Richard Dyer's Pop Star Theory

There are four main stages of this pop start theory, this included:

1, Starts As Constructions.

This means when stars are constructed, just artificial images, even if they are represented as being 'real people' same like everybody else, by showing real emotions. This is certainly true in pop music industry as the constructions of bands and artists is not even hidden from the public anymore, and sometimes we get to know about them more than we expect or want.(e.g. the stars scandals etc)

2, Industry And Audience

This means when starts are manufactured by the music industry to serve a purpose, in order to make money out of audiences, who respond to various elements of a star person by buying such as: records and becoming their fans as well as promoting their stars external, such as: buying the products where they are represented e.g. Miley Cyrus clothes etc. The main purpose of the institution is simple: to make money and make their stars become more popular.

http://www.zazzle.co.uk/miley+cyrus+gifts ( I have picked this website for the reason, in order to show how stars advertising them-self as well as showing their creativity by letting their managers to use their ''face'' and represent them on products, like in this case Miley Cyrus, who is famous young singer loved especially by the young generation )

3, Ideology And Cultural

This means when stars shared their cultural values and attitudes, as well as promoting a certain ideology e.g. Micheal Jackson who was king of pop and Madonna queen of pop. Both of them are promoting a certain ideology and sharing their attitudes to public, throughout lot's of scandals as well as the charities, which increased the sympathy from the audience, and has made them as their ''idols'' because they are representing the certain ideology, which helps to shape the cultural, social and ideology aspects.

4, Character And Personality

This means that when a star begins as a 'real' human, possessing gender and race characteristics, and existing against a social background. Another theory which could described ''Character and Personality'' is that ''the star transformation process turns them into a construct, but the construct has a foundation in the real.'', which is also important to know.

In order to make it more specific, I decided to show you this theory on ''Britney Spears'' who is an American singer, the mostly popular in 90's, who I believe fit perfectly to this theory of pop star by creating a small presentation on power-point, and using an internet in order to find as much information about her as possible as well as up-to-date information's.

The websites I have used, in order to create this presentation are:

• http://www.britneyspears.com/index.aspx= the official Britney Spears website
• wikipedia = Britney Spears

The audience research

Record Labels

Music Labels on Prezi
 

Music producers, who are well known within the music industry

The enormous success of music videos has opened a new and highly creative field to the producers. Video producers are now in demand by record companies and recording artists who want visual interpretations of the songs they are promoting.However, music video producers are in charge of the financial and administrative aspects of video production. They are responsible for making a successful video while staying within a budget limit, which is usually one of the main factor when they start to create a music video. They often work with the director to hire the production team—the choreographer, film editor, lighting director, and director of photography, to make and create the unique, interesting, stand-outing music video, which would attract the audience attention.

In order to produce a successful music video, they must have creative, passion, enthusiastic people around them, with some great ideas, when they are making music video, as this is one of the main features, to being original and creative, in order to produce a music video which will makes the audience want to watch it more and more, which leads us to increasing the profit,because people will buy CD's which will have a huge impact on advertising specific band or the singer.

There are two kinds of producers:

• Executive Producer- who supervise a project's finances
• Music Producer- who supervise the creation of the music

There are a number of very famous music producers, who are perfect known, in representing their genre such as R&B, Hip-Hop, Rock etc. 

Here are a few an examples of legendary producers I think people should know about  as well as are well known for their great work.

This included:

1. Sam Phillips
2. Eddie Kramer
3. Jermaine Dupri Mauldin
4. Linda Perry

Sam Phillips 

Sam Phillips is not just one of the most important producers in rock history. There's a good argument to be made that he is also one of the most important figures in 20th-century American culture. As owner of 'Sun Records' and frequent producer of discs at his Sun Studios he was vital to launching the careers of Elvis Presley, Carl Perkins, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis, B.B. King, Howlin' Wolf, Rufus Thomas and numerous other significant artists. Although he first made his mark (and a very deep one) with electric blues by Black performers, he will be most remembered for his rockabilly stars, particularly Presley.

Eddie Kramer

Eddie Kramer is mostly known as a producer/engineer working closely with the biggest names of an era called: 'The Golden Age of Rock & Roll' ('67-'72). During that period the whole recording industry  was a much better place in terms of the amount of freedom the bands were given in order for them to create their albums. He has worked with, among others, Led Zeppelin, Triumph, Kiss ( and solo Ace Frehley) Jimi Hendrix, The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, David Bowie, Spooky Tooth, Peter Frampton, Curtis Mayfield, Santana, Anthrax,Carly Simon, Loudness and Robin Trower. But also known for his music photography.

