Reality Ludacris Videos Create

The Reality Ludacris Rap Music Videos Create Alexandra Musi

St. Edwards University May, 2012

Reality Ludacris Videos Create

Abstract______________________________________________________ This paper uses Bormanns fantasy theme critical method to analyze two of rapper Ludacriss performances in Whats Your Fantasy and Sex Room. The performances by Ludacris that are analyzed were chosen to represent the majority of rap and hip-hop videos currently being viewed. This paper focuses on how fantasy themes relate to the realities viewers construct based on what they are seeing in the music videos. The research specifically looks at the roles that men and women play in rap music videos. This paper discusses the value women are given based on their sexual appeal, and the dominant roles men play in music videos.

Reality Ludacris Videos Create Every day millions of people get on their computer or turn on their television and watch music videos. This interest people have in a particular music video usually starts with hearing the song on the radio. If that individual likes the song then they most likely will look up the video online to watch the fantasy depicted in the video. The reality is that many viewers of various music videos want to live the lives portrayed by the characters in the video. In many ways people become influenced by the artists performance without even realizing it. When watching a music video that is placed in a certain setting the viewers might attribute that city to the story the song is attributing to it. For example, if a video is set in Dubai and all you see are fancy cars and people living luxurious lifestyles then your reality of the city becomes based off of the music video. Even when someone has never visited Dubai they subconsciously attribute what they see in a music video to be valid, even if they have no previous knowledge about that particular city. Viewers can also begin to construct realities based on the videos and mimic the same actions of the characters. An example of this is when people dance the same way as they see in videos, talking like the artist does, and more importantly begin acting like the artist character in the video. The artifacts that will be analyzed in this essay are the two music videos Whats Your Fantasy and Sex Room. Both videos are hip-hop performances by the popular rapper Ludacris. The videos are a decade apart; Whats Your Fantasy was released in the year 2000, and Sex room in 2010. The time span of a decade shows that the content of music videos have not changed and the same themes are still being represented. Both performances represent the majority of rap and hip-hop videos and are great examples to use for the purpose of analyzing.

Reality Ludacris Videos Create The song Whats Your Fantasy is just as the title states, various fantasies. Ludacris talks about different sexual fantasies he wants to have with a woman. The setting of the video is outside in a parking lot around cars and shows more women in attendance than men. The women in the video are all scantily dressed in tight clothes, short skirts/dresses, and either bikini tops or cutoff shirts with the majority of their midriff exposed. In the video the women are also licking lollipops and popsicles in a sexually suggestive manner. The other song I will be analyzing is Sex Room, which is the more recent video of the two. In this song Ludacris talks about one particular setting that is the sex room. Ludacris raps about what he is going to do sexually to a woman and how satisfied she will be with him. The setting of this video is in Las Vegas at the Palms hotel, and the characters are staying in the best suites the hotel has to offer. The characters are shown gambling in the casino and living a very lavish lifestyle. The women are dressed in clubbing clothes that accentuate their bodies and are typical attire you would see girls wearing in Las Vegas to party. The men in the video are dressed in elegant suits that give them a classy look. Just as in Ludacris other video, there are more women than men and the women are serving the mens pleasures. Through the use of fantasy theme, which will be the method of criticism, one might be able to better understand the appeal of music videos that are successful at playing on the perceived realities. Fantasies are shared in all communication contexts, that there is a connection between rhetorical visions and community consciousness, that sharing fantasies is closely connected with motivation, and is an important means for people to create their social realities (Bormann, 1982, p. 289). There is a relationship that

Reality Ludacris Videos Create is created between the characters in music videos and their viewers. The audience then associates symbols with what they are seeing and therefore changes the reality identified by them. This is the basis for the idea of symbolic convergence, which argues that humans attribute meaning to objects, or signs in order to understand them (Foss, 2009, p. 97). Music videos are set up to be what is socially wanted by a group of people in society. Bormann (1982) writes about the development of the technical terms and goes into explaining fantasy theme and also the term rhetorical vision. The article he wrote helps further the development of this particular artifact. This does so by giving a good explanation of the terms and also the fantasy method. When using this method the article by Hansen (1995) evaluated hip-hop and rock music and created a comparison between the two. Hansens article discusses what each genre, hip-hop and rock, music videos represent. By examining the social themes of the videos this article identifies examples of sexual acts in videos. Also, he discusses the harsh treatment of women and instances of violence that can take place due to music videos such as this particular artifact. Violence does relate to the treatment of women and is part of the fantasy world that takes place in music videos. When looking specifically at the identity of women in music videos Lena writes about the voyeurism aspect in rap videos (2008). The gender section in the article describes the roles that each gender is given and what they represent. Lena states the different terms that women are called in music videos and that women have accepted to be called, such as bitch and ho. The behavior of women in music videos is also examined. What physical actions they use and how women compare to the men in the music videos is also looked at. The women follow the rappers, standing behind and to

