. The male character was cut progressively throughout, embracing
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Yoko and the Oh No’s “Love U” music video |
Eilish’s videos are fairly asexual, but sexual
representations are common in the dark/electropop
genre. Music artists signed to the '
big 3' have voluntarily engaged with the
BBFC (reflecting global
distribution) age rating scheme on online videos. We avoided overly explicit
imagery for our t(w)een
target audience and for commercial endorsements (Madonna losing Pepsi deal over Like a Prayer). The semi-explicit sexual
visuals include the male’s chest showing and the positions they’re in.
Countertypically, the female is shown controlling him, emphasizing her
agency, which is swapped and shared between them. We wanted a playful
postmodern approach to the
gender norms.
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"Countertypically, the female is shown controlling him, emphasizing her agency..." |
Female artists (e.g. Gaga's
Bad Romance, Cyrus'
Wrecking Ball) often raise the
feminist/
post-feminist debate (would reflect
Mulvey's feminist '
male gaze' but disregarding
agency). We mixed the
post-feminist agency the female character presents, with some
feminist credentials throughout the music video. Providing both the red and black lipstick on the female
protagonist portrays the tensions between the
feminist and
post-feminist readings. Inspired by Melanie Martinez, another dark-pop artist, we used
colour pop, doll looks and sexualised elements to a degree, but stayed somewhat faithful to Eilish’s established non-sexualised
brand.
Mulvey would argue there is
male gaze present, with shots of the females’ bust, however, she has
agency. The male character, on the other hand, is presented as
secondary, and with shots of his bare chest, there is ‘
female gaze’ present. We used slightly promiscuous clothing but also rejected the
gender binary through some of the outfits (baggy trousers) sticking to Eilish's
brand. The
deconstructionist hyper-feminine ‘doll’ look with the pigtails conform with
Butler’s queer theory.
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"The deconstructionist hyper-feminine ‘doll’ look with the pigtails..." |
Personal identity,
escapism and
social interaction were the prominent forms of the
McQuail's Uses and Gratifications theory (
U+G) we reflected in our products. As for
personal identity, the ‘doll’ look works for the t(w)een
audience and the sexualised elements work for the older teen
audience. The
performativity/
playfulness of
gender with
camp looks, much like Lady Gaga (Bad Romance), help to reinforce Eilish’s appeal to the
LGBTQ+ community. The
colour pop and balloons are forms of
escapism. We put the artist on a relatable level by creating
alternative videos (typically ones that were previously forms of
UGC… e.g., lyric video, dance video…) and uploading them (another form of
monetisation).
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"creating alternative videos..." |
The
social interaction specifically comes into play on
social media. We created other
Twitter accounts to ask questions on a QnA, “Where’s the music video you promised us?”, and I replied as Eilish, “don’t worryyy keep patient & u won’t be disappointed!! xx”. I chose a
profile picture for
Twitter in which I am also wearing pigtails, much like the music video and
digipak, creating that sense of
branding. Eilish has been featured in Vanity Fair and Rolling Stone which pushed her into the older
secondary target audience. Due to this, we have used
intertextuality (
Altman’s intellectual puzzles), which they would be able to spot, such as having two of the
protagonist intertexualising the 1980 film,
The Shining, with the twins. This
intertextuality is used on my
Twitter as well, as I included a “Here’s Johnny”
gif to celebrate my ‘editor’ being back at work after a delay due to coronavirus. Those who are able to pick up on the
intellectual puzzles used in the music video, boost their
cultural capital (
Bourdieu). I created a
tweet which would instil a shared experience in the
genre community (
Chandler), “tonight/midnight/stay tuned”. The
narrative enigma would have fans guessing and boosting their
cultural capital. The
diegetic outro of the music video engages with the
audience and also sticks to Eilish’s
brand as she also breaks character at the end of the song, which we cut out.
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"intertexualising the 1980 film, The Shining" |
As the
diegetic outro to our music video is whiny and then a laugh, there is
U+G for the t(w)een
audience. Body shaming is a huge issue in the female and t(w)een
social groups. I’ve
retweeted some tweets which talk about body confidence, and even replied to one in the ‘
QnA’, “Not a question, but just wanted to let you know how much you have done for me. You are so unique, so inspirational and my favourite human ever!!!!! I love you so much, keep slaying girl”.
Anchoring this, I included the
visual of the
protagonist eating a doughnut in our video, named the album "Purged",
connoting the eating disorder as well as eating a rose on the
front panel of the
digipak. A huge part of our
product for
social media was choosing the appropriate
social media. We avoided
Facebook as the
demographic for it is a lot older than our
target audience. We chose to use
Twitter and
Instagram which work for our
audience, but also delved into
TikTok, a critical platform for
Gen Z. We used specific language on our
social media for this youth
audience, including elongating words, “cryyyyy”, all lower case or capital letters, “HE’S BACK!! GET READY!!”, and
emojis. Eilish’s previous
Instagram handle was ‘@wherearetheavocados’, so I used the avocado
emoji in the
bio which the
preferred reading (
Hall) will understand and gain
cultural capital.
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"in the ‘QnA’" |
Our music video only has two characters in, neither of which are part of the
BAME community or
disabled. This is a reflection of COVID challenges, as we would include more diversity for the
Gen Z audience. We consciously avoided the
anchorage of any
location we filmed at in order to fit in with Eilish’s
globalised icon branding. In terms of
religion, the crucifix earrings (
intertextualising Madonna and Gaga) could be beneficial for the American
market (more
religious than European market), again playing into
globalisation. However, although there is
religious iconography, it is left
polysemic with the
playful lyrics and use of promiscuity and crucifix.
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"the crucifix earrings"
digipak branding |