A few weeks ago in Mass Comm we watched a film that discussed gender roles in music videos. It was interesting to watch several samples of the videos and find patterns between different videos. As anyone who has ever seen a rap video could guess, all of the videos men dressed in expensive clothing surrounded by cars, money, and scantily clad women. However, the shocking thing about this was that this trend was not merely isolated to rap videos. The same themes appeared in rock and country videos. The main similarity between these music videos was the presence of model's in tight, revealing clothing.
At first I did not recognize this observation as a very new one. The videos were not in any way subtle. However, this observation revealed another issue with today's music videos. It revealed the extreme lack of creativity in most of the videos. It seemed like all they had to do was get a bunch of models, a few ferraris, and roll the camera as money fluters through the air. I would like to say that this pattern is all the producers' and artists' faults. However, there is an obvious demand for these images from the viewers. Proof of this is the iTunes music store. The list of most popular videos in the store are, in the majority, all rap videos in which women are flaunting their bodies in various sexual ways. The most depressing example of this are the music videos by Tila Tequila, the myspace model that is now known for her explicit photos and videos on the internet. Somebody had the bright idea to sign her to a recording contract. This is a very clear sign of the lack of creativity and motivation in the music video industry. I think this is a pretty big problem in such a popular form of new media. However, what is supposed to be done about it? How can anyone break the vicious circle of supply and demand?
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