top of page
VOYEURISM
According to Goodwin, music videos- especially videos featuring female artists or actresses- often have a voyeuristic approach to presenting women, with lingering shots on their bodies or having them dance or act seductively. Mulvey's theory of the Male Gaze attributes this to the media's desire to appeal to the male audiences. I wanted to challenge both theories because not only did I want my video to steer away from the objectification of women, but my target audience was a demographic comprised mostly of teenage girls who would look up to the artist rather than men. The video is also devoid of dance routines and characters other than the two main ones, meaning that there wouldn't be a place for such the camera angles and actions even if I did want to display these conventions. Despite 'Rhi' being a female artist, and female artists having an inherent expectation to be conventionally appealing by wearing heavy make-up and stylish clothing, I didn't want to conform to these conventions of branding a female artist in the pop industry this way, and instead created a character who has a unique style and branding especially in that genre and especially as a way to give her more of a personality rather than just following what is popular for female singers to do. The digipak does not have use provocatively posed or sexualised images of the artist, and neither does the website as both the digipak and the website use pictures from the same photoshoot for the purposes of synergy. Her clothing- which is almost in direct opposition to the usually glamourised industry standards- is suitable for the target demographic and plays into her 'star appeal', which is a part of Dyer's Star Theory.
STAR THEORY
Every artist has an image that is created to sell them to an audience. This idea was suggested by Dyer as Star Theory and includes how they act, dress, perform, and style their creative outlets such as music or videos. A lot of pop artists are branded as older than they are in order to appeal to adult audiences, and are highly glamourised to fit in with the lavish Hollywood industry. Artists such as Ariana Grande and Demi Lovato are examples of this. I wanted to challenge this with my artist Rhi, and focus on her relatability with young people and the culture of teenagers from London rather than with high-end Hollywood scene. This meant that I styled her in quite 'normal' clothing- nothing too expensive or with lavish accessories. I gave her a 'down-to-earth' personality through this and also her social media presence (shown on the website with the links above the navigation bar) that showed she was in touch with her fans and real life as she appeared to be outwardly. The outfit that she is wearing on the digipak is the same outfit that she is wearing in the music video, and there are also pictures on the website from the same photoshoot, therefore creating synergy and showing that all the products were focusing on promoting the same album era, which is what artists in the industry often do. This 'styling' was mostly comprised of H&M or New Look tops and trousers, and a skater hoodie which added an element of relatability as it portrays another aspect of her personality and interests which appear to be similar to the type of audience she is trying to attract and appeal to her music.
The 'bio' section of the website gives a brief description near the end of the passions of the artist, which includes a lot of activism work and causes that I thought would make sense for the artist to be passionate about considering the target audience and the 'star image' that she has. The bio also gives some history to the artists and her story, which again challenges the conventions of artist websites as from the research that I did their bios almost exclusively focused on their music rather than activism that may have inspired that music.
INTERTEXTUALITY/SUBVERTING TROPES
There are features of intertextuality in my video in regards to the story itself, and while it does not make references to specific existing pieces of media, the idea of two people who can't stay apart because of their feelings for each other is quite a common trope that is frequently found in films and TV shows. My video takes inspiration for the love story from these romance films, but challenges them by making it a romance between two girls rather than between a boy and a girl. By subverting the norm and turning a cliché into an opportunity for representation for an underrepresented group, I feel that my video reinvents traditional conventions while still taking influence from them in the storytelling aspects of a video that has a narrative core.
bottom of page