Case Study: Katy Perry Music Videos

In 2008, American singer Katy Perry found relative fame due to a number of songs recently released, one of which being "Hot n Cold". This song and music video was one of the first examples of her appealing to her target audience of young girls starting to face insecurities in themselves. The video shows a wedding gone wrong, and while this ay be nerve-wrecking and scary to some people, Katy Perry puts herself in a position of dominance over the 'groom'. Her aggression and power over the groom shows to the young girls watching that a woman can always stand up and fight in hardship. She also attracts a male audience in her appearance, as her outfit is designed to be sexually appealing to men in some scenes yet sensible enough to not intimidate women.

This style of music and music video became Katy Perry's identity, as her role towards her target audience as their 'older sister' helped for people to like her, especially 14-17 year old girls that may be feeling self conscious about their appearance or who feel like a social outcast. On top of this, her songs also reflected her real life problems, including her marriage and divorce against Russel Brand. Songs such as 'Firework' were created in order inspire people to feel better about their personality and interest. She uses examples in her video such as people who like magic or that are gay. She presents them to feel self conscious in their individuality, and by the end they embrace who they are and are able to come out feeling better. This is a lesson that Katy wanted to share with her audience, as once again the 14-14 year olds watching may be feeling self conscious and by telling them that their quirks and interest aren't something to be ashamed of the audience can feel morally boosted and supported that otherwise they may not have had.

 However, this style of music was maintained up until Perry's marriage to Russell Brand in 2010. It is believed that the big change in her personal life influenced her style in music and that her engagement led to a change in style from supportive, confidence boosting big sister to a more sexual object of male desire which was a new bold step in Perry's music career. This made her career take a less desirable turn, and after her relationship with Russell Brand ended she found herself hurt and her career turned back to her big sister role to a young audience again.

Sexism in Music Videos

According to media feminist Laura Mulvey, we as an audience are forced to view visual media through a 'male gaze', meaning that what both women and men are made to see women in the video as a man would, with women being sexualised in their portrayal. A music video that highlights this would be Nicki Minaj's 'Anaconda', as while the majority of people in the video are women they seem to be playing to attract a male audience. To further this view of sexism, the lyrics of the song almost completely cater to a male audience, with a prominent focus in the lyrics to the male penis.
 Another argument against sexism in music videos comes from Lily Allen, in her song 'Hard Out Here'. While the song's lyrics are completely feminist and against exposing women inappropriately, the actual video features multiple of the features the song is against. While this could be seen as an ironic view of the style and is making fun of it, this is not clear to the audience and therefore could be seen as more hypocritical. Despite the main message of the song is about how women trying to be thin to look good is wrong, she amplifies the message by adding examples of the good looking women.

A Model of the Media

In the Media Industry there are three different stages to make a complete circle of media consumption and production. These are 'Industry', Audience' and 'Text', all of which are essential to the media's creation.
 As the diagram shows, possibly the most important segment of the graph is the Audience paying to see the film, giving money to the Institutions (Top Arrow). This is because without the revenue that the audience provides the institution can't make any more films and would have wasted the money spent making the film. A Potential danger to the diagram that affects the top arrow directly is the threat of piracy of the films. The issue with watching films illegally for free is that if you aren't paying money to the industry to see the film, the institutions would miss out on profit. With the advances in technology in recent years, there is a genuine threat of a great amount of people watching the film at home for free, and while this means that people don't have to pay money, the people who made the film don't get paid as much for their work.
 The Institutions are mostly large companies like BBC, Disney or Warner Bros. that are in charge of the creation of the text. Wether it's film, television shows, newspapers, etc. the institutions are responsible for the texts's Marketing (so the audience are aware of the text), Exhibition, Production and Distribution. Without the Institution, there would be no text for the audience to consume, breaking the entertainment cycle. Once the text is created, it is then "consumed" by the audience. Without the audience, the text would make no profit or revenue for the institutions, making them stop producing texts.