Representation Essay

In our performance and narrative based music video consisted of one main female artist. We were attempting to steer away from the norm of female portrayal within music videos, as usually woman in the music videos are promoting "The Male Gaze". Particular genres such as Hip Hop & R&B are well known for representations of women within the video whether it be in the lyrics or visual imagery. These genres usually involve a women in minimum clothing prancing around a flash vehicle. Woman are presented in provocative clothing revealing their flesh in many places, there are often close-ups of their body parts. For example, Nicki Minaj's video "SuperBass" consists of the artist pouring pink fluid over her body which presents her in sensual way and creates a male audience.


However, in some videos women are overpowered by men, for example in Rihanna's video, "Man Down" it is clear that the artist is being abused by a male figure. This video shows her vulnerability and loneliness due to abuse experienced.


We decided for the target audiences to see the artist as an inspirational role model, that can be a highly respectable idol for young teenage girls. Our main aim is to enable audience’s to acknowledge the artists clear talent. We were inspired by the girl group. "Destiny's Child" as they perform songs which illustrate the strong female role models which of whom stand on their own feet. We then decided that this way of portraying our artist will enable the target audiences to acknowledge her singing rather than flaunting her body. 


We have portayed our artist as being a normal grl suffering within a tough situation. This representation which was created clearly enables people to engage from the ages of (13-29+) as this range is more likely to gain empathy with the shown narrative. The representation we created for our protagonist can actually be seen as inspirational to other female audiences out there as they observe our artist displaying great power over men.


Our infuences of the similar narrative became clear when watching  Keri Hilson's video "Knock You Down" ft Ne-Yo and Kanye West, as itportrays a couples relationship breaking down. In terms of the masculinity showcased in our video we decided to challenge the usual stereotypical tough male posterior by creating a male character who was more sensitive and vulnerable which was focused on when the female protagonist walked away from her boyfriend after ending the relationship, as he was left standing alone. We also highlighted how the artist was the stronger one when she turned back around to look at her boyfriend (who was stood alone at the top of road) but rather than heading back to him she chose to walk away and walk out of her boyfriends life completely.
We find that representations are commonly encoded within the mass media, this reinstates demanding ideologies which are socially constructed. They vary from those that are easy to interpret and make an instant connection with, to those which viewers may need to encode to be able to understand and empathize with. In the video we have challenged the traditional representations found within the R&B genre, as we attempted to drift away from the male gaze and aimed to focus more on the artists talents.