Explisit Contect in Contemporary Music Videos....

Lots of contemporary indie-pop and pop music video's are known to have 'explisit content' with a brutal or sexual nature or references because they convey the harsh realities of society, reflecting society. This is something I possibly want to experiment with in my Music Video in order to connect with a modern day audience, make them want to watch my music video and allow them to understand and relate to the issues shown in the music video as they refelect the reality of their lives. This is a common convention of Indie-Pop and pop Songs, below are some examples of Indie-Pop and Popsongs that use 'explisit content' to some extent to convey the meaning behind there lyrics to create versimilitue and a realistic narrative that a working class, average contemporary audiences can relate to due to the display of Universal iddues such as sex, drugs, love, domestic violence, depression, abuse, heartache ect..

Just Be - Paloma Faith:

Lover To Lover - Florence and the Machine

 

Laura Mulvey (1975) :

 

This theorist has anouther valid yet contadictary feminist point to be made about the use of Explisist Content in Contemporary music Video's.

She states that.... 'Woman, then stands in patriarchal culture as a signifier for the male other, bound by a symbolic order in which man can live our his fantasies and obsessions through linguistic command, by imposing them on the silent image of woman still tied to her place as bearer of meaning not maker of meaning.'

 

....Her theory basically derives around the concept that in the media men want to see naked, attractive women who are desirable and women want to please men and be seen as desirable and therefore women look at other women who look good that men percive as 'attractive' and 'desirable' and try to copy them to be the 'best' they possibly can be.

 

This links to the concept of the male gaze and that acctually all audiences look at media texts from the prospective of a hetrosexual man. The camera is almost like the eyes of a hetro sexual man.

The 'Male Gaze' typically focuses on....

-Emphasising the Curves of the female body.

-Refering to Women as objects rather than people.

-The diaplay of women is how men think they should be pervieved

-Female views views the content of media texts, esspecially TV/Film, through that eyes of a hetrosexual man -> Example: panning, tracking, close ups on the female body, the camera is like the mans eyes.

 

However this theory could also be disagreed with as many people may believe this theory and concept makes women seem infereior to men. A feminist would view this perception as inequality and unequal power for women against men.

 

To certain extents I believe some of the conceot behind this theory to be true. Men like to look at attractive women and women like to look attractive and please men, In many aof the indie pop music video's they use Explisit and Sexual content which could attract a hetrosexual male viewer, who may typically not be interested in the track or style of music itself. However due to its sexual content and attractive women, it opens itself up to a much larger target audience of people with an interest in the music video, therefore making them more likley to become a fan of the music/artist and want to buy the track. This is a technique I can use in my music video to interest a larger target/mass audience to want  to watch my music video, effectivly marketing and promoting the track to a mass audience of people, making it more likey for more people to buy the track (point of a music video).

 

However I do believe that this theory is quite blunt and inncorrect, I feel the concept is correct but that acctually, women know exactly what they are doing and enjoy it - there in fact the ones in power and control of the hetrosexual mem by teasing them and they do not nessisarily view thereseves as sex objects. In effect there just characters in the music video, their not nessesarily like that in real life.

 

My Ideology and Theory reflects that of the theorist Paul Messaris (1997) who states 'Female Models in adverts addressed to women treat the lens as a substitiute for the eye og an imaginary male onlooker.' - Which basically suggests they know what there doing and enjoy it, there not nessesarily exploiting themselves.