Jermaine Dupri Mauldin

Jermaine Dupri Mauldin known as Jermaine Dupri is an American record producer, songwriter and rapper.In the 1991,he discovered the boys band, called ''Kris Kross'' ( Chris Kelly and Chris Smith). In year after, 1992, the group's released their first's album,called ''Totally Krossed Out'', which spawned the singles such as: ''Jump'' and ''It a Shame''. In 1993, he established his own record label called ''So So Def Recordings''.Opening his own recording label, helped him to work with the famous singers, such as: Kriss Kross, Bow Wow, Mariah Carey and Usher.

Linda Perry 

Linda Perry is an American rock musician, songwriter and record producer. The best known as the lead singer and primary songwriter of 4 Non Blondes. She has founded two record labels and has become a major songwriter and producer. She has written and produced hit songs for several successful female singers, including Christina Aguilera - beautiful, Pink- get the party started, Gwen Stefani - what you waiting for. She has also contributed heavily to albums by Courtney Love and Kelly Osbourne as well as signing and distributing James Blunt in the United States.

Women and the Media: The influence of music videos

How women are portrayed in music videos, in what kind of way and why?

Negative things...

I have always had an interest on the topic of women’s representation in the media. Since my AS coursework, where I have to do my own research on music magazines, I always wondered why the women had to dress a certain way or why some music videos have to be so sexual. I also thought whether or not women between ages fifteen and twenty-six really followed the fashion in these music videos.

The social norms, expectations and messages that have facilitated my interest to the topic were basically the plain fact that young adult women, were falling victim to the advertisements presented in the music videos. The true is that, the same things which are presented in the music videos are also shown on television or magazines.

The most of people has got a problem listening to the condescending lyrics of hip-hop towards women,especially older people, adults. People that enjoy and prefer this type of music are young people/generation, finding it more than appealing watching women acting and dressing naughty which match with the vulgar lyrics of the most of the songs. As well as the fact that it is made mandatory for women artists to have that look, and to be always very attractive and sexy in those videos, just to get attention from male audience. This seems to me like, that in music industry, the women artists doesn't really need to be talented as long as they look sexy and attractive, like their talent isn't as important as their look.

Here's an example of Snoop Dogg- 'Sweat' music video clip

The fact is that the popularity of these kind of music videos has reinforced the overt sexuality found in hip-hop music. As you can see here, there are only young, pretty women who are barely wearing anything to looks more sexy, which appeal to mainly male audience. This is kid of stereotype as you don' really find a hip-hop music video without women, wearing some attractive outfits or just some bikinis, and they use their bodies to get material things as you can see in this video clip. The sad thing is that, young women are surrounded by these negative images and presentations, and many have adapted their lifestyles to fit them or because they want to look like their favorite artists or just to get some more attention from people,for male gender .

Music video producers beginning to realize that ''woman are tired of being portrayed as objects''. Good example is Rapper LL Cool J, who was one of the rappers take a stand and demand classier women in videos. The reason why is because negative images of women are setting a bad example for younger generations. So when young women turn on the TV or read some magazine, they will see women acting the like women and not like strippers/sex objects.

Here's a music video video by LL Cool J- 'Paradise'

In order to support my ideas, I have done a small research on women and the media, and how they are represented in negative way, and these are the facts which I have found out:

-''Women represented as objects of sexual advances or as sexual objects''
-''Women engaged in significantly more explicit, sexual and passive behavior.''
-''Sex role stereotyping and negative attitudes towards female.''
-''Women more likely to be presented in provocative or revealing clothing''
-''Women portrayed as decorative objects that dance, pose and do not play instruments.''
-''Stereotypical gendered occupations apparent ( For example; Men as Mechanics, Women as Cheerleaders etc.)''

Contrasting with the music video , I decided to use as an example Britney Spears music video of 'Womanizer' in order, to show stereotypical 'female' occupations

As you can see she adheres to traditional gender stereotypes by taking on the roles of secretary,waitress, car driver etc. Each of them emphasizes highly sexuality costume as well as behaviors and the lyric of the song which is suggestive.

Pussycat Dolls- 'Button'

In this video, we can the female singers being represented in a negative way, where director shows us sexual power derived from physical attractiveness to men, which means that they are using their bodies, as a power to attract males genders as well as at this point they have control over the male singer, and have the power to manipulate with him.The director used gaze shot of the male singer, Snoop, which could suggests the idea of him inviting male viewer to join in or at least enjoy watching female singers dancing in very sexual way ( suggestive body language) wearing provocative clothes, which links to the suggestive lyric of the song. We can see this when Snoop Dog says '' Loosen up my button babe'' and then Pussycat Dolls prove ''too hot to handle'', shows a provocation type of language from both sides. Overall, the Pussycat Dolls are representing as objects, and not as human, as well as promoting the idea of being sexy,confident icons challenging traditional assumptions about passive female sexuality 'I'm a sexy mama/Who'. 

