To what extent is the way women are represented, in the music industry and music videos, genre-specific? MUSIC INDUSTRY INVESTIGATION - SUMMER 2009

I have chosen to research this particular area because I feel quite strongly, as I am sure that many women do, that there is unfair female representation within the music industry as a whole, and therefore feel obliged to undertake some research into why this is the case. The idea of genre came about after I had chosen the idea of researching women in the music industry. I starting researching videos to see the ways in which representation was unfair and realised it was, the majority of the time, unfair representation in RnB and rap videos. I thought this was also interesting and therefore decided to add that to the research I will produce. It has been interesting finding the extent of representation and how far artists or bands are prepared to go to promote themselves and their songs. It is very demeaning to females when we perhaps like a song that a particular artist produces, and then watch the video to find male dominance and the video being shown in a male’s perspective, the Male Gaze. It is relevant to society now because, even though women were seen as inferior to men throughout history, some feminist groups, and also the general public, still seem to find faults within society for the way women are treated. Furthermore, women are heavily stereotyped, so I felt it was important to do justice for women who want to break out of stereotypical ways and finally feel equal to men. Within this essay and PowerPoint presentation, I will explore the extent of unfair female representation, discuss factors such as the Male Gaze and ‘sexing up’ the music industry, reference such sites like The F Word, and also add in my own opinions and the opinions of others.

My research consisted of internet/remote research on feminist websites, articles about the music industry and women and also YouTube. I have spoken to a number of my friends within the sixth form that are also taking media studies to get their views on the representation on women. I have also been analysing videos, by watching music channels such as MTV and TMF, and also searching YouTube to find some interesting videos from different genres and comparing them. I have also been researching the internet for articles from magazines or newspapers that aid my research. It is interesting that men expose their opinions of the representation of women in their writing too. During the course of the summer holidays, I began my research at videos. I believed that if I could start anywhere, this would be the best starting point. And then, as I got more involved with the research, I began to ask friends their opinions on the matter, and soon it became clear I was going to enjoy this research. Looking back, I believe I could have done a lot more research around my chosen topic, but am satisfied with the research I have collected. I got given some useful websites to research and soon found myself exploring lots of articles about people’s views on the topic too. The entirety of the topic is vast, so I had to do a lot of deep research to find relevant secondary sources that I could reference and use within project. The majority of my research is qualitative; however, I could have used more quantitative research as well. A lot of my research is also subjective because it is opinionated, or an account/article from someone’s point of view, however this could therefore be seen as partly objective because it is considering gender history and women’s suffrage, for example. I found out what I wished to achieve, and therefore am content with my findings. However, I could have made a plan to research more in one aspect and maybe less in another, as my video analysis is quite limited. On the contrary, I am pleased with the way I carried out my research, and the extent of which my research covers the basis of the topic I chose. This has therefore contributed greatly to my belief in gender equality and assures everyone and anyone that feels the same way, that they are not the only ones that have supported or do support women’s rights. This topic relates quite well with the history of gender struggles and male dominance adding to the research’s objectivity.

First, I would like to begin with the feminist website ‘The F Word’. There are 68 articles that relate to women and the music industry; I would like to reference two. The first one is entitled ‘Sex and the Music Video’. Fay Bound Alberti finds that whatever video she watches, she can’t seem to hide away from ‘soft-core pornography’. She says, “Close-ups of breasts, bottoms, thighs, ever-rising bikini-lines assault the senses as the camera pans in for a gynecologically-inquisitive shot of those disembodied parts humping and pumping like a ’70s porn video.” She references videos such as Eric Prydz – Call on Me and artists such as Britney Spears and Nelly Furtado. She says that she believes most women in the music industry conform to the basic male fantasies, such as sex and wearing little or no clothes, and therefore fulfilling their (majority male) audience’s wishes. The unfair representation of women influences young girls to be like these women, influences the way young boys see women’s roles, and also demeans women and makes them sexualised for a male audience. Another article, entitled ‘Feminism and music – the same old stereotypes’ By Louise Livesey, is another very good article, explaining the problems with the representation of women. She says that music videos and the music industry generally have entered a phase of “male sexual titillation”. She references the importance of women’s involvement in the music industry and says that they aren’t just there to be used to hyper-sexualise the music industry, they are there because it’s their dream to be acting in a video/be a singing artist or band. Again, like the previous article, she says that the videos and artists influence young girls to be like their favourite pop group/singer. The lyrics ‘Don’t you wish your girlfriend was hot like me…’ reflect the way in which a girl of any age can be affected and changed by the music industry. Is this right, to be influencing girl’s lives and making boys see women as stereotypically ‘sexy’?

