Task 3-How are social groups represented in Music videos?

In music video’s, groups are presented in different ways to entertain the audience.

In music videos, gender is represented in ways that show off women/men. Women in music videos are shown and made up to look ‘sexy’ and ‘glamorous’ This could be to attract the audience (men) to watch videos, or because its part of the genre of music. For example in Whistle, by Flo Rider, there are girls in bikinis, on the beach showing off their bodies and posing, this means that women are represented to be models or to entertain. The use of shot types used in the video ‘Whistle’ is close up on the women, which is trying to make it personal. Also the mid shot is used when there is more to see in the background. The lyrics used in the song are also hinting that Flo Rider’s audience is men to look at women. Apart from Flo Rider, there are no other men featured in the music video.

Another social group that is represented in music videos is class. In Jessie J’s video-‘Who’s laughing now’ its representing Jessie as a victim of bulling when she was at school, and is now telling people to now look at how far she has come and what she has achieved. This is also represented in her lyrics, ‘who’s laughing now’, meaning she’s done miles better than the people who bullied her. People who thought they was ‘higher’ than her, aren’t so clever and cocky anymore, represents the group of class.

The social group of gender is also represented in Katy Perry’s video ‘part of me’. The video shows Katy breaking up with her boyfriend and then joining the army. The social group of gender is being represented because people associate the army with men and not women so when she joins the army it catches the audiences’ attention. Close up shots are used when its personal and when the most important parts of the video are shown e.g. when Katy is cutting off her hair so she can join the army, and her facial expressions after she’s trained. Wide shots are used when it’s showing what is going on.

Also, the social group of class is represented in the music video ‘price tag’. In the video she’s seen standing under a tree with money over her, and that represents that money doesn’t matter and to ‘forget about the price tag’.  This is good for representing ‘class’ because it represents however poor or rich you are that you should forget about it and that you shouldn’t let money revolve around everything.