Thursday, 22 November 2012

Representation Of Women In Pop: Katy Perry.

Women needing make-up.




In this image, taken from screenshots of the music video for E.T - Katy Perry and Kanye West. These two are shown as binary opposites, with Katy Perry being colourful and very made-up and fake, whilst Kanye West is shown in monochrome. wearing sunglasses.  These contrasts portray Katy Perry, and women, as needed to be very made up to be attractive. It also gives the impression that they are very fake, and make up and other accessories are esstential for beauty. In comparison, the message given from Kanye's picture is that men not need make an effort to appear attractive (because I think he's going for that in this picture...)
One of the main colours on Katy Perry's face is pink, which is traditionally considered a 'feminine' colour, whilst Kanye West is completely blue, which is traditionally considered a 'masculine' colour.  Katy Perry also has blue on her, but it is paler and more of a baby blue, to feminise it. It shows her as weaker than Kanye and more frail because her blue is lighter, unlike Kanye's which is bold and in your face. These colourings reinforce traditional gender roles. BAD KATY.
Women as over-emotional and obsessed with love.

Katy Perry's video for Hot N' Cold fuels the stereotype that women are overly emotional, especially when it comes to love. This image in particular portrays this, because her make up is smudged, as if she has been crying, and she is wearing a wedding veil, suggesting that she is emotional over love. This is also reinforced by her facial expression, in which she is wide eyed and looking crazy. The whole plot of the video is Katy Perry imagining her husband to be saying no at the altar and then chasing him on a bike in her wedding dress, which aids the stereotype. BAD KATY.

Women as sex objects.


I think this picture speaks for itself. BAD KATY.

Her costume here is revealing, exposing her midriff, legs and arms. It is basically underwear, and this sexualises her because she has no real clothes on. She also has whipped cream cans on her bra, which is an obvious sexual metaphor. Naughty Katy. It is also red, which signifies lust and love. In the video, there are many other women dressed similarly, and they are have the same facial expression: happy. This suggests that the women are happy to be considered as sex objects, which doesn't exactly promote good vaules for her target audience of young girls.



In contrast to Katy Perry's "clothes", Snoop Dogg is wearing a suit that doesn't expose any skin except for his hand and his face. This is because, supposedly, men don't get sexualised. As Berger said on the male gaze, "men look at women. Women watch themselves being looked at", so there is no 'need' to sexualise the man in this video because the women will not be looking at him in a sexual manner.



Logistics 2.0

I have improved my logistics presentation so it has up to date locations, more information on cast and now includes crew. I think it's must better than the other one, but I'll keep the other one up to show development of our piece. Okay.



I'd just like to give a shoutout to insomnia because without that I might have (foolishly) been asleep when I had the thought to improve the presentation. Top fella. I also had the idea to make a post about how we've been utilising social media websites to get audience feedback. I'll start that now. I do my best thinking at 4am.

Tuesday, 20 November 2012

Digipak Analysis 4: This Corrosion


Digipak Analysis 4: This Corrosion. from Sarah Byard

My laptop has decided that Slideshare can work now. Hooray. Here is an analysis of the digipak for This Corrosion by The Sisters Of Mercy. This is an example of a 4-pane digipak.

I have one more analysis to do. It's for a Duran Duran digipak. My taste in music is fabulous.

Digipak Analysis 3: The Black Parade Is Dead!





This is my analysis of The Black Parade Is Dead! by My Chemical Romance. I love My Chemical Romance so I got really into this one. I'm certain I think way too much into things, but I can't help it because English Literature has done that to me.

Digipak Analysis 2: Curtain Call - Eminem.



Here is my analysis of the digipak for Curtain Call - Eminem.
I won't hear one word against Eminem on this blog.
I make a reference to my Black Parade Is Dead video here but I can't post the Black Parade Is Dead yet because it takes 7 hours (no exagerration) to upload so I am going to attempt the upload at school.

Sunday, 18 November 2012

Digipak Analysis 1: The Long Road - Nickelback.


Digipak Analysis: The Long Road - Nickelback. from Sarah Byard

Here is my first digipak analysis. I also have two more digipak analysis videos that I made last week but I forgot to post them. I will upload them to YouTube and post them asap. I also have more 'similar product' posts but Slideshare is deciding to delete the pictures I put on my Powerpoints (this took six uploads before it would stop it), so I will wait for Slideshare to calm down.

Wednesday, 14 November 2012

Purpose Of Music Videos

Music videos are made for a variety of reasons. Here are the main ones:

1. To make money:
This one seems to be the main reason for the creation of music videos. The music video is basically a promotion for the song, the artist and the album, because all three are represented in the video. Creating a music video increases the target audience's chance of hearing the song, and so increases the chance of the target audience buying the song. This means that the company makes more profit, which is of vital importance to the record company.

2. To give a deeper meaning to the song:
A music video can help to give a deeper meaning to the song, especially if they have confusing lyrics. Conceptual videos usually do this the most. Symbols shown in the video can reflect and complement the lyrics, which can help the audience to understand the message of the song. If someone doesn't understand a song, they might not like it; having a music video give it more meaning or to help the audience understand it may actually sway a person's opinion on it.

3. To entertain:
This is the purpose of nearly all media. The audience watches music videos, films, TV etc. to be entertained. They want to escape for a little while in the reality of whatever they are watching. However, it would be quite naive to assume that this is the main reason for the creation of music videos. There are artists who make music just for the love of it; however, it is also a job, and therefore they need to make money.

I'm very cynical and can link all three to making money, so I am going to say the main reason behind the creation of music videos is money and profit. The music industry is a business like any other and it needs to make a profit to continue. A music video is just a medium to advertise a product.

Wednesday, 7 November 2012

Similar Products: Lips Of An Angel (Hinder)


Lips of an angel from Sarah Byard

I chose this song because I thought I'd do a couple others in the genre, and three from the same genre would be boring because I'd just go on about pop videos all the time and I don't really like pop music so here is Hinder. That didn't explain why I actually chose the song. I chose the song because its video goes along the same vein as ours, with a narrative including cheating (or considering it, in this case). I also just so happen to love this song.