Analysing my video - In terms of feminism

Male Gaze

From researching and watching a lot of music videos where the main artist is a woman, I have noticed how often they are represented and shown under the ‘male gaze’ (Laura Mulvey) and are sexualised and objectified for the visual pleasure of a man. However I feel my own video takes a feminist approach and breaks these boundaries. Common features of the male gaze in music videos are; the camera lingering on a woman’s body, especially curves and bare skin. Also women being identified and relegated to a status lower than that of a man.

I always wanted my artist to be a key, strong and independent female icon. I didn't feel the need to include other characters in the video, especially not a love interest or a male as it wouldn't fit with the song and wouldn't be necessary. By only having one ‘character’ it creates the image that I wanted to portray of a key figure and keeps the focus on the actions of my artist.

This also links with my target audience where my intention was to present my artist in a positive way as a role model and icon for teenagers and young adults, I think that this works well as she is not promoting any harmful or explicit messages to the audience.

Clothing and exposure are also a key part of the male gaze, especially where the less a woman is wearing the 'better'. Even though my target audience is young adults who would most likely be interested in fashion and clothing, I chose not to highlight what my artist was wearing as again, I wanted her to be the main focus and not material items like her clothing, which wouldn't really show her personality which was one of my aims. I kept the outfit simple with a black t shirt and jeans(which were hardly visible throughout the video) as the rest of the video was incredibly busy with colours, textures and effects and I thought block coloured clothing would work best against this.

To conclude, the idea and aim of my video is to focus on the message my artist is putting across, through her song and her actions, that women can be independent and do what they want. Instead of a focus on what she is wearing and how she looks. This extremely contrasts with the post modern view of 'style over substance' as my video almost criticizes this too, where the meaning is valued higher than the appearance. 

Rihanna and Shakira 

Lorde

Robin Thicke 

Andrew Goodwin

Andrew Goodwin analysed the characteristics that you can find in the majority of music videos created to date. (6 points from a media blog, examples given by myself)

1. Music videos demonstrate genre characteristics.
   - Depending on the genre of the artist/song the video can be staged in different ways such as dance routines for groups or live performances for bands/acoustic.
2. There is a relationship between lyrics and visuals. The lyrics are represented with images.
   -The lyrics of the song can contradict or relate to the images shown in the video.
3. There is a relationship between music and visuals. The tone and atmosphere of the visual reflects that of the music.
4. The demands of the record label will include the need for lots of close ups of the artist and the artist may develop motifs which recur across their work (a visual style).
5. There is frequently reference to notion of looking (screens within screens, mirrors, stages, etc) and particularly voyeuristic treatment of the female body- ( The illusion of the character or artist's feelings are being portrayed by the song) 
6. There are often intertextual reference (to other media aspects such as tv shows or films).

Examples of styles found in music videos.

-Images contradicting the song.
An animation which doesn't follow the story line, 
The artist in a different setting/costume to the one perhaps mentioned in the song.

-Images amplifying the song
Romantic editing for love songs
Flashing lights and heavy editing for rock music

- Close up shots
Usually of instruments or lips of female pop singers.

- identifiable images

Lady Gaga can be recognised by her unusual style and outfits in her videos.
When people they often think of the crazy things she has worn, for example a dress made out of raw meat.

- camera work and editing can sexualise the artists.

It is mainly women who are sexualised in videos, often RnB or Pop artists are presented this way as it may fit in with the lyrics of the song. Mariah Carey is a good example of this.
Male rappers such as 50 Cent often sexualise women in their videos, it makes the men look more masculine as they are the most important thing in the video with women with little clothes attracted to this.
Malvey - Male Gaze