Here is a quote from AOL Music. They say:
“It’s hard to blame the Pussycat Dolls for marketing their hyper-sexuality. It’s the music industry as a whole that put all their eggs in the old ‘sex sells’ basket. In the last 15 years, rap videos have gone from the ‘hood to the strip club, while Britney Spears’ crotch is considered more newsworthy than her new record.”

AOL Music has suggested here that they are aware of the pressures put on women to perform in the music industry. They also reference the ‘rap’ genre, contemplating the fact that women are represented against their will in these videos. This supports the theory of the ‘Male Gaze’. This is where a music video or film production, a photograph or something produced, is by a man. Therefore, we perceive the video from the point of view of a male. There was an article, which I found on a feminist blog by ‘La Somnambule’ entitled ‘Where does the male gaze end?’. On the 21st May 2006, there was an article in the Observer about a photoshoot with Corinne Bailey Rae, a folk/soul singer. It supported the ideology of the male gaze and therefore is a big aid to my research. La Somnambule says; “Bailey Rae sits on the grass, legs crossed, dress rolled up, and arms hanging in her lap. The way her body is positioned creates a ‘V’ shape so that the eye of the observer is drawn towards her barely covered crotch. Again she is submissive and powerless, because of the angle the photograph is taken from.” This describes the main photo advertising the article. It says that the photo is childlike and coy, and therefore represents the male photographer’s views on women, and the way they act.

“I think it is both an interesting and a sad thing that some women don’t understand that there’s a link between them being portrayed like that and how men view women in general. I never saw the Madonna image as powerful – it just seemed like a woman running her hands over her breasts for the benefit of the male gaze”.
Corinne Bailey Rae.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L_fCqg92qks

This is a video, and RnB/dance genre, by Eric Prydz. In the video there are a number of women in leotards dancing and doing ‘aerobics’. These are presented as more of a ‘sex move’ than an aerobic. This is equivalent to any type of ‘soft pronography’ and clearly targeted at a male audience. The women are hyper-sexualised, meaning to impose a sexual interpretation or perception on something or somebody. The embedding has been disabled by the user’s request; therefore I cannot put it onto my blog. Other artists that represent women as ‘sex objects’ and desires for men are; Snoop Dogg, Dr Dre, a lot of dance music and so one of my friends (Natasha Burton) told me; “Just go to the charts and every artist surely has some unfair representation of women!”

The implications for the music industry are now more important than ever before, especially with the growing idea of feminism spread throughout the internet. Surely now, the music industry is going to be influenced, and is clearly going to develop in the same way it is now. Unless anybody campaigns for change, which in my argument and other people’s feminist views is quite possible, the music industry will carry on demeaning women. If this continues to be the case, women are going to think less and less about the music industry and therefore the popularity of the music industry will decline. Women’s views of genres such as RnB, Dance and Rap will also fall and become based upon its unfair representation. To overcome this, the music industry needs to employ more female directors, photographers and choreographers to produce advertisements and promotions for an artist or song such as photoshoots, CD covers and music videos. This topic will soon take over the music industry and bring it into decline. ‘Fun feminism’ began with the Spice Girls and other artists, but since then, it has spiralled out of control and become almost a target to women. If something isn’t done to prevent this, then women are going to be taken aback by the representational issues, and young boys and girl’s views on women and the role of women are going to be totally biased.

For my media production, Emily, Ian and I have only 2 characters. The song is called ‘If You Only Knew’ by Chris Cohen (unsignedbandweb.com) as we had to change last minute due to an unreliable artist. In the video, there is a couple that have an argument. Taking account of my research, I suggested that the female become the strongest in the argument as she is the weakest towards the end. Throughout the video, the male and female characters are on par with each other as far as one isn’t stronger than the other. Then at the end, the female realises how much she misses the male character and goes back to him. After the research I have carried out, the ending represents the male gaze slightly as the women is seen as weak for going back to the male, rather than the male going back to the female. However, it is balanced with the female’s strength at the beginning of the narrative.

