Copyright.

Copyright is a legal concept which grants the creator of original work exclusive rights to its use and distribution. This is the 'right to copy' but also gives the creator the right to be credited for the work to determine who may benefit from the work and the complete rights to this work. I have still not got permission for my song, however, my artist has left this on their myspace and youtube account and has said that it is available for download and use. I believe that this will be OK to use for my coursework and will not cause an issue.

Stereotypes in pop videos.

WHAT IS A STEREOTYPE?

A stereotype is a typical view on a group of people. There are many different stereotypes used and represented in pop videos. This includes stereotypes for black men and women.

Black men.

Black men were viewed to be wearing gold chains around their necks and in music videos with flash cars and baggy clothes with women surrounding them. The expensive jewellery would be to show off their money and the women would be to show how irresistable they are to women.

Black women.

Black women are portrayed in a very sexual way in music videos dancing sexually for example twerking like in Miley Cyrus' video or Lily Allen. Also, they are usually wearing very little clothing and are expected to have big boobs and big hair.

There was a newspaper article by Ikamara Larasi a black female ages 24 who disagrees with the way black women are portrayed in music videos which are seen by young children who may imitate them. In the article she says people must assume that she is from East London and and is carefully managing her urge to twerk all the time; she probably smokes, comes from a broken home and is a homophobic. She exclaims that these assumptions are racist and so are the use of black men and women in music videos being violent and the use of crime. She is part of Rewind&Reframe, a group challenging the content of music videos.

These are a few videos which represent the stereotypes of black men and women which I have discussed.




This is Drake's video for 'worst behavior' a video which represents these stereotypical views quite well. In this video Drake is wearing baggy clothes, a huge gold chain, a baseball cap on backwards and is surrounded by expensive cars showing off his wealth. At the beginning there are older black men who are in baggy suits.




This is 50 Cent's video for 'Candy Shop' and represents this stereotype very well. He is wearing baggy clothes and baseball caps with big gold chains and sitting on expensive cars. This shows wealth. Also, he uses women as objects showing them with very little clothing and dancing provocatively.




This is Nicki Minaj's video for 'Starships' and this video represents black women and the very stereotypical views of them in pop videos such as bum shaking, also whats known as 'twerking', and they are wearing very little clothing.

This is also represented in Miley Cyrus' recent video 'We Cant Stop' where she is the only white girl twerking. She uses black women with big bums in her video, suggesting that this is typically expected from them.

This can also be discussed with Lily Allen's new video.

1.

THE FIRST GREATEST MUSIC VIDEO is said to be 'Thriller' by Michael Jackson, a video which TV channels cleared their schedules for premier showings of this video and the documentary of the making of the video. This was not enough to satisfy Thriller mania and when the public were in clubs and the dj would play the Thriller video everyone would stop on the dancefloor for the 9 minutes it was playing and just watch it. It was very captivating. Michael had seen 'An American Werewolf in London' and became taken with the morphing and contacted John Landis, the director of Thriller, and told him he wanted to morph into a monster. The video was like a movie and changed what could be done with a music video. Jackson invented new dance moves and was a great dancer. This was the biggest ever music video in history and everybody wanted to watch it. The awakening of the zombie dance was accompanied with Vincent Price's Horror movie 'rap'. Michael sold 50 million copies and was a huge success and it cost $700,000 but it was money worth spent. Michael become very famous and something different altogether. After this video people would anticipate his other videos and become eager to watch them. Michael became the KING OF POP.

2.

'Sledgehammer' by Peter Gabriel in 1986 is number 2, runner up! This was an experiment of cinema and very relentless using animation. It was designed to hold up after many viewings and won 9 MTV music awards.

3.

Number 3 is A-ha's 'Take on me' 1985. This won the MTV video awards and is about a girl in an Eastenders style cafe. The video had a storyline to it and she was reading a newspaper of motorcycles which Steve Barron, the director, had read a comic book on once and it had stuck in his mind. In the vidoe the phallic hand rises from the newspaper pulling her into the newspaper with the man and she becomes part of the comic. This took 3 months to make and 1400 drawings. People wondered how they switched from making them real people in the frames to cartoon drawings and this sold millions of copies.

4.

