IN THIS POST:
- Criteria
- Critical reflection
CRITERIA
CRITICAL REFLECTION
(995 words)
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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 |
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