Women within the music industry

Over the years the music industry has undergone drastic changes. However, one thing that still seems to be unchanging is the representation of women in music videos and the industry. There has been some resistance against the dominant representation from huge artists such as Beyoncé, Lily Allen and Fifth Harmony.

Figure 1

The dominant representation of women is that they are secondary to men. In Iyaz's music video "Replay" women are portrayed as a sexual object to men whose purpose is to be looked at by males. This video supports the Male Gaze Theory which states that males' eyes will go to the women who are presented in a voyeuristic way. The theory however is reductionist in that it does not consider homosexuality and is also sexist as it assumes all men will look at the female. The female in Iyaz's video is purely for voyeurism. In figure 1 the low angle show of the women emphasises her feminine features. This creates a toxic representation to other women that they must have a certain "look" in order to be accepted socially.

The recent years are now dominated by strong female artists, most notably Beyoncé. Many of her songs are focused on women such as "Run The World", "Single Ladies" and "Formation". Beyoncé's music is respected and she has become vocal about gender equality. In 2016 she voiced her views on Donald Trump and voiced her support towards the Anti-Trump Woman's March on January 21st. Beyoncé has began to use her platform to voice her own opinions and urge other women to do the same.

Over the years however the representation has changed due to a social change and acceptance of equality. In the recent years women's rights have increased to a point where discrimination towards women in industries has been recognised allowing for women to spread their word. Most notably, in 2016 Beyoncé released her album "Lemonade" which was a powerful album of songs which celebrate women. Also, Lily Allen released a song called 'Hard Out Here', 2013, which points out the discrimination towards women. It criticises how society views towards women and brands them as "sluts" or "fat". Lily Allens music video features a lipo-suction scene which refers to the common criticism of calling women fat despite her having 2 babies. It shows the high standards society hold women to and criticises them giving women more power in the music industry.

Also, women are finally becoming recognised for their contribution to the music industry and gaining momentum within their rights. This is seen in the Women's Marches on Donald Trump's inauguration. Women are no longer afraid to fight for themselves and during the march artists such as Miley Cyrus were there to reinforce women's rights. This new found confidence and self-belief in women has allowed female artists to emerge as strong artists on the same level as male artists.

Also, in Sisqo's song 'Thong Song' women are highly objectified and follow Laura Mulvey's Male Gaze theory. The women have no name but referred to with concrete nouns such as "baby" or just pronouns such as "she". Within the music video the shots of the women focus on purely feminine features of women and present them in a highly sexualised way to appeal to the male audience. In Mulvey's Male Gaze theory she also stated that women are distracted by comparing themselves with the idealised representation of women in the video. The video encourages voyeurism and men view the video in a sexual way and gives them power as they have the ability to observe them whereas the women cannot observe them. This creates a power unbalance between the sexes and it puts women in a lower position within the music video.

However, the Male Gaze theory has some weaknesses. Some women enjoy being watched and enjoy being seen in a sexual way. Not necessarily to impress men but for themselves, giving women power over their own sense of sexuality.
The theory also does not consider homosexual males or homosexual females. Therefore it cannot explain mainstream media today.  The theory was created in 1975 and therefore does not reflect the recent media.

How does "The Greatest" by Sia Furler appeal to its target audience

Sia's music video for "The Greatest" is a typical Sia video in that it features a dance routine which conveys a story that can be ambiguous. The song climbed to number 5 on the UK's Singles Chart; Sia's ninth top ten single on charts. It rose to number one in Switzerland and 18 in the US. It was certified as Gold in Australia and Canada as well.

The song is different to Sia's older songs however it maintains Sia's powerful messages she weaves into each song. The music video features 49 young dancers including Sia's music video regular Maddie Ziegler. 

Sia's fans have an expectation from Sia as each of her music videos have grabbed the media's attention for different reasons. Sia's "Elastic Heart" received mixed opinions but when asked Maddie Ziegler stated that it was open to interpretation and that, in her mind, it is about self conflict. 