Number 4 is Queen's 'Bohemian Rhapsody' in 1975 written by Freddie Mercury himself about nothing; he wanted to see how far he could go with writing a song about nothing at all and it worked. The video was directed by Bruce Gowers and was a recreation of their 2nd album cover but a moving version. The video was a visual interpretation of the lyrics and used a multifacid prism to create the effect of having 6 of Freddie on the screen. They began filming just after 7pm and finished by 10:30pm. The video ensured that the song was at number 1 for 9 weeks.

5.

Madonna's 'Like A Prayer' in 1989 was a very famous video. Most of her videos flirted with religious imagery but no more than this one. Mary Lambert was the director and wanted this to be religious and sexual. John Landis described this music video like 'cleavage with a crucifix'. This was a parable story for children where Leon Robinson played the 'black jesus'. Madonna's character witnessed a crime and the black man was arrested but she was scared to tell anyone even though she had seen everything and knew he was innocent due to being threatened by the criminal. She goes to church to pray for guidance and the statue who was intended to be a saint comes to life and makes love to her. This was Robinson and people viewed him as playing Jesus. This caused the cancellation of a massive sponsorship deal. Madonna herself however kept $5 million. At the end of the video she goes to release him.

6.

Number 6 is 'Rock DJ' by Robbie Williams, a video full of popularity with models dancing around him at a disco and he is trying to get the attention of the Dj by taking off his clothes revealing him wearing just a tiger on his very slinky underwear. This is a very contraversial video and half of it was banned by TV companies due to him ripping his skin off in the video and throwing the fake muscles everywhere. This was very disturbing for people to watch and was only prosthetic rubber covered in red goo but was still quite strange. Top of the Pops viewers were spared the gore fest.

7.

Number 7 is 'Billie Jean' by Michael Jackson in 1983, a song about threatened paternity suit and which was intended to launch his adult career. Steven Barron was the director and was told Michael had a thing for Peter Pan and was a huge believer in magic so wanted to portray this in the video. Barron had the idea of the paving stones lighting up when Michael walked on them, however he told him he could walk wherever he wanted but they only had 11 on the morning of the shoot. 'Billie Jean' topped the US singles charts for 7 weeks and opened the way for black acts to get their videos on MTV. The video magic left Michael confused and Barron took 3 takes of him and used them as split screen when Michael thought he was only going to use one.

8.

Number 8 was 'Bittersweet Symphony' by The Verve in 1997. They used the idea from Massive Attack's 'Unfinished Sympathy' in 1991 where she walks around in LA with normal surroundings. This video used a similar idea placed in London. He looks as though he doesn't care and has a strange walk. He is a Northerner so they all began walking like him in the video. This video was also said to have inspired Fat Les' video for 'Vindaloo' in 1998, a direct rip off.

9.

Madonna's 'Vogue' 1990 was ninth on the list. She authored herself in her videos and understood that the video created more of an image of her than her songs. The song and video are both about a dance craze sweeping New York's underground hippest nightclubs. It was a very camp, gay dance created from movements in the fashion industry on runways and photoshoots. This was used as a safe way of fighting, if two people were arguing they would take it to the dancefloor instead of having a fist fight. This video represents gay men dancing mixed with Hollywood glamour using famous images of Madonna showing herself in context as Marilyn Monroe.

10.

Number 10 was Nirvana's 'Smells like teen spirit' in 1991. This music video blew away the 80s and the original idea was Kurt Cobain's; he wanted the video to be about the film 'Over the edge' where teenagers burn down a school. The director, Samuel Bayer, said that this was too far and the band did not like him at all. They did not want to lip synch and thought the cheerleaders were too pretty. Kurt was angry while shooting the video and Bayer said he thinks this helped the video. Kids who were drunk were recruited and they asked if they could destroy the set, so Bayer said yes because he was too tired and filmed it because he thought it looked beautiful. Kurt Cobain become the icon for generation X as 'grunge' became mainstream and made Nirvana from being obscure in Seattle to an international band. This changed music for at least 2/3 years.

14.

'Dirrty' by Christina Aguilera in 2002 was a video which changed her whole image from a kiddie star on the Mickey Mouse show to a dangerously sexy woman. This video involves leather, dreadlocks and very revealing clothing however it was risky and the public spoke of it as trying to be too sexy. Christina's stylist however said that she was 'fairly covered up' and that you would 'see more on the beach'. A critic says that she portrays herself as a slut in many different ways and places and that she is saying this is the natural sexuality of a girl and portrays that there are subcultures within sexuality when in fact this is wrong. Thai viewers also carefully watching this video noticed signs on the wall translating to 'Thai Sex Tourism' and 'Young Underage Girls'. This was one of Aguilera's most iconic videos due to the change it gave to her in her career.

