or weapons that are shown: Violent actions that are shown is
the attackers using force to get what they want and one certain guy that put something in these
two girl’s drinks.
4. Describe any self-mutilation or violence: No self-mutilation is shown in the video, but
possibly thoughts of self-mutilation from the victims.
5. What³s the message of the song? The message is that sexual assault is a problem on college
campuses that often go unreported because the people who were attacked feel that no one has
their backs. The video is trying to show that victims of sexual assault don’t have to hide and your
friends should have your back like the people at the end of the video did.
6. What type of music is the song? Rock ballard
