Representation Of A Music Video

By Ellen Whight

Representations within a music video are things like:

Gender – Objectification of women, women are seen as objects not seen as

human. Men are also classed as objects, the ‘female gaze’

Age & Class – Youth, wealth, social class and beauty/ advertisement.

Ethnicity – Stereotypically African American rappers are portrayed as wealthy,

pimps, drug dealers etc. With the current rise and popularity in Urban and

R&B music racism is no longer an issue yet people can argue this. Black and

white artists work together creating more money for the music industry.

Region/Place – LA represented as the city to succeed in your dreams or where

dreams are realized. New York represented as night life, gang life and hood

life. London as a grimy capital or wishing it was more like America.

Representations In Music Videos

R&B, rhythm and blues is a genre of music. It conveys certain

representations which portray this genre to their chosen audience

making it clear for the audience to identify the chosen genre in the

song and

music video. R&B is a popular genre of African

– American music which originated in The 1940’s.

R&B can include, Hip Hop, Rap and Grime

these genres can all link together in the music

industry and music videos.

What is R&B?

I will be analyzing the R&B video ‘The Boys’ by Nicki Minaj Featuring Cassie. The music video includes R&B and Rap. This video conveys R&B representations about gender/ how women and men are portrayed, ethnicity and age.

Link -http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kXFcr6oy5dk

Nicki Minaj Ft Cassie - The

Boys Video Analysis

This video shows some change in R&B representation for women due this song having two

female artists one who raps (Nicki Minaj) and one who sings the chorus (Cassie) there are

two shots one for each where they both wear sexy outfits revealing their bodies, these are

bathing suits. It also shows both women off to being in power where in most R&B music

videos they are inferior to men. The song isn’t a typical R&BB song about women it’s the

other way round where two young women are speaking about men who aren’t really men

just boys with their immaturity and how they think of women.

Nicki Minaj Ft

Cassie - The Boys

Nicki Minaj Ft

Cassie - The Boys This shot show’s who directed the music video ‘Colin Tilley’ who is a well known and famous music video director, he has also directed some of Nicki Minajs other music video. It also show’s the main artist Nicki Minaj and who is featuring in the song and video with her. The colour scheme is pink, again girly. This shot show’s a blurred out women reading the news paper yet again a pink tint, showing a picture of the main artist Nicki Minaj, the title of the song giving us a clue what the songs about and also some clues of what happens within the video due to the writing underneath the picture is bold large black font whereas the other writing is small and blurred.

This shot show’s a quick flash of Nicki Minaj before going into the next shot below, a close up. This shot shows here looking glammed up, hair and make up done. Bright vibrant hair colour to show the wacky side of her, colours still pink, lilac and blue still indicating the girly side and who this video is aimed at. The back ground it light and dark pink dots. Nicki Minaj stands out from the back ground. Her facial expression show’s attitude.

This shot show’s a closer up image of the newspaper headline about what happens in the video. Quite a violent image, rebellious.

This shot show’s Nicki Minaj strutting her stuff down the path with men following her closely and dancing behind her, yet again colour scheme pink as what she is wearing has pink on it, the men's clothing, the car in the background and shops beside her. Typically R&B set up with men chasing women also Nicki Minajs clothing is a little revealing within her chest area this could indicate she is also selling her image as this is how she does dress but also selling this video and song to men.

This shot show’s Cassie the artist featuring on the song and video. This shot also shows off some of the background still following the same colour scheme pink and girly. Cassie is wearing quite gangster clothing with the big gold chain and jewellery represented in a R&B music video. Her clothing is quite boyish and so is her hairstyle slick and gelled back. This shows off Cassie’s characteristics. It show’s her to be a strong independent women who’s not afraid to be bold and different with a little attitude. This show’s what the song is actually about, men aren't men their boys.

In this shot it shows Cassie in a powerful posture and the camera low angle showing she’s higher status. Her look is also quite boyish with her hair swept back.

But in this shot Cassie looks more girlish with the outfit she is in and her hair and make up, her outfit is quite revealing and is showing a lot of skin, this could be to tell the song and video to a male audience. Again is higher status due to the low angle shot making the audience look up at her.

This shot show’s Nicki Minaj in a famous and very expensive motor vehicle advertising the vehicle this is product endorsement because people have seen Nicki Minaj in this car someone will want it.

This shot show’s Nicki Minaj and Ciara dancing closely together , this is a selling technique for their male audience due to men like women with minimal clothing on dancing close together it’s an attraction.

These two shots of Nicki Minaj and Cassie show them both in a revealing costume, a bikini and a swimming costume revealing a lot of them within the music video again sex appeal for their male audience, which sells within the media and especially in R&B. These costumes are also worn to make them look ‘sexy’.

These shots of Cassie show her challenging stereotypes as she is dressed in a manly suit instead of a dress or something womanly also the colour is blue a boyish colour unlike the colour pink which Nicki Minaj wears within the music video. Even though she’s wearing a suit it’s still quite revealing as she’s not wearing anything under the blazer again for male satisfaction and for her look ‘Sexy’. The use of money and gold jewellery worn and used within this shot of the music video also is a R&B convention making their audience envy what they have, also showing how women can make money etc.