Post-Feminism and the female gaze

 (1980's)

In order to understand why women want to be treated like an objects, I have to do some context research, which leads us to the idea of ''post-feminism and the female gaze...'' within the media.

While I was doing my research, I have found out some key elements, which helps to shape the cultural and social background. Here are some points I think are significant within the music industry such as:

-'''A re-appraisal of Feminist values''

-''Does not strive for 'equality' because this assumes men are 'the best'- they wish to super-pass male achievements.''

-''Identifies a 'female gaze'- women actively desiring men''

-''Women are began to assert their right to dress and be sexually attractive.''

Here's an example of Rihanna- Umbrella music video to show post-feminism and the female gaze representation.

In order to apply the theory of post-feminism and female gaze representation  within this music video I have analysis few scene's, which I found very significant in video. As you can see, the singer Rihanna enjoying herself, as well as experiencing different identities, which means that we can see her wearing different dress costumes, dancing with the male dancers at the end of music video, or when she dance with the ''water'' effect etc., as well as representing us her new look, having her hair cut and dyed them in black colour, which increased even more on her attractiveness. This links to preferred reading, which is when director wants the audience to view this video, in the same way how it has been produced. However, we also can get impression of negotiated reading, because she represent herself as independent, attractive, beautiful and successful woman, in control. This has connotation with the confidence,power,and independence to female audience. 

In contrast to this , I have found this music 'Toxic' by 'Britney Spears'

Within this video, we can see Britney, as dominant, powerful, character in control, while experiencing different identities throughout the video, such as: an image of her being air hostess, being on motorbike with the sexy young man, etc. As well as representing her as she manipulate with male gender, enjoying her role of being strong female character. This links to the negotiated reading, which director has created, which is dominant reading, where the audience accepts part of the director views, bur has their own views on part as well, which leads us to polysemic text, which can have more than one meaning.However, we can get an impression of preferred reading as well, which is when director/creator wants the audience to view this video, in the same way how it has been produced by creating the symbols and codes in order to convey their meanings. We can see this, when Britney is represented as sex icon/symbol, in order to attract and entertain the male gender, throughout her physical attractiveness which links to the suggestive lyric of the song ''A guy like you, should wear a warning'' or ''I need a hit, baby give me hit'' . The image of provocation from her side, throughout sexual language.

The quality of music videos today has upgraded, and artists are competing against each other, to have the best concept, graphics etc. I think that negative representation of women, being half naked is no longer cool and attractive,and this might play a part in the change of the portrayal of women.

Music videos containing positive representation of the female gender. 

Rapper David Banner's music video to the single "Shawty Say", is a perfect example of how musicians are changing the way they portray women in their videos. In this video, David Banner gives abused girlfriends his card while interrogating their boyfriends. Near the end he invites them to his house for a party. At the party, the women are seen holding roses and enjoying champagne.

What I like about it is that the women are appropriately dressed, and are dancing like young women adult.

The concept and the way that the women were represented in this video, stood out because, a few years ago, a house party would consist of women barely clothed, grinding on fully clothed men, which in other side it showed the male power, and dominance and that women would do anything for a men with lot's of money.

Here's an example of this music video, by David Banner -'Shawty Say'

Another example, is R&B singer John Legend's music video to his single "Heaven." What I like about this video is that women posed as various renaissance era paintings, in a very elegant, decent and classy way.

The websites which I have used in order to support my ideas included:

• http://www.media-awareness.ca/english/issues/stereotyping/women_and_girls/women_sex.cfm

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feminism

• http://www.slideshare.net/sawtrymedia/media-and-collective-identity-feminist-film-theory

Famous music video director's

I have done a small research on two very famous, well-known music video directors, Emil Nava & Chris Cunningham. The reasons for them being successful in creating music video's,  are that they came up with something new, with their own original ideas; while representing their creative skills, as well as using different camera techniques, all these makes their the music video different. 

  Emil Nava 

Emil Nava has directed all of Jesse J's music videos. He states that when he went to school he knew he love music and drama, but only discovered his true talent when he picked up a video camera and started filming the props/people/locations around him. In this music video, there's is him, talking about how he worked his way up through lots of hard work and determination to become one of today's most sort after directors

Video of Emil Nava; why he decided to become a music video director, how he became successful, his first video 'Tinchy Stryder- Take me back' etc.

