AH: Is the music video a commercial, porn or advertisement?

• To declare music videos in general to be confined to one category is not only very hard but also virtually impossible. The reason for this is mostly explained in a quote: “Music videos are based on reinvention, re-imaging, never standing still; always looking different; being in flux; moving.” from the article ‘The End Of Celluloid’ (Matt Hanson, 2004).
• This quote reinforces the idea that no two music videos are the same as directors are forever attempting to be original and unique by reinventing and taking ideas from past creations.
• Many female pop artists’ music videos have strong conventions of the porn category. Take Nicki Minaj “Right By My Side” as an example there is a close up shot of her bum, this is clear evidence of voyeurism as the camera lingers on the subject from the perspective of heterosexual males.
• You can also build upon this as it uses dismemberment to objectify her, all these points suggest the video denies woman agency. Goffman, Jhally and Kilbourne focused on how women are represented in popular culture, including music videos. In each of their studies, a pattern was found where women were typically depicted in subordinate, subservient and male pleasing roles, suggesting sexism.
• But to label music videos in general as porn is absurd as it is only seen in a small number of music videos.
• Commercial and advertisement are pretty much the same as the dictionary definition of commercial is ‘an advertisement in a common media format’. For a music video to be an advertisement for the artist you would expect to see a dominating prevalence from the artist upon the video.
• This is actually very common in pretty much all music videos as if you think about it the music video is to plant an image in the consumer’s head so whenever they hear the song they will remember the video.
• Techniques included in such commercial music videos may be relative size, the artist will never be much shorter than any dancers or actors included in the video. The reason for this is height symbolises social rank and artists are seen to be rich and high up on the social ladder.
• A great example of this relative size technique is in Kylie Minogue’s music video for ‘Time Bomb’. Kylie Minogue is known to be quite short yet you wouldn’t notice it in the music video as she is wearing high heels and none of the men are towering over her.
• The reason for this is that Kylie is a very successful pop-star meaning her meta-narrative development has led her to this point were she is a dominant force in the industry and this is portrayed in her music videos.