The music industry is probably the most progressive, forever changing, entertainment industries in the world today. There are constantly new artists, performing new types of music, from new locations all over the world, in a wide array of languages. Subsequently, the music industry has continued to grow, providing newer and more engaging ways for viewers to be entertained. The idea of a ‘music video,’ to go along with an artist’s number one hit from an album is now a more than common occurrence. But what isthe affect these music videos are having on today’s society? Are they having a positive or negative affect on today’s youth? What kind of messages are these music videos portraying?
These are only a few of the many questions critics of music videos have begun to ask as this form of entertainment has grown exponentially in recent years. If one were to turn on MTV2 (nowadays, the regular MTV no longer shows music videos as it once did) he/she would see some of the most popular videos in the music industry today. Typically, the music derives from: Hip Hop, Country, Rock, Contemporary, and House genres among others. However, a commonality amongst all of these different videos from different genres of music is their portrayal of gender roles.
According to an article titled, “Aggressors or Victims: Gender and Race in Music Video Violence,” by Michael Rich, Elizabeth Woods, Goodman, Erans, and DuRant, the male gender was significantly associated with the emotion aggression. 78.1% of aggressors were portrayed by males, likewise 46.3% of victims were females. Among the Caucasian race 72% of aggressors were male and 78.3% of victims were female. As opposed to statistics from the African-American population which read that African-Americans were aggressors in 25% and victims in 41% of music videos.
In addition to violence, sex is an exceedingly common theme seen in music videos from all different types of music genres. In an article titled, “An investigation of sex-role stereotyping in music videos,” by Steven A. Seidman, a survey was done of 182 random sample of MTV music videos. The results found that males were typically portrayed as: adventuresome, domineering, aggressive, violent, and victimized whereas females were portrayed as: affectionate, dependent, nurturing, and fearful. It was also noted that a large percentage of females in music videos wore scandalous clothing and either initiated or received sexual advances more frequently than males.
It is clear that music videos portray men and women in a very questionable way. Especially nowadays with the expansion of technology, these music videos are able to be seen by millions of people, worldwide, free of charge, from the comfort of their homes. Internet sites such as YouTube allow individuals to come together to view artists’ material on both a professional and amateur level. As a result of this, individuals have begun to question what type of messages these music videos are sending. Violence is displayed as “cool” or appropriate in many Hip-hop music videos. Women dress in very provocative clothing and display graphic sexual movements and acts for cash.
The thrive to continue to produce viable entertainment in an ever-changing society has produced what some may describe as filthy or obtrusive when describing today’s music videos. It is as though it’s not about the music or the actual song anymore, but more about the most eye-popping display producers to create to go along with the music.
Tony
ReplyDeleteI think this is an interesting topic and not an entirely new concern in the music industry. I think, even more so than in films and television shows, music videos have the added pressure of capturing their audiences attention in a very short amount of time, which has some relationship as to why music video directors and writers are so quick to categorize people into specific roles.
With such a small time frame in comparison to other visual mediums, it looks like music videos fall back on generalized stereotypes. This allows the audience to understand the video more readily, without having to start their story from the ground up. Audiences will definitely be able to understand and associate with music videos that follow specific stereotypes of past music videos better than a music video that completely disregards gender stereotypes and creates a completely unique story.
The article notes that, “Males, often the star of the music video, were more than three times as likely as females to be portrayed as aggressors”. This is a generalized stereotype that is pretty much reinforced in a lot of other mediums, but it looks like music videos do it at a much higher rate. Again, I think this probably has something to do with the shorter time frame they have to tell their story.
In regards to racial stereotypes, the text mentions “blacks were three-fourths of the victims, 28 times more likely to be victimized than other groups, reinforcing commonly-held preconceptions of black men leading short, dangerous lives”. Even though this isn’t a gender stereotype, music videos are pretty much doing the same thing they are for gendered stereotypes.
It would be interesting to see if music videos actually do portray race and gender in generalized stereotypes at a higher frequency than films and television. It could also have to do with the message or vibe that music videos are trying to give off to their audiences for whatever reason.
The article by Seidman, “An investigation of sex-role stereotyping in music videos”, pretty much says the same thing about stereotyping in regards to sexuality. Portraying males as dominant while making females are weak and submissive is not really on applicable to music videos. It is just whether or not this sort of portrayal is as frequent in television and films.
Ryan
"Profile: An Investigation of Sex‐role Stereotyping in Music Videos." Taylor and Francis. N.p., n.d. Web. 26 Mar. 2013.
Michael, Rich. "Aggressors or Victims: Gender and Race in Music Video Violence." Http://www.lionlamb.org/research_articles/Aggressors%20or%20Victims.pdf. N.p., n.d. Web.
Tony,
ReplyDeleteI think that it is important to recognize not only the gender roles within the recent music videos but also affect that these videos and the music has on society as a whole.
Often times the young generations who have grown up listening to particular music and watching certain types music videos will begin to believe that the behavior portrayed is acceptable if not appropriate. In a Huffington post article, Rap Music, Gun Violence: Rapper 50 Cent Refutes Connection between the Two, the rapper says that “his music was more a reflection of his experience rather than a glorification of assault weapons”. Music is just as much of an art form as any other type of artwork and we need to remember that. But artists must remember themselves that everything they put out and release to the public will become influential to some individual. While 50 Cent may be rapping about assault weapons and drugs these are aspects of his life growing up and we should learn to not imitate but appreciate the music and his art form. Young men and women should remember to take the music not literally but figuratively.
