Representation in Music Video

Within our music video ideas we have considered stereotypical representations and non-stereotypical representations.

The strongest and most recognisable representation within our plot for our music video regards around gender. We will be connoting a non-stereotypical view upon females as she is seen as a cheater in the relationship and betrayed his love. This is non-stereotypical because it is most commonly shown that the male is responsible for this sort of act in a relationship by being careless and not loyal because males are often represented as being controlling and dominating. However, this can also be seen as stereotypical towards women as in media they are also often shown as attention seekers, representing women as subordinate. This seems to represent the common view that women seem to engage the 'slut' image. Therefore in both of these points either way, females are seen in a negative light.

In our ideas for flashbacks in our music video we were considering filming them on a date at ice skating. This will portray a non-stereotypical representation in our music video for males, as he would be seen at ice-skating with his girlfriend which is considered as a quite a feminine sport in society. This is non-stereotypical as men are seen as strong and 'manly' doing events such as boxing, karate, football etc. In media, you wouldn't expect to see a male doing an activity which is stereo-typically viewed as a female activity.

The narrative of the lyrics and the ideas we have for our music video portray the female gender to be in quite a negative light as she is seen as being a cheat to her boyfriend presenting her as the villain in the music video linking to 'Propps' first point of characterisation roles in his narrative theory. However, because we are only showing one situation of a female cheating, this prevents her from representing all females stopping this from becoming influential. Portraying males as positive by showing him being loyal to his partner and not being a cheat makes the audience compare him to her and making them realise that he cared about her connoting this non-stereotypical view towards males. 

The Male Gaze theory invented by Laura Mulvey consists of using specific types of shots from the point of view of a character directed on to the person they are attracted to and how they are looking at them. It is common that people use this theory by using a low to high angle shot beginning from the feet of the character to the face. This is stereo typically shown from a males point of view is directed at a female. The theory suggests that female characters tend to be displayed for the visual pleasure of male characters and audience members. For our music video we aren't planning on using this theory because the narrative of the song and our ideas for visuals will not code women as the object of gaze and not represented in a sexual way. She is seen as the villain in the music video for cheating on the male. 

Male Gaze Theory example:

In terms of representation for age, this stereotype is represented in a negative light with our ideas. We are using quite young characters in our music video because the original artists are aged 19 and 20 and our target audience is young adults and teens. It is stereotypical for people of this age group to be under a lot of stress and have relationship problems because they haven't fully matured and aren't wise enough to understand what love is. This age is known as the time when you learn from your mistakes with love and relationships in order to understand it. The narrative of our music video is about cheating and because our characters are young of age, it is connoting themes to the audience that the younger generation are irresponsible, careless, immature, and don't understand love. This portrays younger teenagers in a negative light influencing older generations that they all don't take things seriously.

Overall by doing this task we have managed how we will be representing age and gender within our music video and learn't about what possible theories we could use and how. Propps theory of characterisation links to our ideas for representation of gender in terms of hierarchy and the role of the female being the villain, which is non stereotypical but is representing females in a negative light. We could use the Male Gaze theory within our piece maybe in the flashbacks or when they meet again after the male has found out. However we aren't very likely to be using this theory because we don't want to present the female in a sexual way.