Representation in music videos

Throughout the music industry there are various types of representation in the videos that accompany the music. Different types of representation include:

• Race
• Gender
• Class

These different things are well represented throughout the music industry in all the genres. Normally the artist will represent their own background from which they come from. For example female artists will tend to represent women more in their videos than they will men. But it is not only who is represented but how they are represented which is important in the music video industry.


Gender
Gender is represented very differently across the different genres of music video as well as within those genres. One huge example is the way women are represented in the pop industry. It is a convention for male artist's music videos in the pop genre to represent women in a sexualised and objectified way. This convention is present in a majority of music videos, Including:

 Robin Thicke - Blurred lines (uncensored)



But in the female side of the pop industry, women are represented in a much different way. They are represented as more powerful and strong even to the point where they are above men. This is mainly a convention in solo female artist's videos, who want to show the strength of women in an industry that demoralizes them. This has become increasingly more popular in the pop industry and more frequent. Some examples:








The way men are represented in music videos is very similar to that of women. As you will see in the previous videos, in male artists videos, men are represented as a dominant force over women and they are presented in an almighty way. Whereas in female artist's videos, they are represented in more of a submissive manor and are much less powerful than women. There may be some videos that break these conventions but I couldn't find any.


Race
Race is another factor that is strongly represented in music videos. Throughout the music video industry race is represented in various different ways and due to the large amount of diverse race in our world, I am going to narrow it down to black and white people. The representation of these two races differs mainly between the different genres of music. Stereotypically, Pop, R&B and Rap more heavily represent black people whereas genres like Rock, Metal and Folk represent white people more. This is because the artists within the industry are sticking to their roots, with rap and R&B originating in black society and folk and rock originating in white history. This may be a stereotypical view but through the music videos I have seen it is an accurate one.
Rock



Rap



Class
Different social classes are represented differently throughout all the different music genres in their music videos. Just like how race is represented, class is represented differently through the different genres. Firstly is the lower classes. These are best represented in rap culture videos because rap itself originated within this class and has grown out of it. So The lower class is better represented because it is most of the artists origins. Although there has been a break recently in this convention with wealthy rap artists releasing videos on how they have mad the big time showing off their new found wealth.








Break in convention:



In this video for Jay z's otis we see him carving apart a maybach, a very expensive luxury class, which shows some rap artists have adapted to upper class videos since they've earnt their money.

The middle class are represented most heavily in rock videos. This is also because this is where a majority of members of rock bands come from and so they are representing their social background.


The middle classes are today best represented by music videos from the rock genre. In a lot of the videos we see the style of middle class life represented by the musicians because, just like rap, it represents the class in which it originated. It is clearly present in a lot of rock videos that middle class is the strong class which is represented. Examples:


As always there are some videos that break these conventions:


The upper class have had their representation changed in recent years, and today I believe they are most heavily represented in the pop industry's videos. This is because the majority of pop stars today have come from enriched backgrounds, and have most likely paid there way into the industry. Other pop stars have made their fortune and are now in the upper classes so represent that now.