P300 Media Studies :Textual Analysis of Hip-Hop Songs

 How women are represented in the music industry vs. how men are represented.

Answer:

Introduction:

Music is one of the strongest media that have been influencing people to generate intellectual potential within. Starting from Beethoven to Eminem, music has been an integral instrument to express the thoughtful insight pertaining to the socio- political and socio- economic circumstances of the then and present world. Legends from every musical genre have been impacting upon the human thought and philosophical vindication over centuries. Modern period in European and American culture and literature, has given way to the launch of music videos where the music artists are seen to perform the music. Music has no longer been captivated within vocal representation- it has rather extended its zone towards visual presentation so as to entertain and enlighten the audiences pertaining to the expressive view on the society.

This report is going to criticise the different face of music industry and the portrayal of music videos. In the year 1949, Simone de Beauvoir’s book The Second Sex was published and it brought the issue of female suppression and rejection into the light of literary and cultural criticism. However, the topic was first highlighted by Mary Wollstonecraft when she wrote her epoch-making book Vindication of the Rights of Women I 1792. For the first time the question about the social projection and acceptance of women was exhibited by a strong female writer. Days and years passed; yet the so called modern world has not found the solution of the conventional problem called “women empowerment”.  The report is strictly encompassed by the musical genre of hip-hop ad sex discrimination driven in the hip-hop videos.

Music and Commoditisation:

Music has become more a product to sell in the market than to convey message for the intellectual enlightenment. With the flow of musical commoditisation, the characters in the music videos have also become market oriented thus resulted in the impeding moral affliction of the cultural critics. The basic problem that the feminists deal with in the twenty first century- that started in the beginning of the second half of the twentieth century- is the projection of women and female body as the mean of public entertainment. The 1960s experienced outrage of the female models who participated in Miss America contest.  The outrage is widely known as Miss America Protest of 1968. Projection of female body has no more been treated as a form of art- it as rather changed its form into meeting the market demand or raising the market demand. “:L'art pour l'art” has been shifted to “art pour les affaires”.

This report is specifically focused on sex discrimination in hip-hop music with special reference to 50 Cent’s music video I Ain’t Gonna Lie.   Hip-Hop is a outrageous musical genre that was introduced by the African American in the 1970s. However, popular hip-hop music has different notions all together. Having heard the term hip-hop, one can close his or her eyes and imagine some “cool hunks” wearing long chains and low waist jeans surrounded by so called “hotties” and cars. The popular notion of hip-hop music has been criticised by many of the rational thinkers as they have termed the women casted in the videos as “walking bling”.   Often, critics are perplexed pertaining to the role of patriarchy in the music videos. However, it can easily be detected that women are no longer suppressed in the cultural world, nor they are rejected. Women, now, have become an object for sale and entertainment, the most essential weapon to trigger the essence of advertisements in the world of consumerism. They have strongly become a potential replacement of commodities as the main focus of the advertisement and the music videos are being on the seductive appearance of the women body.

Presentation of Women in the Music Industry:

Subalterns may be the most apt word that can be applied in the discussion of sex discrimination. The driving force of the sex discrepancies has been the urge of the audiences towards grasping the visual body image of female body.  The hip-hop music videos have been studied thoroughly and it can thus be said that presence of women in the videos wearing lingerie surrounding the protagonist male singer is in fact incoherent. There is a clear citation of difference between the projection of male singers in the videos and that of the female participants in the same. It can be noted that the males are the singers in the videos and the females are mere participants who are utilised to entertain the audiences with their sensuous appeal. This is what is known as objectification of self and other.  In discussing this problem several theories can be brought into account. However, the major theories are concentrated to the generic theory of feminism. The term ‘objectification’ is associated with the philosophy of Immanuel Kant who demonstrated the fact that objectification of body is driven through the preoccupation of human body and figure.  In terms of the portrayal of the feminine figure there is no art hidden the hip-hop music videos. When one of the hip-hop stars was asked about the fact of the female projection in the music videos, he reportedly said the fact that everything is for the sake of entertainment. 

Peculiar presentation of female body indeed brings in the notion of sexism into the account of discussion. Women are projected as the luxurious accessories to the men who are extremely rich. The infamous rap song Blurred Lines has been put into controversy due to its video where two fully clothed males are seen to have been draped by three entirely naked women. The song by Lil Wayne, ‘We Like Her’, though sounds chivalric, has sexual intention underlying as the singer wants to get laid with every single girl in the world. Once again the video shows explicit female bodies and rejection of direct participation of female voice. They are only the silent objects as valuable as the cars they rappers own- without a firm consideration of their being human. The line “Bible told us every girl was sour” clearly indicates misogynist approach of the singer. Therefore, there are two different dimensions in the projection of females in the music videos:

Presentation of Male in Hip-Hop Videos:

On the contrary, projection of male in the hip-hop music videos is absolutely different in nature and context as most of the males are seen to enjoy with their female “toys”. On the other hand, the protagonist of the song always remains the same- the man with superior attitude. Eminem’s songs strictly abuses the female counterparts in a way as if they are not expected to be the integral part of the society and they are solely responsible for every single sin occurred in Eminem’s life. Eminem has different attitude in projecting himself and other female counterparts. The plethora of female objectification has been an integral part of the hip-hop culture and other African American hip-hop stars like Snoopdog and Dr.Dre are no exception.  Males are always projected as the superior beings to the females.

There are counter arguments as well on the discussed problem of commoditisation of female body. Defenders of the hip-hop genre argue that the openness of projection is not always accepted by the critics.

The problem is not limited only to the generic sense of wimped projection of the females in the videos. It has further risen to more obnoxious complexity of black feminism. Feminism has always been divided into two different dimensions- feminism in terms of the white women and feminism in terms of the black women. The complexity has risen to difficulty as the black women cordially accept the mode of video projection despite their understanding of such problem. The critics have found out three major interpretations in the genre of hip-hop music. It has no longer remained the voice of outrageous people. It has become the voice of some blatant male ego and vanity using the media of female body to sell their song.  

Conclusion:

Though the report is strictly focused on the hip-hop music genre, the problem is prevalent in every single musical as well as cultural genre. It is highly noticed that the world of advertisement and consumerism accepts the strong medium of female sexuality that has strong appeal to the market. Research has found that the adolescents are the most fanatic lovers of hip-hop music and the main reason lies in the fact that their love is associated more with the videos than the songs. It can thus be concluded that the music industry has clearly demarcated the characteristic traits of the males and the females. The males are portrayed as heroic, dominant, rock solid, sturdy, whereas the females are the sex objects, docile, wimped and flexible to men’s luxurious needs.

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