While the content shown in the videos is also questionable and may persuade children to act in such scandalous ways, the lyrics of music also have a similar affect. The lyrics in rap videos are often vulgar and include many derogatory terms and references. When young men and women are exposed to this type of music they may begin to believe these words and this type of language are acceptable to use in their own every day lives. A Huffington Post article, Rick Ross Date Rape Lyrics In 'U.O.E.N.O.' Stirs Controversy, discusses a new song coming from rapper Rick Ross which includes lyrics describing potentially raping a woman and drugging her. The author of the article writes, “The lyrics in question talk about drugging a woman and taking her home. "Put molly all in her champagne/ She ain't even know it/ I took her home and I enjoyed that/ She ain't even know it," raps Ross”. Even if this was supposed to have a figurative meaning like 50 Cent’s rapping, the mention of drugging and raping a woman in a song released to the public is extremely inappropriate. This makes me wonder what Rick Ross thinks of his fans. Does he think that his fans want to hear this type of music about drugging and raping women? I know that young Americans are getting into drugs and alcohol at younger ages lately and this is proof that music can have an affect on that. Rick Ross recorded this song in a studio, released it and knows his fans will listen to it so in a sense he is having a negative affect on this generation of young men and women listening to rap music. The Post article Rick Ross Date Rape Lyrics In 'U.O.E.N.O.' Stirs Controversy continues to say, “lyrics such as Ross' can foster "a culture of dysfunction," in which young men think it is acceptable to have relations with an intoxicated or unconscious woman who isn't able to say "no””. This ‘culture of dysfunction’ mentioned in the article is the main result of vulgarity, drug and rape inclusion in music videos and music lyrics. If young men and women see certain behavior and hear certain words spoken by those celebrities and artists whom they look up to they will absolutely mimic them and fall into this culture of dysfunction.
Works Cited
Cadet, Danielle. "Rap Music, Gun Violence: Rapper 50 Cent Refutes Connection Between The Two." The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, 23 Mar. 2013. Web. 26 Mar. 2013.
Sieczkowski, Cavan. "Rick Ross Date Rape Lyrics In 'U.O.E.N.O.' Stirs Controversy." The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, 26 Mar. 2013. Web. 26 Mar. 2013.
Tony,
ReplyDeleteI think Music Video Gender Role is an interesting topic to bring up, but not something new. It seems for a while MTV has shown a pattern of the same stereotypes of the men and women portrayed in their music videos, especially in rap and hip-hop videos. I do understand your point when you stated that the advances in technology have caused the videos to be even more explicit if you will. The technology allows these artists to create their wildest dreams of what they want to want their videos to be.
According to Seidman, males out number females 3 to 1 on the MTV network and half of the females were proactive clothing. Men are portrayed to have higher, more important and manly job such as a firefighter, physician and mechanic, while women tend to be portrayed as waitresses, dancers, and secretaries (Seidman, 1). These women are given more helpless and less important roles because they want the men to seem more dominant. Seidman also discusses that these men have characteristics that include behaviors such as; aggressive, domineering, and violent. Women have characteristics such as; dependent , fearful, and nurturing (Seidman , 1). I think this gives the youth a bad depiction of how men and women are suppose to act. It is showing only one depiction of what they feel the roles of a man and a woman should be. Seidman states MTV stereotypes women as “sex objects” or “second-class citizens”.
I do not agree that woman should be shown in this light through music videos because it is giving young boys and girls the wrong idea. Girls might assume that this is how they should act or boys might assume this is how they should treat girls. I think music videos should try to have a more positive influence and think about what type of message they are sending across to the people who are actually watching the music videos.
MTV making music videos like this devalue female musicians (Seidman, 1). These videos objectify women and seem to put them on display and make them only to be mere objects rather than real people. These videos are giving young men the wrong idea of what “real” women are like, it gives them too high of a standard. This could cause a lowering of self -esteem in both genders (Seidman, 1). Young men should be taught that women can be just as talented as men in any career, not even just music.
Also a lot of the time these young kids will take these music video messages too seriously and act out in violent or derogatory ways. As you discussed the article “Aggressors or Victims: Gender and Race in Music Video Violence” by Michael Rich, MD, MPH; Elizabeth R. Woods, MD, MPH; Elizabeth Goodman, MD; S. Jean Emans, MD; and Robert H. DuRant, PhD the male gender was associated with the aggressor while the female gender was associated the victim. The article further goes on to say how music videos may be reinforcing false stereotypes of black males being aggressors and white females being victims (Rich, 1). This could affect how adolescents view race, as well as male-female relationships (Rich, 1). I feel since the artists, the music industry and MTV are such powerful influences that they could most certainly come up with creative solutions to send better messages across in future music videos. The youth should have a better understanding of reality and how you should treat other people.
Rich, Michael. "Aggressors or Victims: Gender and Race in Music Video Violence.”Http://www.lionlamb.org/research_articles/Aggressors%20or%2 0Victims.pdf. N.p., n.d. Web.
Seidman, S. A. (1992, Spring). An investigation of sex-role stereotyping in music videos. Journal of Broadcasting and Electronic Media, 36(2), 209-216