The video features Maddie Ziegler running around a house with jail-like bars around it and frees children. The freedom is short-lived as one of the last shot includes all the children falling at once. There is then a shot of a wall with bullet holes. This is to refer to the Orlando Shootings. The powerful statement of the children falling at once reflects how many people died. 49 dancers were used- the same number of deaths in the Orlando Shooting. There is then a shot of Ziegler with the Pride flag on her cheeks. The sensitivity of the issue is typical of Sia's songs and makes a huge statement. This appeals to Sia's fans as Sia is known for her strong vocals in conjunction to real and meaningful lyrics with relevance to real life. The target audience in this case have an expectation of a powerful video and that is what Sia delivered and therefore appeals to the audience.

Also, Sia's music video are purely performance based; featuring other dancers rather than Sia herself which is seen as humble by her fans. This music video is no exception as it features a powerful, contemporary dance routine with a powerful tribute to the Orlando Shooting Victims. This performance is a running theme for Sia as in her tours she sings whilst there is a dance routine for each of her songs. This therefore appeals to the target audience as there is an expectation from the fans for Sia to maintain a separate dance to convey the meaning of her songs.

The music video carries a heavy message and Sia's audience are all supportive of the cause. The main message of the music video is to support the LGBTQ+ community, showing the tragedy of the Orlando shootings in 2016. The message resonates with the target audience as Sia's audience are a younger generation who are in touch with the recent events that affect them. In the past years the LGBT community has become much more present and accepted within society especially in the younger generation. The younger generation is much more open-minded and more fluid and accept LGBT people so Sia can appeal to her audience by conveying strong messages. 

Narrative Structure (updated)

Narrative is a defining feature of music videos. For example, indie artists such as Hozier focuses on the story-telling element or artists such as Sia focus on pure performance to illustrate a story (such as Sia's "The Greatest" music video in which it is a dance dedicated to the Orlando LGBT massacre. Many pop videos focus on a small basic story with performance shots of the band such as One Direction's "What makes you beautiful".

The narrative structure we want to use was rather complex. We want to use a total of 9 narrative techniques in total: 

We wanted to use a crescendo element to match the ending climax. The ending of our song is forte and fast paced and therefore we can use it to create a climax. Our idea is to have fast-paced cuts which are close-ups to intensify the scene and create a climax at the end. This is similar in Ed Sheeran's "Give Me Love" during the intense climax which is reflected by the party scene. 

We also are using an enigmatic character as our main character. By removing the identity of the main character we can use point of view shots to place the audience into the main character's position. The character is almost invisible; flitting around the party and watching smaller narratives unfold. She is shunned a few times by other characters however the audience do not know why nor what she looks like; creating an enigma. 

We are also using a circular narrative as the opening shot is of the main character entering the house and the final shot is leaving the house; creating a circular narrative. This is done to place the party in its own separate world. 

We also are using an idea of repetition. We have a repeated motif of a panning shot of bottles in front of unfocused lights. We refer back to this shot throughout the video as it is a shot which is favoured by our group due to the composition and the bottles are significant of parties. 

We also use ellipses during the reversed sequence. As the main character is going down stairs there are quick, fast-paced shots to save time. This is a common feature in many music videos to avoid meaningless details and aspects of a music video.

Our main narrative technique we want to employ is a multi-stranded narrative that is partly interweaving and convergent. For example we are going to have a shot of two people in the bathroom and when the bathroom is revisited one of the characters is stumbling out. Each character has more than one appearance and has a separate purpose and story within the music video.

Our plot in our video focuses on one character exploring a house party whereas the story is the convergence of multiple small scenes which accumulate to a dangerous house where the protagonist feels in danger. The main character is telling the story through a point of view; everything seen is experienced as the main character experiences it whilst referring back to some motif shots (such as the shot of the bottles). The music video is a quick exploration of the house which lasts for hours however we of course cut it down. We did this by only showing significant scenes in the party such as the argument scene on the stairs.