This research project has really highlighted, for me, the importance of representation, and how it can affect everyday life. Young people’s views are highly influenced by any media sources from magazines, films and children’s programmes, to musical performances, channels and videos. A lot of what young people base their views on is what they see in these media productions. Is it fair to stereotype women in a way that boys see them as the ‘housewife’ and the ‘sex object’? Is it right that young girls should aspire to be like their famous role models and become ‘size zero’ ‘super sexy’ and wear little or no clothes and tonnes of make up? No woman wants to be stereotyped and categorised, and we are therefore taking steps backwards towards society in history. Men are not superior to women, it is just a view that men had in historical periods. Surely we are supposed to be moving forwards, not backwards? Or is that just me?

Bibliography

• Google (www.google.com)

• YouTube (www.youtube.com)

• The F Word feminist website (www.thefword.org.uk)

• Suite 101 (http://musicindustry.suite101.com/article.cfm/women_in_music)

• La Somnambule’s blog (http://lasomnambule.blogspot.com/2006/05/where-does-male-gaze-end.html)

• AOL Music (www.aol.com)

• A feminist 101 Blog: ‘What is the Male Gaze?’ (http://finallyfeminism101.wordpress.com/2007/08/26/faq-what-is-the-%E2%80%9Cmale-gaze%E2%80%9D/)

How are contemporary media changing the 'music video'?

This is the powerpoint that Emily and I did on guidance day a while back. :)

URLs for research so far...

For my research project for the music industry, I have been looking into the ways in which women are represented and stereotyped. I have been looking on some websites to try and find more information, and my next step will be to relate it to genre.

Key articles I have found so far:
http://www.thefword.org.uk/search?search=the+music+industry

This gives me 68 articles related to feminism and the music industry from the website 'The F Word' which is a feminist website that posts articles related to the representation and stereotyping of women.

One of the articles has really caught my eye. Entitled "What's up, baby?” the article is written by a woman who is deeply disheartened by the way in which women, particularly black women, are represented. She explains that she has worked as a model and a sex worker, and believes that her race and culture are represented as women in bikinis and sexy outfits for people like Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg.

http://www.thefword.org.uk/features/2002/10/whats_up_baby

This aids the answer to my question, ‘To what extent is the way women are represented in the music industry genre specific?’, by referencing the work of RnB artists.

Christian Music Videos

Here are some examples of Christain music videos; either all performance, part performance part narrative or all narrative.

Audio Adrenaline - Get Down
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tnnbbmRDwVk

Unfortunately this one wouldn't let me have an embedding code. This is a part performace, part story video. Mostly dominated by story, it tells of a guy who is having a normal day at work and out and about, but things aren't going well for him. "I get down, and He lifts me up" is the prominent line in the song, meaning that although he is having a bad day, he knows God is there to get him through. Thre aren't many symbollic things in the video such as a Cross or a Bible or something, yet there is a strong reference to Christianity in the lyrics throughout the whole song.

Carrie Underwood - Jesus Take The Wheel


This video, to some extent, is like our video ideas. It has characters that start off with problems - one with a baby crying and another is a couple arguing - and they turn out ok in the end with the help of Christ. Again, like previously and like our video, it is part performance, part story. The narrative works well because there are three seperate situations that are happening. I think that the purpose of this video is to target all non-Christians by using normal situations that quite possibly will happen in that person's future. That way they can relate to it more easily.

Our God He Reigns - Simon Brading and 29th Chapter


This is purely a performance. When I went to the Newday festival in August, they performed this song, however this video is performed at Newday 2008. It shows that as long as you have something happening in the performance that's interesting, in this case the crowd and the hilariously weird rappers, then a full performance video can work. Although, it can become a bit of a monotony having to watch it all the way through!

Proposal Sheet for Music Industry Investigation

Analyse and review the importance of dance and movement in music video...

YMCA - The Village People


YMCA – The Village People is a very conventional video in that it involves dance moves that correspond to the song. The dance moves help make the song more memorable and then we, as the audience, can automatically associate the dance to the song when we hear it. The dancing and the costume in this video make it very appealing to a wide audience, the colours and the variation for the younger audiences that may get restless if something is too long, and also the humour and the hidden meaning of the Village People’s song for the older and more mature audience. This video also appeals to different sexualities. As not many videos or songs appeal to gay or lesbian couples/people, this video expresses pride in all five of The Village People as they sing, dress and dance in the way they want to.