His first music video by Tinchy Stryder- 'Take me back'

This is his first music video, which starts with slow paced beat but then it's fast paced beat. Where we can see, rapping lines by young rapper, Tinchy Stryder, which suggest the Hip- Hop in the video and the singing by Taio Cruz portrays the R&B. As you can see, he has used a lot of close-ups of artists facial, to show their feelings, and how confident they are while they are singing this song. He has used a variety of camera technique e.g. Close-up, Establishing shots, Medium shot, Long shot, point of view shot throughout all his video. However, what I like about his work which he has done there, is his editing technique skills e.g. jump cuts, strobe effects, shot reverse shot, which gives to whole video a professional look and design as well as the traditional Hip-Hop style of culture. He has used a lot of conventional features such as: expensive and stylish clothes, e.g. hoodies, sunglasses, jewellery; to show the wealth and their high status. These are the convention of R&B and Hip-Hop. The female professional dancer's are

very sexual, doesn't have a lot of clothes on, which are conventional codes for Hip-Hop music video, where you can see them using props like stripper pole, and wearing something like a swimming costume 'bikinis' to seduce the male characters. He used a very suitable props in this music video clip, either to portrays the money the singer has, but also to gives audience simple codes and conventions of the narrative genre.

http://www.pulsefilms.com/talent/emil-nava/

According to ''Pulse films'' Emil Nava is described as '' a significant player in the UK urban pop scene. His videos match cinematic storytelling and intense artist portraits with an edgy, fast cutting style that grabs audience attention''. 

I agree with this statement, and must say I adore his work, as every music video's he has created so far, are different, original so out standing, so when you watch is one, you remember it for long time. The way how he works with the camera, and using camera shot movements are just clearly amazing. His music video's never makes me tired to watch, but always fascinate me;  loving his different perspective view on the world, as well as the cinematic storytelling- music video's are looking almost like the short movie.  

His progress, from creating music videos, to commercial world of ''advertising''. 

It is important to say that in 2011- his music video ''Price Tag'' for JessieJ received over 180 millions views and was the 1 viewed video in the U.K. and 7 most watched video on youtube. With positive feedbacks on his work, and achievements, such as: being nominated for the Best Director at the UKMVA's, winning Q Awards in 2011 for JessieJ music video called ''Do It Like A Dude''. Allowed him to work with famous artists such as: Ed Sheeran, Paloma Faith and Rita Ora. Later he moved into commercials, which means directing campaign for famous brands such as: L'Oreal spot for McCann Erickson, a trailer for the BBC, Vitamin Water featuring Jessie J. 

An example of L'Oreal Paris advertising campaign

Within this advertising campaign for ''L'Oreal Paris'' we can see lovely, beautiful pop singer, Cheryl Cole, who is well-known for her solo career as well as girl's group ''Girls Aloud'' in which she has started to sing, and in 2012 they have joined back together. I believe that reasons why they decided to have her in this advertising, are that after being in X-Factor, television show, her popularity has increased rapidly, and her singles such as: in 2012- 'Call my name'', which has became her third number one single, and the song, ''Fight for This Love'', which was debuted at number one on the UK charts, and has become the best selling single of the year 2009. I must say that I really like this commercial video advertising, with Cheryl specific Newcastle accents, which makes her stands out from other famous female artists, which the audience could see in L'Oreal video's. I really like the the image of luxury, posh and glamour sense, where Cheryl wears black and gold dress costume's, matching with the black background and gold equipments,  such as: the look and design of the promoting product by L'Oreal, the straightness and hairdryer= both are in gold colour's. With very well fast cutting style, that grabs audience attention. 
Jessie J- Price Tag

As you can see, he has made a massive big progress from his first music video to this one, with different artist, by being more creative, and using different types of props from the conventional to unconventional, such as: teddy bear, and the money tree. Music video starts with slow paced beat but then it fast paced beat, where we can see close up on a giant teddy bear that is missing an eye and an arm, where he used camera zooming, which helped use to see it better. When we can see and hear, rapping lines by, Jessie J, which suggest the R&B in the video and the singing lines by B.o.B portrays the Hip-Hop gender. He has used a lot of close-ups of artists facial, to see the artists emotions, and feelings, but also to see the different type of make-up, which Jessie J, has to used when she was trying to point on something: such as: there is a significant scene, when she dressed up like a doll etc. He also has used and improved his camera technique e.g. Close-up, Establishing shots, Medium shot, Long shot, point of view shot, zooming as well as his editing technique kills. e.g. jump cuts, strobe effects, shot reverse shot. In this video, he showed his creativity on costumes/outfits of Jessie J, as well as expensive and stylish clothes of B.o.B rapper, e.g. Jessie J is wearing very out-standing and colorful costumes, and has got a lot of different identities such as: doll , like a small girl, ballerina etc. The B.o.B rappers is wearing a dark clothes, with sunglasses and jewellery on, with the car on the background; to represent the wealth and high status. These are the convention of R&B and Hip-Hop. What I like about this video is very good dance choreography, when Jessie J is dancing together with professional dancers, by using a lot of different types of props.