Reality Ludacris Videos Create their side, caressing them with both fingers and eyes. They look longingly at the clothes and money the rappers have acquired through criminal activity (Lena, 2008, p. 273). Women are very sexualized in rap videos and the way they dress illustrates the sexual nature of these various videos. Voyeurism is very apparent in both of the and directly relate to the fantasy theme that is taking place. Sullivans article discusses Dream Worlds 3, which I watched and have taken from to further my analysis of Ludacris videos. The film Dream Worlds 3, examines the different fantasies that are decided by men and the focus on womens sexuality and specifically their bodies. The videos disregard the womans personality and only give them worth according to how their body looks and how sexual they are. The angle of the camera is important to take into consideration and also what is being shown in each shot. Hip-hop music videos tend to show shots only one part of a womens body. These images are sexual in nature and focus in on just one part of a womens body, and at times do not even show her face. This takes away from the women as an individual and turns her into just a sexual object and a compilation of body parts. Focusing in on just the parts of a woman takes away the legitimacy of her as an individual and the fact that she offers more than just her physical attributes. Zhang et al. (2010) identifies four different themes in music videos, violence, sex, political awareness, and materialism. The theme that I looked into further in the article is sex and the role it plays in these constructed realities that are shown in the videos. Women are used as sexual objects and are focused on just for sexual purposes. Moreover, female characters are often shown as sexual objects in rap videos with a heavy emphasis on physical appearance and sexual attractiveness (pg. 789). The women

Reality Ludacris Videos Create that are more physically attractive and have the more desirable body figure have a higher worth and are valued more than the other women. My research focuses on how fantasy themes relate to the realities viewers construct based on what they are seeing in the music videos. I will look at how actions in the selected music videos relate to society and what is deemed acceptable. The research I have chosen will then help analyze the themes that are taking place in the video. I will be looking closely at how women are represented in the music videos, and what that means for the overall characters women play and how they are constructed. Also, how men are seen in relation to how women are viewed in the music videos. The two performances by Ludacris will help get across character that artists play in connection to the women that are represented. I chose two music videos that are a decade apart by the same artist to show how fantasies change over time in a society. The actuality is that music videos do influence the individuals watching them whether the person realizes it or not. Studies have been conducted to test find out the extent in which people are influenced and some of the research I referenced confirmed this. In all these studies, subjects interpreted a subsequently encountered social stimulus in the context of schemas primed by music videos and became more positive about observed behaviors that resembled (or could be assimilated to) that social category (Hansen, 1995, pg. 47). One identifying that people are influenced by the videos that they watch, then you can explore in what ways the audience is influenced. Women are over sexualized in both Whats Your Fantasy and Sex Room. They wear revealing clothes and their bodies are largely exposed. This is a frequent theme in rap videos, and over sexualizing women and their bodies is what the artifacts

Reality Ludacris Videos Create focus on. Sexual content and sexual permissive messages are also common in rap music videos (Zhang, 2010, pg. 289). In one scene of Whats Your Fantasy, Ludacris is outside in a backyard taking a bath with a woman who is publically exposed, and she barely covered by the bath bubbles. Ludacris spanks her and then in another shot is scene holding her leg and just uses her as an object. The woman is seen as only a sexual object that serves the purpose to play out Ludacris fantasy. In the music video Sex Room the men in the story line out number the women. There are four characters that are female, and the two male characters are both the artists. The four women sexually please the two men, sometimes shown separately and at other times showing more than one woman with one of the men at a time. This depiction only reinforces the perverted expression of male dominance and patriarchy, and reasserts the stereotyping of women as sexual objects intended exclusively for male pleasure (Lena, 2008, p. 273). Men are the dominant characters in this video just as in Whats Your Fantasy. The women, on the other hand, are depicted just as commodities that cater to the mens desires. Once we recognize what is taking place in the music videos, we can then decide who is dictating this fantasy. The director of the videos creates a fantasy and the artist, Ludacris, leads the performance by acting out of the directors vision. The director creates a fantasy that is then viewed by millions of people, which can cause confusion of what is deemed as acceptable behavior in the real world and what is not. Jhallys analysis is of music video images of women as sexual objects and men as sexual aggressors. Similar to Kilbourne, Jhally emphasizes the feminist socio-cultural perspective that gender is socialized, not