Take That - Shine



A-Ha - Take On Me

My Research Project

To what extent is the way women are represented genre-specific?


RnB (the male gaze)
Ballads


Secondary Research, Video Analysis

• I will look at approximately two videos from each genre and analyse the use of camerawork, editing and mise-en-scene (among other factors) to determine the way women are represented.

Investigation Ideas

Representation of women in music. Videos, songs, also lyrics of their songs and other songs.

Maybe also love as a contrast with music. Is all music about love?

Other ideas include cultures, gender, age, and also conventional and unconventional representations.

The Online Age is ____ the Music Industry.

The Music Industry is either destroyed or enhanced by the Online Age. By Amy, Emily, Ryan, Ian and Jeni. You'll have to excuse the mistakes!

Music Investigation

SPOTIFY


Spotify is a peer-to-peer music program that allows the instant play of a song, or a number of songs with little or no delay for buffering. Music can be browsed by artists, albums or created playlists as well as by direct searches. Although the music isn't available for use outside Spotify, the user can purchase the music for a small charge, much like downloading. It is available in most European countries for free, but most users will have to supply a subscription to the program. It helps music sales as well as publicity. If a certain band is unknown compared to another band, then they can utilise the program to enhance their popularity and promote their songs. Technological convergence happens too, with the availability to download the songs, or complete albums legally. This is one of the programs that you can legally download high quality music. This still affects music charts such as UK Top 40, and also still raises money for the program, band, and also Spotify itself. Using figures, we can compare how many people use the site, or other sites to people that buy music from shops like HMV or Zavvi stores (although a lot of these units have closed down).


LAST.FM


Last.fm is an UK-based Internet radio and music community website, founded in 2002. Using a music recommender system called "Audioscrobbler", Last.fm builds a detailed profile of each user's musical taste by recording details of all the songs the user listens to, either on the streamed radio stations, the user's computer or many portable music devices. This information is transferred to Last.fm's database ("scrobbled") through a plug in installed into the user's music player. The profile data is then displayed on the user's profile page. The site offers numerous social networking features and can recommend and play artists similar to the user's favourites. Users can create custom radio stations and playlists from any of the audio tracks in Last.fm's music library, and are able to listen to some individual tracks on demand, or download tracks if the rights holder has previously authorised it. Last.fm claims over 30 million active users based in more than 200 countries. On 30 May 2007, CBS Interactive acquired Last.fm for £140m ($280m US). This boosts the popularity of bands that put their music on this site, increases the revenue of both the site and the music industry and also enhances all popularity. gain, similarly to Spotify, it is a site where it is legal to download tracks. This is another way of boosting revenue and also shows that there are other ways and more modern and easier ways to consume music.


SUBCULTURE

Subculture is a group of people that have formed under another culture. A subculture can be recognised and defined by the following:

1. through their often negative relations to work

2. through their negative or undecided relation to class

3. through their association with territory (the 'street', the 'hood, the club, etc), rather than property

4. through their movement out of the home and into non-domestic forms of belonging

5. through the exaggerated ways they choose to dress

6. through their refusal of the conformities of ordinary life.

Genres of music are closely related to social groups and also cultures. The types of music people listen to and enjoy often heavily relates to this. If there is a large amount of one group, the music industry needs to make sure it sufficiently targets this specific group. Audience is again based on cultures and social groups. This aids and also categorises audience making research less generalised and more in-depth.


DRM

The DRM is the Digital Rights Management. They control the legalising of music downloads and also control rights to different websites/applications such as Spotify. It prevents copyright infringements and the reproduction or disallowed use of music pieces. This helps the music industry gain control of abusers, and also helps artists and music companies maintain their status and also their original pieces. Without the use of copyright and other preventing software, there would be little or no control and it would cost millions of pounds to repair. This helps audience research because of the constant use of illegal downloading sites such as LimeWire, and helps other companies to stop the illegal downloading and once again gain control.

Hello!

New media blog! Here it is!


Here is a video of my favourite song at the minute.