Voyeurism and representation in music videos.

Below I have examined some examples of representation in modern music videos and music related media. This includes modern day voyeurism, the male gaze and women in music videos. These are very prominent equality topics currently and always have been, below I have applied these to some examples of music videos and shown how these theories can be applied to real media.

Women in Music Videos

The Evolution of sexy in music videos

Voyeurism - erotic pleasure can be gained by looking at a sexual object
An Exapmle of this can be found in the video of Destination Calabria by Alex Gaudino



Male Gaze- Laura Mulvey 1975 proposed that because filmmakers are predominantly male the presence of women is often for the purposes of display (rather than narrative). This is to facilitate a voyeuristic response in spectators, which presumes a male gaze (regardless of the gender of spectator) one that is or may feel like a powerful controlling gaze at the female on display who is effectively objectified and passive. In male performance videos the voyeuristic treatment of the female body is often apparent, with the use of dancers as adornments to the male star ego.
Maybe the biggest example of this can be found in the world famous blurred lines video....

Exhibitionism - Female performers being at once sexually provocative and apparently in control of and inviting a sexualised gaze in what could be termed as the opposite of voyeurism.

Upload an example of exhibitionism please.

The debate is: Who is exploiting whom? Is the female flesh on display simply a cynical exploitation of the female body to increase male profit margins or a life enhancing assertion of female self-confidence and sexual independence?

Audience Question

How do I consume music?

I spend a huge part of my life listening to music, over many different platforms. Firstly, I listen to music when travelling to and from school either from my ITunes library or sound cloud music sharing app. When at home I spend a lot of time watching live concerts and DJ sets on YouTube. I also listen to music when Dj'ing this music once again can come from my ITunes library however I also use the platform Spotify when using this. As you can see my areas for consuming music is extremely wide and varied and takes up a huge amount of time.

Below are some more ways people that people I know of consume music, as you can see there are far more than just the few platforms that I consume music on out there. The musical consumption spectrum is very wide and there are many ways to access music in the modern world.

Star Profile Tiesto

Introduction:



I’m analysing for my star profile 45 year old Dutch DJ Tiesto. Tiesto is often seen as the pioneer for trance and electronic dance music. Over the years he has adapted his style and music genre to move with the times and keep himself at the pinnacle of dance music.

How was his image established in his earl videos?:
In the early days of Tiestos career in the music industry he was primarily a trance producer and DJ. He is depicted in his early videos in packed clubs and stadiums, playing trance 140 bpm style tracks, wearing quite typical dress for late 90's early 00's era. This is highlighted in his videos for tracks such as Love comes again and Adaigo for strings.







How was the image developed later in his career?
Tiestos adaptations later on is his career are mainly known as his change in music style. His progression from trance music into EDM and progressive house has helped him to move with the everchanging modern music environment and stay at the top of the DJ rankings.

No Rest Dry The River

During today's lesson we engaged in a narrative task using this song 'Dry the River'. In this task we closed our eyes without watching the video and listened carefully to the song and came up with a narrative for the video ourselves.
 The narrative I came up with involved a lake in the Scottish Highlands, where a boat race would take place between two teams of people. But in the middle the band would be playing on a barge in the tranquil location.

The Task We Were Set:

Listen to the track with your eyes closed. First the music:

What are the emotions it stirs?
What do you visualise?
What images are conjured up in your mind when you hear the song?
Intertextuality, voyeurism, performance, narrative, abstract? A combination?
How do you picture the music video?
What did others say about their ideas for a music video? Which did you like the best? 

What I came up with ......
After listening to this piece of music I envisaged a water based video based in the lake district, involving two boats competing in a race. As the tempo of the song quickens and the guitars and drums kick in this would be the beginning of the race. The band would then be playing on a separate barge in the middle of the lake somewhere, the boats would then row past. This would give the video a clever mix of narrative and performance in an interesting setting, For video effects i may be inclined to use a black and white filter on top of the imaging.


Then the lyrics:

"No Rest"

I used to be a king alone
Like Solomon or Rehoboam
And in the eaves, the Corvidae
Did jealous keep my picture frames
And everything did oxidate in place.

But then you came, a single cell
With astrolabe and carousel
And algebra and symmetry
And none of this was lost on me
And I could see how still I’d been before

If I don’t eat, I don’t sleep at all
Like limbs in procession,
Like so many birds
Stampeding like oxen,
Our hearts are a herd

I loved you in the best
I loved you in the best way possible
I loved you in the best

Did you see the light in my heart?
Did you see the sweat on my brow?
Did you see the fear in my heart?
Did you see me bleeding out?

I loved you in the best
I loved you in the best way possible
I loved you in the best way possible
I loved you in the best way possible
I loved you in the best…

Creative Filming and editing task

We were given a series of challenging tasks in order to improve our editing skills. We used a combination of lip syncing rolling video, still cuts in order to show a developing story and an attempt at some animation. As you can see the end result showed how difficult the task was. In future I would probably look to have full video content throughout rather than still shots, and try to improve the timing and quality of lip syncing in the first part.

What Music means to me

Andrew Goodwins Theory

Andrew Goodwin is a media theorist who came up with a 6 stage plan, which is included in all music videos today.

  He states the following:

1. A relationship between the lyrics and the visuals, which illustrate, amplify or contradict the lyrics.
2. Thought beats: seeing the sounds (the relationship between the music and the visuals, which illustrate, amplify or contradict the music.)
3. Genre-related style and iconography.
4. Multiple close-ups of the main artist or vocalist: the creation of a star image to promote a recognizable brand image.
5. Voyeurism.
6. Intertexual references to other media texts may be present

Each of the above can be found in all music videos throughout history, right up to the present day. Below I have displayed some examples of this and how Goodwin's theory can be applied to music videos.

Music Video overview

Different types of video:

• Performance based
• Narrative
• Cameo
• Mixture
• Animation

Audience Pleasure:

• Recognition, the audience recognises the conventions of the genre with the video.
• Emotional attachement, the audience can develop empathy with characters within the narative.
• Shifting expectations
• Sharing pleasures

Genre conventions:

• Setting
• Costume
• Iconography
• Colour and lighting
• Camera shots
• Type of video