Our audience will be able to understand the narrative as it uses some clear narrative techniques. For example, the bathroom scene with blood suggests danger and is followed by the protagonist trying to leave the house party as quickly as she can. The audience will also be familiar with the mix of characters and the broken stereotypes as it is a common topic in our audience's lifestyles. In the recent years stereotypes are beginning to be shunned more and more and therefore the breaking of stereotypes is more obvious and readable.

Inter-textual references

Our music video utilises a convergence of different characters, shown through the different costumes to represent different personality types (e.g the use of a preppy style of bracers and bow tie to suggest the character is smart and indie). The costumes were also inspired by various film characters and therefore we have our own inter-textual references.


One of the characters featured in our music video is inspired by two cult movies: Clueless and Mean Girls. We decided that the costume in Mean Girls created an image of popularity and sexuality. However, the costumes used in the film are not realistic for our music video and so we had to tone them down. We therefore decided to mix the highly feminine fashion of Mean Girls with the sophisticated and couture fashion of Clueless. This mix creates a character who appears popular and sexual whilst maintaining class. The hot pink costume of the "Mean Girls" theme had to be changed to suit our genre. For example, our Mean Girls-inspired character is wearing black. The style of the clothes is there but the colour we changed as pink is too bright and the theme of our song is dark; therefore black matches our genre. Mean Girl's Regina George and Cluesses' Cher both are similar; they are both rich and failing classes. This represents how luxurious lifestyles can still produce failures. This inspiration was taken into account when constructing our kitchen scene. There is a shot of our Mean Girls/ Clueless character on the floor, seemingly passed out, reflecting how despite her popularity she is still at the bottom of life. A similar character is later seen in the bedroom, passed out on the bed with a bottle in her hand. She drops the bottle, representing her drop in popularity, referencing the Mean Girl's scene in which Cady throws up on Aaron Samuels during her party.

Our idea was also partly inspired by the film Project-X as the film focuses on a series of parties which become destructive. The main way we did this is the simple use of the red cups. The cups have connotations of America and heavy partying and the cups have even begun to become a novelty at British parties. However, to fit our cool, low-key indie genre we toned down the size of the party whilst retaining the cups.

We also borrowed Tove Lo's "Habits" Music Video narrative by following one character during a party. We altered it slightly by not showing the face of the character we follow and by having separate scenes to show the mini-narratives in the party. Tove Lo uses a close-up of the main character's face however we changed it for a point of view shot. This allows the audience to experience the themes of the video more. For example, during the end climax the main character bumps into other characters and as it is a point of view shot filmed on a go-pro it increases intensity. The audience is placed into the protagonists's shoes and it forced to endure the exit as the protagonist does. We had to remove point of view shots however mainly due to quality. We had access to a DSLR and a go-pro and the two qualities differ. The DSLR is much more higher in quality so we swapped out some go-pro shots for DSLR shots, mainly in the living room shots. We used the go-pro shots for transitions to other rooms. When the protagonist goes up the stairs the argument witnessed becomes more evident and more natural due to no cut to another angle.

figure 1

figure 2

I also made an inter-textual reference to Melanie Martinez's music video for 'Dollhouse'. The music video focuses on the reality of the grand-narrative of family and shows the collapse of the grand-narrative (Lyotard). The music video shows the hidden reality of the perfect family and that inspired our own music video. We wanted to collapse a grand-narrative and expose the darkness within it. We chose a party as it matched our age demographic and is therefore relatable. In the music video there are smaller scenes such as the scenes with the son of the family smoking cannabis behind his parent's back. We also chose to mimic the scene with the mother as a mother is seen as caring, perfect and selfless however the music video rejects the stereotype and presents the mother as an alcoholic and uncaring figure. In figure 1 you can see the mother holding a bottle of alcohol and in figure 2 you can see the bottle of alcohol held by our interpretation of  a 'Mean Girl' character. The parallel is an inter-textual reference and we chose to do this as 'Dollhouse' has a very similar theme as our music video.

In my print productions I made some inter-textual references to the fantasy genre of film, most notable Alice in Wonderland. I chose to use a fairy-tale-like colour scheme of bright green, purple and blues. I then used effects which were not physical possible such as a person turning to smoke and water. This was done as people generally like things that are different from the norm. They like things that are out of the blue and a bit quirky. That is why I chose to use interesting effects that appear as though they are from Alice in Wonderland.

