Pop music videos are all about the artist trying to sell the song to the audience. Typical elements in pop videos include: lots of bright colours, make-up ad props. This is different to indie tock as indie rock usually contains dark colours or tone, make-up or props. The pop music to go with videos, usually include happy music and a lot of dancing. The mise-en scene usually includes bright colours, lights, lots of makeup, fashion accessories. The editing usually includes tints and filters to boost colours, photoshopped artists so they look perfect.
Gender - Women:
In music videos females are represented in a different way to men, they are often sexualised wearing skimpy clothing etc. This is often to appeal to the male viewers reinforcing Mulvey's theory of the "Male Gaze". The "Male Gaze" is a concept that deals with how audiences view the people presented, even though the male is gaze is thought to be related to just men, it also can be related to how women view themselves and others.
For example: In Ariana Grande's music video Focus, there are a lot of characteristics that show that the male gaze is an important factor when creating music videos, especially for female pop artist. In the Focus music video you can see a silhouette of Ariana in a small bright circle, the circle resembles a telescope, which reinforces the idea that audiences fain pleasure through watching someone else with out them knowing. The contrasting colours between black and white emphasises her body, it emphasises that she is an object to be gazed at, also her posture and the fact you can't see her close show that this part of the video is showing her to be sexualised (Male Gaze). Also within the music video of Focus there is an extreme close of her mouth which can be seen as an intimate shot.
Gender - Male
In music videos men are often presented as powerful people, who have a lot of money who attract a to of female. They're shown to be dominant and they they have sex with a lot of females. This is in order to seem admirable to other men, and makes the male audience what to aspire to be like them. This stereotypically seen in Hip-Hop and RnB. Men are normally portrayed to be seen as the hero in music videos all trying to get the girl, which shows that women are seen as a prize (object).
For example: Drake's music video Worst Behaviours follows a lot of the conventions and stereotypes within male music videos. One of the opening shots in the music video is a close up of his gold chain which connotes the message that his is rich and has lots of money, this reinforces the representation of men in music videos that they have money. There is a mid shot shown, within this you can see the man standing wearing a suit surrounded by a lot of gold infant of 5 cars, again he is representing the idea that he is money focused, but this clip is suggests that he has sex with a lot of women furthering the representation of men, making assumptions that this is what his target audience are looking for. The music video is showing all the stereotypical representations which are found in male music videos. In another shot in the music video you can see Drake wearing 3 of the same chains, two in gold and one in silver. This causes a young male audience to look up to him as they want to get money and be rich so they can then be like Drake and have nice care, clothes and jewellery.
Ethnicity
Different ethnicities and different cultures are often represented in music videos, however, they rarely challenge the stereotypes and representations which are shown about the different ethnicities other forms of media such as TV and Film. Different ethnicities in music videos can also be used to show an insight to that culture so that audiences can gain a better understanding. Rap music is mainly associated with African American people, the amount of black rap artists in the music industry has increased massively since the Sugarhill Gang realises Rappers Delight. Some of the most famous black rap artists today include: Kanye West, Jay-Z, Snoop dog and Nicki Manaj. However, within music videos black rap artists tend to show the side side of life such as money, however some the stereotypes of black people as they may be suggesting that crime is ok for good reasons. Micheal Jackson, was one of the first African American artist to globally enter the pop music and break the stereotypes of black and white artists. When he became a solo artist he recreated a white dominated genre. He was trying to promote and make everyone realise that there shouldn't be any racial difference between black and white artist. This relates to Stuart Hall's representation theory that there is not a true representation of people or events in a text, but there are lots of ways these can be represented. Producers try to 'fix' a meaning people or event in their texts, this is shown explicitly through ethnicity and how people try to match their stereotypes in music videos.
Beat it - Micheal Jackson
Age
Over the years age has played a crucial part in the representation of characters within the narrative of music videos, as decades progressed so did the stereotypes of ages. Avril Lavaigne's msuc videos she swears and acts like a stereotypical teenager, giving off the wrong impression to the audience. Some stereotypes that she follows include: Destroying property, Assault, bullying, public indecency, drunk and disorderly, graffiti, disturbing the peace, which is how teenagers have been portrayed in music videos for decades. In the music video it matches all the characteristics that audiences expect to see from teenagers, which can have a negative impact on children as they grow older.
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