- Leslie Gore, It's My Party: Fun chorus to sing along to. Video was boring.
- Fiona Apple, Criminal: There was a lot going on. I found myself captured by the video, engaged in trying to figure the story out. Was it about partying (drinking and drug use), was it about sex, was it about rebelling, was it about taking control, etc.
- Lil' Kim, How Many Licks: Okay, first of all, I have to admit that it wasn't until a few weeks ago that I found out what this song was actually referring to. I guess I never heard the uncensored version nor had I previously seen the video. Clearly this song and video is about sex, but I also think it's something more than that. While the beat is catchy, my first initial reaction to the video was of disgust, it felt degrading to girls and to women.
A commonality I saw between the videos was that the artists were all female and they are trying to send a message. Female artists have wrote about and sung about their relationships for decades past and will for decades to come. It's interesting though to watch how the messages and images have changed through the years.
I watched the Gore video first, while I found the video boring, the background dancers did catch my attention. Aside from the couples dancing on the dance floor, the background dancers were all female. While it didn't appear they were dancing provocatively for today's standards, I wondered what people thought/felt during that time. I thought perhaps the purpose for the dancers was to capture the male audience.
Apple's video evoked many different emotions for me. I'm still not 100% sure I have a full understanding of the exact message. The story changed for me as I watch the different clips. At first I thought it was an aftermath of party where heavy drinking and drug use occurred. As the video went on I felt the story shifted to promiscuity and sex. During the scene where she was shedding her layers of clothes I thought perhaps she was assaulted at the party and was rebelling or speaking out about it. I was unfamiliar with Apple's history prior to reading Zeitner's article (although this is only a snap shot from one person.) While I don't completely agree with all of Zeitner's critiques, they did open up additional perspectives for me. Given this knowledge I thought perhaps this song/video was her way to express herself and share her experience. Aside from this, I didn't feel the need to define exactly what that was.
While I found Kim's video to be tasteless I thought perhaps she was trying to reverse the power role. I found myself asking if this was a male singing this song would I or others be so offended? Was Kim trying to flip the coin and say if my peer males can do it so can I? Either way (especially after I found out what the song was really about and saw the video) I find the song is degrading, degrading to women and degrading to men.
I believe the overarching message between the three videos is that of control; control of themselves, resistance of control by others (e.g. the men, friends, relationship, etc. in their lives) and the control over their music and art. However, is this the most effective and appropriate way to express this and get the point across?
My final question I pose is, what are songs and videos, such as the ones we watch for this assignment, saying to our youth? While I think it's important to empower our young women and men of today I think it can be done in a more positive and respectful way. (Respectful to themselves and to others.) As parents, educators, youth workers, etc. we need to be mindful of the types of media our children our exposed to. While we can't shelter them from everything we can monitor and be knowledgeable. As they start to make choices for themselves (such as what music to listen to and what movies to watch) it is our job to be there as their sounding board and further educate them.
Hey Nicole,
ReplyDeleteInteresting point you made about the Leslie Gore Video with the background dancers being there to attract attention for male viewers, I hadn't thought of it that way. Also I too posed the question in my head about the dancing in the video and what was considered inappropriate and frowned upon during that time (speaking of the Gore video). It would be interesting to find that out. Lastly, my assumption of the Fiona Apple video was that it was telling multiple stories at one time. All those thinks that you listed about the video could have all been possibilities of what the artist was trying to tell us. Good Post!
Nicole,
ReplyDeleteI think that it was interesting that you addressed Zeitner's critique of the video directly. I didn't fully agree with all of his arguments, and I felt it brought up the question in my mind about whether a female artist can make a piece of work that is wholly personal without subjecting it to the standard of a work that is meant to represent an entire group of female artissts. I think this is a tension felt by all pop artists, and by talented individuals in minority groups who are taken to be representative samples and treated less like individual artists as a result. Fiona Apple's music seems to be intended as more of an existential, and therefore personal, inquiry into a particular action or set of actions whereas Leslie Gore's music seemed to be less personal and more descriptive of a kind of social situation that one might just run across.
Just some responses to your thoughts,
John Byrnes
http://www.lib.umn.edu/byrne201/heorot
Nicole,
ReplyDeleteYou made some great points about the videos themselves, and what attracted your attention! I think it's interesting to note how over time the songs are beginning to get overshadowed by the video itself. And while this most definitely is the trend considering the popularity of music, MTV, iTunes, pop culture and media in general today, it got me thinking about when are we going to draw the line? Regardless of what message the videos are sending about gender/power structures, is this going to be a reflection of what we expect our students to do, or worse, what they are capable of doing? What I mean is that in an age of multiliteracies and multimodality in our students, how is that going to change the way they view their own writing? Can we expect them to just write by hand anymore in the next 10 years? What are we going to value more, the content, or the format it is coming across in? Just some random thoughts....
Also, I completely agree with your thoughts on how this is going to affect our students today. In teaching high school, it's hard to try to even pretend to shelter the juniors and seniors, but it's clear by their dress, language, and even assignments they are turning in that sex is a main focus of their lives (or at least talking about it is), and it's really disheartening. I want to tell them to stop writing editorials about how they should be able to wear their shorts as short as they want or their shirts as low as they want, as long as their parents let them leave the house that way. How can we get them to think critically enough about this media to actually have it transfer to their own lives? Can we at all?
Hi, Nicole.
ReplyDeleteI think you nailed it when you said that the overarching message is one of control. The unfortunate reality is that many artists don't have control of their own videos. The most popular ones do, but for those battling their way up the charts, they give up that control just to get along.
I think you and Kim are asking the same question in different ways. In her comment she wondered how we can get students to think critically enough about this media to have it affect their own lives. Well, I have a suggestion.
This year I showed two videos that shook them from their slumber (figuratively and literally). The first was called "Dreamworlds 3: Desire, Sex & Power in Music Videos." This video takes a frank look at how women are portrayed in this medium, and forces the viewer to "reflect critically on images that they might otherwise take for granted."
This was the single most impactful 50 minutes we spent this year. Girls were appalled, boys were embarrassed, and they talked of nothing else the rest of the school day (at lunch, in other classes, etc.). I had them write about it the next day, and received some of the most thoughtful work of the semester.
The second video is Byron Hurt's "Hip-Hop: Beyond Beats & Rhymes." This examines not only the misogynistic aspects of rap and hip-hop videos, but also how it is often homoerotic, while its proponents and purveyors are almost exclusively homophobic, at least in their public pronouncements. I cannot recommend this video highly enough.
Both caused kids to think, talk, and in some cases, make some changes.
Nicole...
ReplyDeleteYou pose an interesting question about what the music and videos are saying to the youth population. I also believe it's important to empower youth, but that it can be done in different, more positive ways. I feel that music videos (especially Apple's and Kim's... ) are validating explicit and sexual acts to the youth culture. Let's face it... youth culture is the most consumed by pop culture, and especially music videos. They are the main viewers, and they are the ones these artists are marketing towards. The artists (if you even want to call Lil Kim an artist...) are essentially legitimizing the dress, sexual acts, and explicit language that they are singing and depicting in their videos. At least, this is how I see it...
Hi Nicole,
ReplyDeleteI too talked about the theme being control in these videos. I also mentioned in my blog how it is important to empower women to feel as though they can and do have control over their bodies and their relationships, these types of music videos are not the way to go. I was in high school when this song came out and it was quite popular. It indeed promoted certain inappropriate behaviors that I would not wish for my daughter to partake in, but these behaviors were for the "benefit" of the woman for a change. or at least that was the idea by many of the girls who internalized the song. I do not know exactly where I stand on this issue yet.