Location and mise en scene

The location we wanted was rather simple; we wanted a house with rooms in order to create our interweaving narrative. We first shot at a house in Longwater where we did not shoot enough within the time. We then had to start again and we shot at one of our group member's house. This house had the rooms we needed as well as a kitchen, allowing us to shoot out video. The shoot took 4 days total with days between each to go through our shots to find which we missed if any.
The best part about the house we shot in is that we could go back to re-film as it was one of our own group. It also conformed to the genre once we placed the fairy lights around the house it created a indie feel to it.
The only problem we encountered was organising actors to come and film the video which took a lot of effort.

In order to create our party atmosphere we placed lots of empty bottles around the house as well as red American-style cups. We also placed fairy lights over a sofa in the living room to give us a source of diegetic light in our shots. We also used food colouring to act as blood in the bathroom shots to show the dark undertone we are trying to create.
We also used a variety of costume in the video; ranging from a formal and preppy costume to dressed down and messy costume. This is done to go against the genre conventions of popularity as the costume portrays each character as a different 'type'. This mix of characters creates a variety of issues we can create in our video.

Narrative Case Study- 'Give Me Love' Ed Sheeran (version 2; UPDATED)

Give Me Love was released in November 2012 where it reached the top 20s in the UK in 2012-2013 on the Official British Charts.

The song is an indie, pop and folk mix with no obvious meaning. The song has reached 411,744,237 views on Youtube and is one of Ed Sheeran's most popular song, even being used in the cult TV show "Vampire Diaries", giving it even more popularity and momentum.

Figure 1

The music video is centred around an unknown female character (played by Isabel Lucas). The video begins in a messy room where the character is presumed dead with an arrow in her neck, blood spilled behind her. The following scenes then depict her as alive again, suggesting that the video may be a hallucination. It uses a circular narrative, beginning and ending with the same shot type and scene.

Figure 3

Figure 3

The character is distressed and scratches her back and pulls out a white feather from her back. The white has connotations of purity, hope and innocence and as it is a feather has angelic and holy connotations. However, the feather is covered in blood, tainting the representation and suggesting that the girl is a cursed angel or a fallen angel. This may be a biblical reference to the fallen angels, suggesting the girl is sinning as she is hallucinating from drugs. Her hallucination is further followed by blurry mid shots of her with her wings spread against the dark and gloomy room. This elicits her confusion and possible hallucination as the colours are blurred, possibly reflecting her mind. In figure 3 the girl is centre frame, The long shot of her against the background with her wings and arms spread out gives her space and freedom. During her hallucination she is able to leave the dull room and wander the city and she is not confined to one room. The shot has been edited to look hazy as if it is a hallucination and therefore not real.

Figure 4

The protagonist is hiding behind a wall,
showing how she is hidden to others

The hallucination may also be an amplification for her normal life. Throughout the video she is shooting arrows (another reference to Cupid) and causing the one hit to fall in love with the other. The protagonist however is not seen nor acknowledged for what she did. This shows how the girl is never noticed and is invisible to other people and is alone. This is further shown by the the title of the song, "Give Me Love". The title suggests that the girl just wants love however instead she is the one giving it to others whilst receiving no love herself, which is why she seems solemn and melancholic throughout the video.