16.

Outkast's 'hey ya' in 2003 is number 16. The whole video was Andre who played each band member due to the speculation of the band splitting up. It is a video which makes it feel and look as though you have walked into the past, representing the top of the pops programme and artists from the 60s mixing it up with current music.

17.

Number 17 on the 100 greatest music videos is 'Coffee and TV' by Blur in 1999. It was not a great song, written about Graham's journey giving up booze. The star of the video was a small milk carton who went to look for Graham when he went missing. This is the journey of the milk carton where many events happen to him and the facial expressions change accordingly. People thought this was special effects however the milk carton was played by Peter Burroughs on a green screen. People would feel empathy for the milk carton because less meaning means we are able to project more meaning onto it and what we want it to be. They also used the milk carton because in America they advertise missing people on milk cartons.

21.

Number 21 is by the extremely famous band 'Queen', who was very big for the rockers when they began their career and their music video for 'I want to break free'. Freddie Mercury was a homosexual which Queen fans were not aware of. We look back on their videos now and can see that this was obvious and clear due to how camp he was. Also, the band's name was 'Queen' which is another word for someone who is gay. David Mallet was the director and wanted to hold this in a Coronation Street house. Roger's wife had the idea of dressing in drag and they kept Freddie's moustache to add comedy. This music video acknowledged this camp side of the group however this backfired when their sales began to fall dramatically in America due to macho American rock fans failing to buy their records. Many Americans believed that Aids was sent from God to get rid of the gay people in the world, and remained modest until his death from Aids in 1991. Their sales in Britain however remained the same.

24.

Number 24 was Radiohead's 'No Surprises' in 1998. The video consists of the lyrics going across the screen while he is reading them behind glass. We wonder why the lead singer, Tom York slowly drowns in this video and it has been described as performance art. This was done all in one take and is a close up of the face. He started becoming distressed due to inability to achieve this but he done it and in the video we see the triumph on his face.

27.

'Ashes to Ashes' by David Bowie released in 1980 made number 27 of the 100 greatest music videos. Technology seemed advanced at this time and he was very late for the video age. However, it is a significant video and stretched the idea of the music videos. He uses this in creative and abstract ways portraying arresting and powerful images. At one point he is dressed as a clown, at another dressed as a character he plays and is in a padded room. This could represent the three parts of his Id. People still do not understand what this video is about and it was before MTV. They used a huge video effects truck due to the lack of technology.

31.

Number 31 is 'Stan' by Eminem featuring Dido in 2000. This is a powerful story where the images are directly related to the lyrics. This is to make it believable. It is the story of an obsessed Eminem fan descending into a homicidal wreck. This highlights the pressure of being a star and an example of living life through someone else, how most people do. There is the appearance of Dido in the video and she is dressed as a pregnant girlfriend with her hair messed up and a false bump, which is contrasting to the image she wants. Devon Sawa who plays Stan had to mime Eminem's words and rap in the video and in the car scene becomes frustrated with this and it really shows on his face, however this was very effective in the video. The dark content used caused a media outcry.

38.

Fat boy Slim's 'Weapon of Choice' in 2001 was number 38. It was Hollywood movie inspired and won in 6 categories in the MTV awards. Christopher Walken was the main star in the video, an actor which contrasts his character in the video where he is dancing, because in the films he plays the bad guy who kills everyone. He was bought up dancing in classes and when Spike Jonez called him and asked him whether he wanted to be in the video he immediately said yes. Towards the end of the video, after we see Walken dancing, we then see him fly.

39.

Number 39 is 'Common People' by Pulp in 1995. This was about his life with a girl of rich class who wanted to hang around with people from working class. Sadie Frost was the actress starring in the video acting as the girl. 15 years later Pulp became famous.

ORIGIN OF POP VIDEOS.

TV Specials would only show the top half of someone's body because they believed it was to revealing and promiscuous to show the bottom half.

During the 40s Bing Corsby was a very famous singer who would be seen of films and on television specials.
 
This is a video of 'White Christmas' which he performed and he was also in the film. He was also heard on the radio.

Frank Sinatra then took over as the most famous singer. He also appeared on TV specials and performed in concerts where girls first began screaming.


This video shows Frank's first appearance on television


This is another video showing Frank singing 'Come Fly with Me' live at one of his concerts.

