Representation in

music videos
Rachel Thompson

R&B Music videos

Age and class- Youth/Teenagers, young adults, social class
Ethnicity- usually African American, portrayed as pimps, the hood, being wealthy,
glamorous lifestyles etc.
National identity/Region- America (Los Angeles, New York) , London, a City (a
place where you can exceed your dreams) night life, grimy hood lifestyle, young
independent individual
Gender- Men can be objectified- female gaze, Men could be looked up to as role
models in R&B music videos-good advice, wealth, good lifestyle, wife etc.
Objectification of women-male gaze- emotional heartbroken or strong
independent woman dealing with heartbreak well (unusual subverted convention).

arion ft Jhene Aiko and Chris Brown Post

I will be analysing the R&B music video Post To Be by Omarion
featuring Jhene Aiko and Chris Brown. This video conveys R&B
representations about gender, age and ethnicity.
In this song both genders are represented in the same way, they
sing about how they flaunt the goods they have and how the
opposite sex are attracted to them

Omarion ft Jhene Aiko and Chris Brown Post to be

At the start of the video there is an

establishing shot which show all the
artist in the middle of a plain white
room, They are all standing together at
the same level- no one seems more
dominant than the other( the woman is
placed in the middle she has the same
level of dominance or more here. She
looks as if she is the main artist
however the man on the right is
In this shot, a car appears in the
middle, its the only item there, its
present to depict his wealth, he leans
on it to draw attention towards it and to
show off. During this shot he raps pull
up to the club and it glo up (meaning

 There are some quick shots were the

main artist is in a dark room by his self,
this is probably done to draw attention
to him because in the other location
there are two other artists and the
attention isnt focused on him as much.
This shot is in black and white because
the producer wants us to focus on the
lyrics rather than how he looks.
(usually music videos are recorded in
black and white to reflect emotionhowever in this case its not an
emotional song but they subverted
conventions and decided to use it
anyway)

No close up or extreme
close up shots are needed
or used in this music video
, mainly due to the fact
that its not an emotional
song where in which we
would need to see facial
expressions a lot.
This music video wants us
to focus more on the song
its self, and show the
artists body language
(there is a lot of dancing
going on) and response to

 The shots throughout this music video consist of flat

angled, long and middles shots throughout.
- Flat angled because all the artists are on the same level
in terms of dominance, singing about the same this, the
purpose of their lyrics are aiming to gain the same
response from their audience.
- Middle and long shots so we are able to see body
language.

 Even though the shot angles are low flat

angles throughout the rest of the music
video, when it gets to the part where its the
females turn to sing her solo, the camera
angle goes slightly high so that we are
looking down on her.
- This was probably done to show that even
though she is doing the same thing they are,
at the end of the day she still is a female and
there is a certain way in which females are
portrayed in music videos.
- She is also wearing a top which is showing
her tummy, where as the males are fully
clothed and arent trying to be pernicious at
all, where as you could argue she slightly be
trying to.
- So even with the subverted conventions
there are still some reinforced ones.

 All of the artists take it in turns to come up to

the camera individually and sing/rap their
solo(at this point the camera goes in to a mid
shot-showing body language and a bit of their
facial expressions as they perform).

 During the females part , she also sings But he gotta get rid of these hoes
from me half way through the song- this suggests she is still quiet insecure
about the role she is playing in the song .
She is singing as a dominant , confidant female who is saying she can
easily get any man she wants to, however her saying he needs to make her
his main girl suggests she knows she may not win the mains heart and
therefore isnt that dominant.
Her saying this song makes it seem as if she doesnt really believe in what
she's singing about.

 In this music video there is no binary opposition present due

to the fact that all the artists are singing about the same
thing and all have the same level of dominance in the music
video
however you could argue they are all in competition singing
about how they could easily attract the opposite sex if they
wanted to, they are each singing how they are better at
doing so.
Semiotics- the whole meaning behind this song is about the
ways in which they win over the opposite sex and why they
do so.

 Mise-en-scene- Plain white background (music focused on artists and

lyrics), flashy car to depict their wealth this is a common R&B music video
convention,
Camera distance/angles- There are a lot of long and medium shots to
used to show their body language and chorography- because there are
long shots this means the camera is often quiet far from the artists. The
composition of the majority of the shots are of all of the three of them all
in one long flat angles shot.
Editing- The editing is not continuous but instead there's many cross
cutting and quick shots throughout. Some shots are reflected/duplicated

 Even though most of the R&B gender

stereotypes are subverted by the main female
artist in this music video- some are still
reinforced by the female actor on the side-line.
- The female actor has no clothes on (common
convention in R&B music videos is that females
wear minimal clothing), which /makes her look
pernicious and become an object of desire for
males. This also supports the male gaze theory
as males will find this appealing to look at.

She is covered in Gold paint- the connotations of

Gold are wealth, glamour and fame. Gold is a
prestigious colour which is used in R&B music
videos (a lot) through costume to depict wealth.
She is seen as an object of desire because she is
being personified as Gold making her valuable.

Audience
Why would someone consume this music video?
Some R&B music video conventions are present in this video- e.g. the outfits of all of the artists, The
choreography present, the flashy car, the female actor wearing barley any clothes
However some gender stereotypes are subverted- e.g. the female artist sings on the same level of the
other two male artist singing about the same thing, she is not half naked (however she has a belly top
on-but this is not as bad)- an active audience member would like the subverted gender role for its
different.
How does the content of the genre reflect the audience?
Star theory- the audience may aspire to be like the female artist who subverted the common
conventions. Or aspire to be like the artist because they are gloating about how they can get any
woman/man if they wanted to (they could possibly take some advice from what is .
The R&B audience may share the same values and beliefs as what is being sang/as the artists in the
song and therefore enjoy it more.