Figure 5

Figure 6

Entire video is a hallucination from drugs as in the beginning and end there is an ambulance suggesting the main character has overdosed on drugs and the arrow mimics the arrows she uses. It’s a hallucination as she is giving out love in the form of cupid’s arrows, an inter-textual reference to cupid. The hallucination be an amplification of her normal life by amplifying how she feels that all she does is help others without being noticed. In the visible she is invisible to other characters, unseen nor noticed, showing how she is there to help them with no reward. In many shots she is shown to be alone, barely occupying the shot. In figure 4 she is occupying only one third in the frame, reflecting her lack of presence. She is easily missed and this motif is used often in the video. In figure 5 her presence is even less, being barely noticeable except for her tiny silhouette in front of the blue lights. As the story progresses her presence increases. 2 shots after figure 5 there is a closer shot of her, increasing her presence in figure 6. Her presence continues to increase as the music begins a crescendo in a middle 8 section of yelling and shouting. The music becomes forte and intense and the imagery mimics the pace of the song by the quick cuts and close ups of the protagonist. The close ups of her show her in a dazed state, once again eliciting the hallucinogenic state she is in. Within the sequence she continues to cause people to fall in love but she stabs the arrow into their back rather than shoot them and she is still unseen, showing her invisibility to the others and how she is beginning to accept her invisibility. Once the sequence ends there are shots of a team of medics going to the room in the beginning intertwined with shots of the girl's silhouette dancing in front of a light. This may show that she is currently hallucinating the entire video and is moments from death. However, one of the final shots is figure 1. There is a small change in that the arrows disappears in smoke and her eyes open, followed by a blurry shot of a medic from a point of view shot.This may show that the entire video was a hallucination as she began to die however she was saved, possibly making a statement towards drugs and their dangers.

Figure 7

Alternatively, the wings on her back may symbolise angels and show how the girl is dying or dead and is ascending to heaven. The lack of attention from any other characters may reflect how she is invisible as she is dead and about to move on. However, in the end she is saved and the point of view shot is blurred, possibly showing how she has been sent back to life due to her helping others find love. The song has no real definite meaning so either interpretations may be correct.

Within the video Chomsky's theory can be applied. The idea that "we need stories to be comprehend human existence" can be seen here. The title "Give Me Love" is self-explanatory but Ed Sheeran wants the audience to really understand there story so the music video can show that. As a society we disregard overdose however this music video thrusts the topic into the spotlight in order for us to try and comprehend the existence of drugs and their effects.

Also, Straus' theory can also be applied. His idea that "the heart of the story is significant-not the story conveyed" is evident.The idea of overdose and ignorance towards teenagers is the meaning as opposed to an angel causing others to fall in love. The actual actions are no important but rather the small shots that seem insignificant. In figure 5 the main character is barely visible and this is a major part of the "heart" of the story as it shows how the main character is ignored by others.

Album Covers

Representation Case Study- Hozier's "Take Me to Church" and the Representation of sexuality.

Hozier's "Take Me to Church" was released in 2014 where it began to receive nominations and awards. It was nominated for MTV's Video Music Award for Best Direction, Best Rock Video and it won MAD's Music Video award. It topped the charts in 12 countries including the United States top adult 40.

Figure 1

The music video is focused around 2 homosexual males whose sexual identity is discovered by the community leading to violence. The video brought the fears of the LGBT community to the media, showing the violence the community faces. The music video focuses on a narrative with no performance element, a common theme amongst Hozier's other music videos such as Cherry Wine.

Figure 2, the first shot of the bonfire

The first issue within the music video is that there is no equality between gay and straight people. This is elicited through the use of the circular narrative where the first shot is of the bonfire (figure 2) and the last shot is of the bonfire, although in the last shot there is a homophobic group around the fire. The use of the circular narrative reflects the hate crimes within societies as the attacks keep happening and often those who commit those crimes attack again. The repetition of the shots of the fire supports this as the fire becomes a master-shot as it is often referred back to, showing the hate harboured by certain people as fire has connotations of anger due to its bold colours. Although in the video is it grey scale the meaning of anger is still present. Also, the inequality is shown in figure 1. The large bonfire behind the men causes for there to be a strong chiaroscuro effect. This sharp contrast of light and dark reflects the opposition between straight people and gay people within the shot. The grey scale throughout the video continues to feed the idea of opposition between gay and straight people, portraying gay people as lesser and weaker than straight people.