In the 50's it was all about Elvis Presley. He also appeared in TV specials and films such as Blue Hawaii and Jailhouse Rock.

This video shows Elvis Presley's music video from the set of the film 'Jailhouse Rock'. He never left the USA to tour and only performed concerts in America.

Then in the 60's The Beatles came out. Top of the Pops wanted them to play on their television programme because the band were so popular, however after doing this a few times they decided they didn't just want to do this. They performed in their own concerts around the world, touring all the different countries so their fans could see them. However they got tired of girls screaming and being unable to hear themselves/other fans being unable to hear them. They also got tired of touring around the world.



This is when the Beatles performed 'Twist and shout' at Shea Stadium on August 15th 1965. After this in 1966 they made their first and the first music video ever. They went to Kenwood House and recorded videos for their songs so fans would be able to see them. This included Paperback Writer and Rain. They were both filmed in the same place. Modern music videos have got idea's of shooting music videos from these very first videos by The Beatles using close ups etc.

41.

Number 41 was one of the hugest hits by Spice Girls called 'Wannabe.' This was a launch vehicle and the release of their first song and video at the same time. One day nobody knew who they were and the next everyone knew them. This was filmed in 1996 and launched onto an unexpecting audience. Simon Fuller had put them together, manufacturing them making sure they all looks different and represented something completely different. They couldn't sing however it was all about their image and being individuals. They each had a different stage name.
Ginger Spice, Scary Spice, Baby Spice, Sporty Spice and Posh Spice.

It was filmed in a derelict building all in one take, so each time one of them made a mistake they would have to start refilming from the beginning. This video introduces all five members however Posh Spice was barely in the video. This is because Fuller was dubious about Victoria Beckham due to her inability to sing or dance the most out of all five. The video represents girl power and energy and the video was released to make it become a huge hit. The song became number one and all the young girls were fans.

42.

Number 42 is 'Oh so quiet' by Bjork in 1995. This is a postmodern video using different idea's from genres. It took 2 days to film and it was over 40 degrees celcius, while Bjork herself had a fever. The man who used to be Ernie in Sesame street stars in this video as the dancing post box. At the end Bjork launches into the sky, stealing the idea of a Hollywood movie ending.

44

Kylie Minogue's 'Cant get you out of my head' in 2001 was number 44. She was a popular young girl in neighbours and reinvented her image through this video showing herself as a fully fledged woman. This song is about obsessive love and is very repetitive but also very popular. She became a much bigger star and used futuristic idea's from the 60's with the car. She acted as though she was posessed in this video and wore a very revealing dress which later became extremely famous and is used in exhibitions. It was directed by a woman.

48.

Number 48 on the list is Johnny Cash with his cover of 'Hurt' originally by nine inch nails. This was made in 2003 after Johnny Cash had been out of fashion for a number of years until young producer Rick Rubin decided to make this video. Cash was originally a country and western singer who always wore black. He had a tough life and performed in the toughest prison in America in front of all inmates. At this point he was very fragile so they had to shoot the video in his home due to not being able to travel. The video also incorporates footage of his as a young man in the 50s. There was also the 'House of Cash', a museum of Johnny Cash whih was closed due to the destruction via flood. This was directed by Julien Temple and Johnny Cash died six months after shooting the video in September 2003.

WHAT IS WRONG WITH BEING SEXY?

Along with 20 other universities the University College London student Union banned single song; Robin Thicke's 'Blurred Lines'. The biggest song of the year has become the most controversial of the decade, released at the end of March 2013 by the R&B singer along with Pharrell Williams and rapper T.I. This was a party jam about a oman who may or may not be interested in him in a night club. In April, a blogger branded this song as a rape song and Tricia Romano of the Daily Beast described it as 'rapey'. This caused uproar in other media outlets and may have escaped censure if it wasn't for the video! This includes three male performers being surrounded by scantily and sexually dressed models. There is also a version on VEVO where the girls are topless. In September, members of Project Unbreakable, a project devoted to rape survivors, help up placards comparing words spoken in the lyrics with words of their attackers. Kirsty Haigh from EUSA's vice president of services said that 'it promotes a very worrying attitude towards sex and consent' and that 'this is about ensuring that everyone is fully aware that you need enthusiastic consent before sex. The song says 'you know you want it' but you can't know they want it unless they tell you they want it.'

