RESEARCH: Laura Mulveys theory /Compared

‘in a world ordered by sexual imbalance, pleasure in looking has been split between active/male and passive/female, the determining male gaze projects its fantasy onto the female figure which is styled accordingly’ (Laura Mulvey, 1992)

According to Laura Mulvey, the image of an artist within a music video is carefully planned, they do not just wear whatever they feel is good. From the choice of clothes, style of hair and the narrative the artist is in, it’s all carefully planned to represent what the industry seem viable to promote the artist.

This shot from Robin Thickes – Blurred Lines music video is a prime example of how women are presented in music videos in a bid to please men, the music video on youtube alone has over 185 million views, this will be seen as a success to the music video producers.

Furthermore the male artists in this video treat the women as inferior passive beings to themselves. We are observing the video from the males point of view as we can also see the women as inferior and passive.

 

The shot above is a prime example of the male gaze on the almost naked female.

Its mysoginsitic lyrics has resulted the song from being banned at five universities across the united kingdom.

Genres such as RnB, hiphop and rap reinforce mulveys theory of male dominance over music videos. However, pop videos by females themselves such as lady gaga/rihanna reinforce that this issue is not only present in male artists videos but also within female artists themselves, this is not to say that the female artists want to put this type of costume in their own music videos. But its what their label wants. Beacause the label believes this will atttact a larger audience and in return increase popularity/awareness and profit from selling more merchandise/albums.

These two shots from both female artists support mulveys theory. In Rihannas video she looks extremely vulnerable sitting in a bath naked, the camera is positioned high above so that the target audience feels power over the artist, a type of male dominance.

Lady gaga is in a weird bra and knickers, once again almost naked. This shows that male dominance within the music industry is at its prime. rihanna has almost 200 million views whereas lady gagas new music video has about 65 million.

When comparing these two female pop videos with an indie/folk female artist who is fully clothed, you can really see the difference between the number of hits. 

This video of regina spektor - us has been on youtube since 2006  and only has 7 million views, a massive difference to those above who have only been on their for around a year at maximum.