Figure 4

Also, straight people, within this music video, are presented as hateful and dangerous. The dark silhouettes in front of the bright bonfire portray the straight group as hateful and to an extent demonic as the fire has hellish connotations and due to the grey scale the males are completely black. They are surrounding a male on the floor who is the gay male as they beat him showing the unequal balance that is rooted in society. This links to Hozier’s main purpose which is to criticise the Church’s beliefs towards gay people (hence the title “Take Me to Church”) and to reflect the hate crimes that happen too often within societies, particularly in America. The referral back to shots of fire reflects the hate within the straight people towards the LGBT community and more specifically the gay protagonists. Also, the fire may represent how hate can spread to generation to generation, person to person as fire spreads to house to house. The straight people within the video attack one of the protagonist and as we, the audience, are positioned on the side of the protagonist we begin to resent and build a prejudice towards the straight people. Many gay viewers will take this prejudice and see straight people as dangerous and hateful and therefore Hozier's music video may have incited new hate within the LGBTQ community towards straight people. The straight people within the video are presented as dangerous due to the parallels drawn between them and the KKK. In figure 1 the large bonfire surround by masked people has connotations of the KKK's rituals, presenting straight people as dangerous, hateful and even evil. This representation seems as though it is a hyperbole however the music video draws upon real life events, reflecting hate crimes on the LGBT community and therefore raising awareness for the issues the community faces with society. Additionally, the costume worn by the straight people is matching, showing unity within the straight community that have united to attack the gay community. In figure 4 the male in centre frame is wearing a bandanna, representing how the straight people are hiding their real identities. This further elicits that the straight characters know what they are doing is wrong and illegal and yet they are attacking an innocent, gay man. This is a huge statement Hozier is making as it truly reflects the hidden hate harboured by some societies towards the LGBT community, founded on prejudice with no real reason. The shot overall presents straight people as the antagonists, having no motivation for the attacks. As well as this, the beginning of the chorus starts with a chromatic descent from G to F# and then F. This creates discord within the song which shows how straight people are wrong to attack gay people for their sexuality as the discord does not belong within the key of G major. This therefore presents straight people as hateful as they know what they are doing is wrong and their actions do not belong to current society and yet proceed to attack them anyway. 

Figure 3

Thirdly, gay people are presented as scared. This is done through the shots of the gay character running. The shots of the character running is filmed through a handheld camera causing the shot to shake, mirroring the response to fear within humans. The shaking of the camera places the audience in a position of panic as the character is running as well as the frame is shaking so the audience begins to worry for the character's safety. Also, there is a shot where one of the gay males is running down a narrow corridor (figure 3). The narrow corridor is claustrophobic, panicking the audience once again as the gay character is beginning to become trapped, foreshadowing the capture of one of the males during the climax of the video at the end. The decline down the staircase juxtaposes against the rise in pitch during the "deathless death" lyric during the chorus. The decline down the corridor may reflect the decline into hell as he is going down, linking to the song's criticism of the Church's belief. Due to the composition of the shot, with the walls coming into the middle of the shot and aligning upon the rules of thirds, the shot has an effect of being chased. The walls are encasing and almost following the character, portraying gay people as hunted and therefore scared.

Figure 5

Figure 6

Another way sexuality is represented in this music video is that gay people lack the freedom that straight people have. This is first shown by the use of the chains around a box (figure 5) which is being buried, signifying the physical manifestation of the burying of the character's identities. Due to the prejudice and hate towards gay people the character's must hide themselves and bury their true identity to protect themselves, once again showing the struggle the LGBT community faces everyday. The chains also have connotations of prison and may have an alternative meaning to reflect the laws in some countries that prohibit homosexuality that can be punishable by incarceration.The removal of freedom within homosexuals is once again illustrated in figure 6. The plane is free to fly through the sky whereas the gay males are stuck within the small community, surround by hate. The plane is small, occupying only one point on the third within the shot showing how far away freedom is, reflecting the distance humans as a whole must go to achieve freedom for all to love who they want. Also, in figure 7 the bars look similar to those of a jail cell. This removes the character's freedom and takes away their rights. Jail is for criminals and therefore it places them in a position where they have committed a crime when in reality they have not. This removes their freedom and represents gay people as having no freedom and reflects how gay people are wrongly imprisoned and targeted based on prejudice.