Here's the screen shot of others Emil Nava works. 

Chris Cunningham 

Chris Cunningham is an English music video film director and video artist. He has produced the video collection which called 'The Work of Director Chris Cunningham' and has been released in November 2004 as part of the Directors Label set.

Madonna- 'Frozen'

This music video starts with slow paced beat, where you can hear the violets on the background, but then it suddenly fast paced beat where we can hear guitar and other instruments, which gives us a bit of feeling of calm. Where we can hear soft Madonna's voice , which suggest the Trip Hop style in the video. The director, has used a lot of close-ups of artist's facial as well as a variety of camera technique e.g. Close-up, Establishing shots, Medium shot, Long shot, point of view shot. What I like about this music video, is the editing technique which director has used to it look original and different: e.g. jump cuts, special effects editing; which allows to see the artists in the same time, but in different position. I really like the costume which Madonna has on, which gives me an idea of Gothic style, as she is wearing simple black long dress. This gives a lot of credit to the whole video, but also it makes Madonna stand out from all of her own music video she has done, as it's very different, and original. This help the audience easy and quicker recognize the music video, by using very specific and out-standing costume. By trying to keep this idea of Gothic elements, the director has used a lot of blackbirds, and the scarf which return to an animal a 'black dog'. I also like that director has used both lighting, the day and the night one to represent this Gothic style of music.

Audience Theory

Encoding And Decoding Audience Theory

This is an active audience theory developed by Stuart Hall, which examines the relationship between a text and it's audience.

• Encoding- the process by which a text is constructed by it's producers.
• Decoding - the process by which the audience reads, understands and interprets a text.

Stuart Hall, states that all texts are polysemic, meaning they may be read differently by different people, depending on their identity, cultural knowledge and opinions.

In this video, I really like how is everything matching together, from the dance moves choreography, the black and white costumes,where even female's characters are wearing tuxedo's, just like males, which could be seen as they are all the same. All this match to the genre of the music song, which reminded me of 80's songs. Where we can hear the sound of funky, raw, little bit of jazz music techniques. It almost seems like the the song and the singer match together; containing soul and heart. This whole music video, is very unconventional;  containing the message to the audience, which is hard to understand or recognise, and some people might not understand it at all, and others will have completely different view on this music video. This links to Hall's audience theory, that all text are polysemic, and can be interpreted in different way. 
Within this music video, the singer Janelle Monae, portrays an inpatient that possesses the power to walk through walls and later she catches the 'crazy/dancing feet' with her friends. The video 'Tightrope' is setting in the place called the Palace of the Dogs. 

What impressed me was that at the beginning of the video, we are introduced into black screen with white graphics which says ''The Palace if the Dogs Asylum: Dancing has been forbidden for its subversive effects on the residents and its tendency to lead to illegal magical practises''. This is very unconventional, as I haven't seen anything like this before in music video. This can attract the audience attention, as well as it seems to me like introduction to something that this video will be about. Opening shot is a wide shot of two men wearing tuxedos; sitting against a white tiled wall. One is reading a book, and the other is playing with a small ball, which eventually drifts up and floats in the air, in this moment, the song start to play, and beat are faster, and faster.

What I like about this video is the fact that many people can interpret it in different ways. Here is an example of how the singer interpret her own song.

'' Tightrope is basically dealing with how in life it's important to keep your balance and not get too high or low about things during the time when you're either being praised pr being criticised ''. 

I have done a small research to shows that this theory is true. Here, you can see few examples of how people interpret this video. 

Chloe Blanch says :

I think the video is about somebody who's either in prison, or in a mental health hospital (because of the last who pushes the trolley with medicine on) and its about them having to walk a tightrope to either get out of prison or the mental hospital.

Steve Allwright says:

little confusing video but think its about people being controlled and not being aloud to do what they want.

Bethany Fox says:

In this video, they used quite dull mise-en-scene to create a dull medical atmospheric feeling,however, never really know whats gonna happen in life gotta live it to as full as possible pills and stuff hanging around willing nilly not really clean cut and done properly only one nurse and the the two black figures hanging around to bring her back to earth because shes in some fantasy world.

