Theories and Theorists

1. Theories andTheorists

2. Representation

3. Laura Mulvey
Theorist Laura Mulvey has argued that the dominant point of view is male.This often means,
especially within media, that the female body is put on display. Mulvey calls this the Male Gaze.
This theory makes the camera, in the many different media forms, a voyeur of women which
allows the male audience to objectify and sexualise women thanks to the masculine point of
view that the camera takes.While the Male Gaze could still be applied to my music video I
believe I challenged it in many ways.As the target audience for the genre I have chosen is
majorly female the idea of the male audience is diminished by replacing the male ideologies
with the young female audience which would not see the main star as a sexual object but more
of an inspiration or icon for themselves.The idea of the Male Gaze is also challenged in my video
as the camera work was not done by a male which would change the idea of the camera having
a masculine point of view, and because I did the camera work I made sure that my video does
not have a lot of shots that could be considered sexualised for the erotic pleasure of the
audience. But it could be argued that any sexualisation within the video is there because the
artist is taking control of the way that she is looked upon, making it her choice to appear this
way.

4. John Berger
According to John Berger and his theory ‘Way of Seeing’ he states that within the media
“Women are aware of being seen by a male spectator.”This theory links to the idea of the
Male Gaze as the point of view is still dominant, but with this theory it shows that women
are aware they are being watched. I wanted to incorporate this idea within my video as the
female singer within the video knows she will be watched by a male audience, even if the
target audience is women, and this is why it could be argued that her movements and
performance could be considered sexualised.This would make it appear as if the artist has
taken control over the eyes of her audience and rather than being submissively objectified
by the male audience she has made it so that she is allowing them to look.The idea of the
star taking control over who she is, is also a good message to give to her audience,
especially the younger girls as they are more impressionable to the bad ideologies and this
one is a good one for the audience to have.

5. Sven E. Carlsson
MediaTheorist Sven Carlsson said that music artists represent themselves as:
1. Commercial Exhibitionist
2. Television Bard
3. Electronic Shaman
I chose to embody this idea within my video, specifically the commercial exhibitionist.This
entails the artist presenting themselves as a brand, this being their image, musical talent
and lifestyle, and as my chosen genre of music is pop, which is focused on the idea of selling
all of these to their audience, I found that this section would be best. As I wanted to sell the
artists style and image I had her wear both formal and casual clothes as a way to show that
she can relate to her audience but she can also afford nice things thanks to her new famous
lifestyle. For my video I wanted the artist to be selling her image, style, and body along side
her music as a way to sell more music, and as a way to extend the demographic further as
the idea of selling the artist’s body image not only targets the female audience as they want
to appear like her but it targets the male audience as they are watching for the image rather
than the music.

6. Richard Dyer
According to theorist Richard Dyer’s Paradox of a Star “The star must be both ordinary and
extraordinary.”This could be applied to my video as the artist appears as both of these.The
extraordinary aspect could be applied during the studio performance as the star is seen in
nice clothing with good make up and clearly seen as a professional due to the studio
setting, which would make her extraordinary in comparison to regular people that do not
have the ability to do.The ordinary aspect comes in when the star is seen in the forest in
front of houses and when she is against the brick wall.These locations are very ordinary in
comparison to the studio location and her outfit in these locations is much more relatable
to an audience, making her seem ordinary and relatable.

7. Narrative

8. Sven E. Carlsson
According to Sven Carlsson there are three major types of music videos, these being
abstract, narrative and performance. From Carlsson’s theory I chose to create my music
video as a performance but I did not include the other two aspects of this theory. I did this
to make the performance, and therefore the music, the most important thing within the
music video.

9. TzvetanTodorov
I chose to challengeTodorov’s narrative theory by not including any narrative within my
music video.Typically withinTodorov’s equilibrium theory has 5 parts, which are
equilibrium, disequilibrium, resolution, restored order, new equilibrium.This is usually
applied to all or most media texts, but by making my video solely performance and not
narrative I have challenged this theory completely as there is no narrative, other than the
performance, that could be applied.

10. Michael Shore
According to Michael Shore music videos have key features and are likely to have at least one or more
of these features within each video. I believe that my music video incorporates some of these key
features.These are some of the features and why they could be seen within my video. Recycled Styles
– this can be seen as I gained a lot of inspiration and stylistic features from existing music videos,
rather than making my own, original, concept. Decadence – this can be seen through the genre, as
there is issues with the morals of why a song is created within the pop industry but they are mainly
made as a way to make money and not for the purpose of making music. ImmediateGratification –
this can be seen through the lack of narrative and plot, which means that the audience do not have to
wait to find out what will happen. It can also be seen through the star herself as she is hiding away
from the camera and audience sees her immediately. Vanity and the Moment – this can be seen in my
video through the use of the artist’s clothing, as it is following the clothing trends that are currently
popular. Adolescent Male Fantasies – my video could be considered as male fantasies as the lead
singer is a woman and her dance movements could be considered quite sexual and therefore
appealing to an adolescent male audience. Speed, Power, Girls, andWealth – while my video may not
be speed it could be the other three.Wealth could be seen or implied through the singer’s ability to
have her own music video as well as having nice clothes and good make up. Power could be seen
through her power over the audience and how she is seen as more powerful, especially in comparison
with wealth.And Girls as the main star is a girl.

11. Genre

12. Steve Neale
Steve Neale stresses that “genre are not ‘systems’, they are processes of systemisation”
which means that genres can evolve over time, changing their codes and conventions.
Through this theory I changed and challenged the typical narrative conventions of the pop
genre of music by changing it from the typical hybrid performance and narrative to just
performance.Through this choice it conforms to the idea of genre evolving but it also
makes the video about the music and wanting to sell this music rather than wanting to sell
a story through the narrative.

13. Jason Mittell
Jason Mittell argues that genres are cultural categories that surpass the boundaries of
media texts, and work through industry and the audience.This means that the industries
use genre to sell their products, such as music and music videos, to their audience.This
could be applied to my music video as the genre, being pop, is based around the idea of
making money from the music and the best way to do this is through the codes and
conventions that the audience are expecting to see within each genre, which is what I did
within my own video.

14. Audience

15. Passive and Active Audience
It is often theorised that there are two types of audiences when it comes to media texts,
passive audiences and active audiences. Passive audiences would not be involved with
media texts but active audiences are actively involved with media texts and absorb
information, even if it is subconsciously, so they can recognise different forms of media
and signifiers from these different forms. As I have included codes and conventions from
my chosen genre and form, these conventions should be recognised by the active
audience and they should be able to recognise that it is a music video and part of the pop
genre.

16. Roland Barthes
In Roland Barthes’ theory Death of the Author he states that the audience creates the
meaning for the text, which means that anyone can create meaning.This theory could be
applied to my music video even though I have created meaning for my music video
doesn’t mean that the audience of the video will agree with my meaning as they could see
their own.The audience of my video, without even seeing my intentions with the message
and ideology, could create the same one or a similar one through the awareness of media
texts.

17. Jacques Lecan
I chose to make my music video completely performance in relation to the theory Mirror
Phase by Jacques Lecan. Even though the most common narrative structure for pop music
videos is a hybrid of performance and narrative I chose to make mine completely
performance as a way to show the artist and the way that the artist performs. As they see
her image while she is performing within the video they will associate her music with her
face and image. So when it comes to the audience buying her albums or singles the image
of her will appear as well as the association that the audience have created will also
appear, making them more likely to want her product.