Thicke's hit had become part of a bigger debate about messages of pop lyrics and videos. Netmums published a survey claiming that 80% of parents had found their children copying explicit lyrics or dance movies from music vidoes, while Annie Lennox called for videos to be regulated in the same way as movies and having age restrictions. She claimed that she is all for freedom of expression but this single is clearly one step beyond and in the realm of pornography.

Lily Allen's new video 'hard out here' made reference to Robin Thicke and three organisations launched the Rewind&Reframe campaign with a strategy to enable young women to air their grievance about music videos, to campaign for age restrictions on videos, encourage compulsory sex and relationship education in schools and to pressure the music industry to get its house in order. Lia latchford says that across the board there is racism and sexism in videos and that women are sexualized especially black and ethnic minority women. She also said that young women have told them that it has an impact on their day to day lives.

Even Emily Ratajkowski, the most prominent model in the video, has said she is glad that people are criticising pop lyrics because she believes thats an important thing to do. When MC Rick Ross rapped on Rocko's single UOENO about spiking somebody's drink in order to have sex with her public outcry caused him to apolagise. US music critic Maura Johnston said that it boggled his mind and he disagrees with what the public ae saying about it. She suggests that 'its an easy target because Robin Thicke is kind of slimy.'

49.

Number 49 is Jamiroquai's 'Virtual insanity' made in 1996. He wears hats and is a very good dancer with balance and smooth moves. This is a very clever video and everyone questioned how they created the effects of the moving floor. They eventually revealed that they created this effect by moving the walls with 25 people. This was rated the best video, cinematography and special effects at the MTV awards in 1997.

55.

Fatboy Slim (Norman Cook)'s 'Praise you' in 1999 is rated number 55. Fatboy Slim isn't actually in the video but the director Spike Jonez (Richard Konvey). This is a very different video involving a community dance group performing a terrible dance routine outside a cinema where people were trying to get in. People did not realise that this was a set up and the filming was done by people posing as tourists with their cameras. This stretches what you can do with music videos and won 6 MTV awards in 2001.

61.

'Smack my b***h up' by the Prodigy made in 1997 was rated number 61. 'Firestarter' was previously shown on Top of the Pops, someone phoned up and said that Kieth Flint needs help. This video is dangerous and on the edge. It appears to condone domestic violence. Directed by Jonas Akalund who directed the Cardigans video and some of Madonna's videos, it is unrestrained with a twist at the end. It is contraversial and shot in Point Of View throughout the whole video. We believe that this is the point of view of a man having a lads night out on a Saturday however the twist at the end shows it was in fact a woman. MPs wanted it banned and it provokes the audience. It is based on one of Akalund's evenings but amplified. It was shot in one night due to having low budget and marks the mid 90s lad culture of being a man, getting drunk and being surrounded by women.

63.

George Michael's 'Outside' video in 1998 was number 63. This caused huge discussion of the man who used to be in Wham! He was admired by the ladies however when he was caught in a public toilet by an undercover police man committing sexual acts with another man, his career was in the balance and he came out as homosexual. He tried to recover his career through this song and music video which starts off in a disco toilet. He dresses as a police officer which caused the officer who arrested him to feel mocked and tried to sue him for $10 million in Beverly Hills. This video is very camp and uses security camera point of view shots spying on couples. Vaughan, the director, also included the kissing of two gay police officers in the video.

66.

Bob Dylan's 'Subterranean Homesick Blues' in 1965 was number 66. This was not designed as a music video it was for a film. This was part of the film. Bob Dylan was on tour in Britain and was followed. It was filmed outside the Savoy Hotel on the Strand and was only done in one take. The idea has been used in advertising and other bands have also used it. Directors and camera men sat writing out some of the words to the song on a music video. Bob Dylan was seen as cool for not being in time with the music/song and looking as though he was just chucked paper away.

69.

Number 69 was 'Two Tribes' by Frankie Goes to Hollywood in 1984. This was directed by Godley and Creme about the Cold War between East and West. This video is contraversal and their previous song was banned due to a suggestive lyric. This was said to be an iconic video and was of a boxing match. The band was popular and people would wear 'Frankie says....' t shirts.

73.

Basement Jaxx's 'Wheres your head at?' in 2001 was said to be the 73rd out of 100 greatest music videos. This video has a story at the beginning provoking the audience and is shot in a mental hospital. The monkeys they used had the faces of humans which was very disturbing but caused a lot of attention for the video. This carried on the idea of Godley and Creme.