Jacob Fraser says:

I think that the story is about an asylum where dancing was banned due to connotations with music, but the people living in the asylum might be imagining it all since she is kept there.

Samantha Dixon says:

i think it's about no having much freedom and that whenever she feels good or bad she has to keep control of herself, also it looks as though she is in a hospital or asylum place? which could mean that the people around her think its wrong to dance/sing/have fun or what ever it is she does. they also have no face or no unique-ness which i think means that she isn't aloud to express her individuality.

Elizabeth Sinclair says:

It starts off with two people doing magic it then goes on to show the people in the mental hospital dancing.

From my research, I've found out that the most of those people were really confused and didn't know how to describe this music video, however, all of them think that it's about people living in mental health hospital because of the opening wide shot of institution.

The Cultivation Theory

This is a social theory which examined the long-term effects of television on American audience of all ages. This theory is developed by George Gerbner, dean of the Annenberg School of Communications at the University of Pennsylvania. Gerbner began the 'Cultural Indicators' research project in the mid -1960's. The reason why was to study how watching television may influence viewer's ideas of what the everyday world is like. 

Cultivation theorists argue that:

''Television has long-term effects which are small but significant. They emphasize the effects of television viewing on the attitudes rather than behavior of viewers''

-Some studies have also considered other mass media and have dealt with topics, such as: 

• a gender roles
• age groups
• ethnic groups
• political attitudes.

-George Gerbner argues that the mass media cultivate attitudes and values which are already present in a culture. He has also argued that television tends to cultive middle-of-the road political perspectives.

Negative influences of Rap & Hip-Hop music and music videos. 
''Despite its popularity, hip-hop music is often scrutinized as a negative influence on behavior. People of all races and age groups relish hip-hop and often imitate the most popular artists and memorize the lyrics. Song lyrics can become embedded in the mind and can unconsciously motivate a listener's actions.''

I agree with this statement as the most of Hip-Hop and Rap music videos have impact negative impact, especially on young generation, by representing female gender in a very negative, not just within the lyrics of the songs, but also the way how they are dressing up, having less clothes and showing off more skin to appeals to mainly male gender. This influence male young generation, to think of the women as an objects, a ''doll'' , the idea of begin reduce to something, that's not a human anymore. 

History

• Hip Hop began in the 1970s
• It is the art form, which originated in New York
• provided Black and Latino youth with an outlet to express themselves, their feelings and emotions,throughout the lyrics of the songs.This is a great way of how make people to believe them, symphatise with them, but also to makes people think why they have to sing a song like that, singing mainly about the negatives within their life's. 
• The lyrics of their songs often was about their poor conditions that exist within their communities. 
• The development of the hip-hop culture created a movement that influenced the way people dress, speak and socialize even nowadays. However, now, the rapers mainly sing about the money, sex, and women, and within their music videos they represent themselve as they're from a wealth background.
• 1980's- The emergence of "gangsta rap" marked the beginning of some disintegration of the positive images in hip-hop culture.

Here's a music video by 50 cent 'Candy Shop' to support this theory.

Throughout the twentieth century, music videos have influenced various perceptions on the images of women. Male artists use women in their videos as an accessory, to make the video more appealing to a larger audience, specifically male. Sexism and the exploitation of women is a part of the learned mainstream American culture. Hip-hop culture is frequently condemned for its use of women as sex objects, but with mainstream American ideas being embedded into the psyches of many, the objectification of women seems to be culturally accepted.

In this song, you can hear the words such as: ' Got the magic stick, I'm the love doctor' or 'I melt in your mouth girl, not in your hands (ha ha)' are not only very suggestive, but also the video for this song is downright raunchy. This popular R & B music video portray women in a very negative way. The reason why is because videos fling messages to young women, how to being “cool” such as: to dress provocatively and be promiscuous. Women are rarely ever showed in a decent and good-natured manner in today’s music videos, not to mention fully clothed. In addition to the pop stars of today, the rappers in the media also display women as just merely objects.

Nowadays, television plays a significant role in shaping viewers' social realities. This reality is cultivated and maintained by on-going television viewing and consumption of various types of media. The influence of media on its’ viewers is demonstrated through the cultivation theory.

Music video's- Textual Analysis

Rock style of music video

Genre

The video is clearly placed in the rock genre, with a lot of the shots of life on tour, the 'jet-set' lifestyle guitar playing silhouetted against harsh stage lighting and huge crowds at stadium concerts. The use of muted colours and sepia tone is recognizable as a generic convention of rock, but also because the band they clothes, the style of hair and tattooed are convention of this music style.