Reality Ludacris Videos Create innate, and that this socialization occurs through the stories we tell about ourselves as well as the stories told to and about us that are woven into our cultural narratives. Studying these cultural narratives allows us, in Jhallys words, to see how our culture teaches us to be men and women (Sullivan, 2009, pg. 745). Through socialization we begin to believe that what we see in music videos is socially acceptable behavior. This paper clearly shows how fantasy themes relate to the realities music video viewers construct based on what they are seeing. Womens representations in music videos are to attend to the mens sexual desires. In contrast, the man serves as the domineering character that has the power to have his fantasies fulfilled by numerous women that surround him. The two performances illustrated that both of these assumptions are true about the roles that men and women play in hip-hop music videos. Though the music videos are a decade apart they still show the role of women to be the same, and that there has been no progression towards respectful representation of women in Ludacriss rap videos. The reality is that the symbols in rap music videos not only creates a shared reality for individuals, but that individuals meanings for symbols converge to create a shared reality or community consensus (Foss, 2009, p. 97). Unfortunately, this tells us that women are sometimes mistaken on our society to just be sexual objects solely to please men. There are some limitations that go along with this paper and the research. Every individual thinks differently, so we cannot assume that absolutely everyone is influenced

Reality Ludacris Videos Create by the social constructs that the music videos produced. It is safe to say, however, that there is a relationship between the majority of viewers taking these music videos to be literal and acting out what they are seeing the characters do. Yet, it is still not certain how many people that watch these videos understand them to be fictional and simply just fantasies. To further research on this topic, the question can be asked of the relationship between violence against women and the acts seen in music videos. Bormann (1982) writes that fantasy themes tell a story about a groups experience that constitutes a constructed reality for the participants, which can lead someone to further research the actions participants take in response to these videos. The artifacts that I chose to analyze represent the story line and subject matter of many other rap music videos. A large number of the public have viewed Ludacriss performances and are subject to constructing their own reality based on what they are viewing. To put it in perspective, Sex Room has over four million views and Whats Your Fantasy has over nine million views (Vevo). This is a substantial amount of people that have seen the music videos, and imagine how many more individuals have seen it on television or another site besides Vevo. After understanding the implications that come with rap music videos, it can cause you to ask yourself how your views have been shaped by videos you have seen. Many people assume that people recognize that music videos are fantasy world to be viewed for fun and not taken literally. After having read this paper you can decide whether or not these are created worlds that should be taken with a grain of salt, or if they should be looked into further to see how or if at all they have influenced our society.

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Reality Ludacris Videos Create References Bormann, E. G. (1982). I. Fantasy and Rhetorical Vision: Ten Years Later. Quarterly Journal Of Speech, 68(3), 288. Foss, S. (2009). Rhetorical Criticism (4th ed.). Long Grove, Illinois : Waveland Press. Hansen, C. (1995). Predicting Cognitive and Behavioral Effects of Gangsta Rap. Basic & Applied Social Psychology, 16(1/2), 43-52. Lena, J. C. (2008). Voyeurism and Resistance in Rap Music Videos. Communication & Critical/Cultural Studies, 5(3), 264-279. doi:10.1080/14791420802206825 Ludacris. (2010). Sex Room [Video file]. Retrieved from Vevo database. Ludacris. (2000). What's Your Fantasy [Video file]. Retrieved from Vevo database. Sullivan, H. (2009). The Critical Eye: Whose Fantasy is This?. Sex Roles, 60(9/10), 745. Zhang, Y., Dixon, T., & Conrad, K. (2010). Female Body Image as a Function of Themes in Rap Music Videos: A Content Analysis. Sex Roles, 62(11/12), 787-797. doi:10.1007/s11199-009-9656-y

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