Audience

The target audience for this video would be the people who enjoy listening to Rock style. It would be also targeted to people that can relate to the narrative in the music video. Another target audience would be the fans, either of the artists in the video.

The lyrics are sad, and with the visuals of the lead singer in black and white close-up, there is plenty of opportunity to develop a personal relationship by empathizing with the lead character. Also, audiences might get personal identity through comparing their own situations with those in the song.

Representation

The band's image in this music video centers mainly around the lead singer, Caleb, who sings to camera in close-up, with a tortured, soulful experience. The shots of him alone are cross-cut against very busy shots to emphasizes his feelings of loneliness. There are also the shot of the band lounging around a hotel room overlooking high-rise buildings at night signifies their jet-setting lifestyle. As you can see, it's a very male-oriented video (the only woman is in brief shots that suggest she is the subject of the singer's sorrow). They are represented as being successful and busy, and as people enjoying what they do, where the director used a lot of shots of band laughing together and hugging after a successful concert. What I like about this music video is that there is a spirit of teamwork and of them being a unit.

Analysis

Opening shot is a wide shot of dark hotel room overlooking the city, with the band members sprawled over the chairs which sets the tone and gives the audience an understanding of the narrative. Then we see a montage of shots that gives the impression of travel and cities as the director used the established shots of the aerial tracking top-shots, the plane, the W/S of the motorway, where director has also combined with shots of band members getting out of tour buses. The director used camera technique such as: slow cross-dissolves from the lead singer's, close-up to spend-up shots of headlights on a motorway place, this lonely character inside the more fast-paced action too. Also, fast-paced editing keeps the audience engaged.

Institutions

The Kings of Lean is signed with RCA records, and this song has peaked at No. 1 on the Hot Modern Rock Tracks chart. The band has also signed to Sony Music. They has won a Grammy Award, and been nominated for NME Awards, Q Awards, MTV Awards and several others. They headline music festivals globally, and their concerts are instant sell-outs. They have launched a fashion range, and have appeared on the cover of QMagazine, NME and Esquire. As a commodity, the band is hugely valuable to Sony because of the huge following it has.

R&B Soul/Pop style of music video

Genre

The video is clearly placed in the R&B/Pop genre. Starts with famous hip-hop rapper Snoop Dogg, rapping his lines, which suggests the hip-hop in the video. The video is sexy, and very attractive for the male audience, as there's minimal clothing for the females. We can see there, sexy stripper dancing, using dancing rail to convey their sexy and very attractive look.

Audience

The target audience for this music video is more for the male. As the artists in the video are not wearing much clothing on, which attract the male gaze. However, if you look at a more wider targeted audience, then it would seem that the people that enjoy the genre of music will also enjoy the music video as it's match with the lyric of the song. Therefore, they will watch is as they can see their favorite artists together and in the same video clip.

Representation

The protagonist singer, Nicole Scherzinger, we can see her dance skills in the second verse, where she used a black chair as a prop. Then we can see, on the chorus, five additional chairs appears in the scene, and five of the members of the group suddenly appear as well, and the dance continue with Nicole.

The Pussycat Doll are dressed in suggestive, sexy black outfits/costumes, progress through the video performing a striptease, which is aimed for the male gaze.

Snoop Dogg's clothing in the video is a convention of a Hip-Hop and R&B music video, because he's wearing a black hoody and a cap, which is traditional in Hip-Hop culture, to have your name on every accessory such as: jewellery, car etc, clothes. What I like about this video is that even thought, director has used the same idea of 'showing off' , it's still look decent on girls, and it's match with the lyrics of the song as well as the dance/choreography.

Institution

The Pussycat Dolls are signed on the record labels Polydor, A&M, Interscope which are the subsidiaries of Universal Music Group.

The video is admired by a lot of the audience, because the group is already famous and well-known but then they have the video featuring Snoop Dogg, which will allow his fans to watch the video as well.

On 'Youtube' the music video has been viewed 53,247,760 times and still growing day by day.

The music channels that plays this video would be MTV, MTV BASE, KISS. This would be because these are the channels that are known world-wide and is the most viewed than any other music channel. Also, these channels are most suited for genre of music.

Heavy Metal style of music video

Genre

The video is clearly placed in the heavy Metal/ Rock/ Alternative genre,with the shots of band singing on the stage, where we can see the stage lighting and huge crowds at stadium concerts. The use of dark outfits and colors can be recognizable as a generic convention of Heavy Metal rock style. The song set in present time and performed in slow and free tempo of 84 beats per minute. What I like about this is is that contains some un-mutal influences, and has got several guitars and drum machine as Lee sings the lines 'fifty thousand tears I've cried'.

Audience

The target audience for this video would be the people who enjoy listening to heavy Metal/ Rock style. It would be also targeted to people that can relate to the narrative in the music video. Another target audience would be the fans, either of the artists in the video.

According to Amy Lee, "Going Under" is about recovering from an abusive relationship, which she has stated in a number of interviews, further explained the meaning and the inspiration behind the song. She staid that:

'The lyrics are about coming out of a bad relationship, and when you're at the end of your rope, when you're at the point where you realize something has to change, that you can't go on living in the situation that you're in. It's cool. It's a very strong song.'

Representation

The protagonist singer, Amy Lee, is sat on the chair letting people around her to do make-up and hair, with the shots of her in water wearing white dress, with black Gothic make-up on, which shows the Gothic elements. You can see that she doesn't like it, and the people around her are enjoying making her look beautiful which could have meanings with 'manipulation' of people and how we don't like it or, that she has to put make-on, to have it as a 'masks' so people won't see her real face/personality.

The men from the band, sat on chair while, people 'paparazzi' are taking a picture of them, and asking them a lot of questions , which suggest that they have an interview. But suddenly, people's faces has changed to a 'zombies' which could connotation with the idea that people don't control them self, making them self looks like a 'zombies' whose nobody likes.

Later on, they are represented as being shocked and desperate, trying to escape form them, but instead if that they decided to continue with the singing. There are a lot of Gothic elements, where director has picked very carefully the costumes, and make-up, to make it look scary and more Gothic.

Institution

The evanescence are signed with NME, Cherry Red and Sounds magazines.

The video is admired by a lot of the audience. The reason why is because the band is already famous and well-known.

On 'Youtube' the music video has been viewed 29,942,258 times and still growing day by day.

The music channels that plays this video would be MTV, Kerrang,Scuzz. This would be because these are the channels that are well known, but also because these channels are most suited for genre of music.

Hip-Hop style of music video

Genre

The video is clearly placed in the Hip-Hop genre. We can see that, it's starts with slow paced beat but then suddenly with fact paced beast. Rapping line by famous rapper, Kayne West, suggest the Hip-Hop elements in the video. We can see there a lot of the stylish clothes/sunglasses, where the artists dance individually and where they uses a suitable props to present their genre.

Audience

The target audience for this video would be the people who enjoy listening to Hip-Hop style of music.It would be also targeted to people that can relate to the narrative in the music video. Another target audience would be the fans of either the artists in the video.

However, when you take an attention of the reading text, it could be argued that female character, Hilson, is in control and empowerment of the situation and the two male characters, which could suggests the post feminist music video. However, ambiguous ending to the video may portray that she is confused rather than being empowering.

Representation

When , West's rapping his line, which says; 'This is bad,real bad Michael Jackson:' Hilson is shown mouthing the lyrics, to show that the lines were referring to Michael Jason's song 'Bad'.

We can see there the jewellery and expensive shoes worn by the artists in the music video to represents the wealth and their high status. All these are the conventions of Hip-Hop and R&B music style. All three artists are represented as high status and portrayed as successful people with a lot of money.

Institution

Keri Hilson is signed to the label interscope. Kayne West is signed to the label GOOD Music, Roc-A-Fella and Def Jam. Ne-yo is signed to the label Def Jam.

The music video is incredible well-known, because all three artists are loved celebrities by their fans, which will allow the audience to see that one of their best artists is in the video, so they should watch it and that has took on to affect to many people in audience as the music video on Youtube has been viewed by an outstanding 69,018,717 people.

The music channel that plays this video would be MTV, MTV BASE, KISS. This would be because these are channels that are known world-wide and is the most viewed than any other music channels.

My conclusion...

This is for me the most important part of my research, where I learn about the music videos, their codes/symbols, camera technique, the narrative etc. All these featured has informed me, how to make my music video look original, stand out from others, but also what kind of camera movements and shots I should use when I will try to point on something/someone. This will help me to produce a successful, and effective music video that will be mixed with some conventional and unconventional elements in it. By doing this, my video will be unique, different and original, as well as simply at the same time, which is exactly what I want to achieve. I have decided that the music video ' Like a boy' by ' Ciara' is going to be my inspiration for my music video, where I will used song 'If I were a boy' by 'Beyonce' to represent the female culture and stereotypes. However, I would like to point out on, that my music video will contains the message, which is that men should realized that the most of women are sick and tired of being treated unfairly, and that they want big change in their lives.