Related Papers
REPRESENTATION OF WOMEN IN NIGERIAN HIP-POP MUSICAL VIDEOS
MIKE UMOH
Abstract: This work investigates how women are portrayed in Nigerian hip-pop musical videos based on the proposition that cultural practices naturally manifest in the dominant music genre of a people. Making the distinction between the highly blurring media concepts of 'representation' and 'stereotype', the work observes that the manner women are represented in the Nigerian music videos is basically negative, which affirms certain cultural constructs and historical realities of Nigerians. The social 'constructedness' warranted a consideration of the distinctions between the concepts of sex and gender, as well as sex and human sexuality in this discourse. In conclusion, the data confirmed clearly that, typical of hip-pop, Women are objectified in Nigerian musical hip-pop videos. They dress sexy, speak seductively and dance in a sexual manner. Put simply, women are portrayed as sex objects. This is not unrelated to the patriarchal nature of Nigerian society and an obvious impact of cultural imperialism. This work recommends that owing to the popularity of Nigerian hip-pop music among Nigerian youths in particular, there is urgent need to apply some form of caution and regulation in its production in order to direct socio-cultural development towards the desired goal.
Communicare
Global hip-hop culture and the scopophilic spectacle of women in South African hip-hop music videos
2018 •
Toks Dele Oyedemi
In many hip-hop music videos, women’s value is reduced to sensuous display of sexuality. As a result visual pleasure is created through the representation of women as eager and willing sexual objects. This article assesses the techniques and ways women are sexualised in South African hip-hop music videos, and how their representation attempts to create visual pleasure for those that consume these videos. Four critical elements are adopted from Laura Mulvey’s seminal theoretical discourse about the positioning of women in narrative cinema, to study the gender representation and sexual presentation of women in two popular South African hip-hop music videos. The analysis reveals that appealing to the male gaze, processes of objectification, gender division of labour and camera techniques are ways of presenting a sexualised spectacle of women for the visual pleasure of male characters and audiences of the videos.
Sexuality and 'Sexual Largess' Themes, Lyrics and Images in Nigerian Hip- Hop Music Videos: A Content Analysis (in Press at Institute of African Studies, University of Nigeria Nsukka).
John Jemisenia, Roseline Ezenagu
Sexual contents in the media have received great attention from scholars and researchers since the 1980s till present, regrettably very little has been done in this area of research in Nigeria, where increasing controversies have continued to trail the contents of videos that are shown on such terrestrial channels as Channel 'O', Hip-TV, Soundcity, Mtv base, and BET. Issues surrounding the rate of sexuality, sex, sexism, objectification, materialism, and the 'good life' (as it is shown on these music channels) have come under intense scrutiny by observers, commentators, scholars and the general public. Consequently, this study analyzed themes, lyrics and images bordering on sexuality and sexual largess in Nigerian Hip-Hop music videos on two popular stations on the terrestrial channels: Soundcity and Hip.Tv music channels between the periods of April to June, 2015. Through a multi-stage sampling technique, 132 videos were selected for analysis. Two independent coders were trained. The Cohen's kappa (k) symmetric measure of agreement was employed in order to ensure the reliability of items. The Cohen's kappa (k) for this study was 0.792. Altogether, result revealed that sexual themes, lyrics and images that are derogatory to womanhood are predominant in the analyzed music videos. The study recommends among others, enlightenment on the part of musicians/artistes on the need to promote messages of gender equality.
Gender Dimensions in Emerging African Music Genres: A Case of Kenyan Local Hip Hop
2019 •
Pamela Wanjala
The question of gender bias is now seen as a major challenge in almost every discipline that deals with human behavior, cognition, institutions, society and culture. Therefore, this paper was an attempt to investigate gender dimensions in the emerging African genres; a case study of local hip hop songs in Kenya. It discussed the extent to which hip hop language is gender biased. It focused on the popular local hip hop songs and video images that occur with the songs. The study used the Social Semiotic Theory in the theoretical framework. Ten hip hop songs and ten video excerpts were purposively selected for analysis. The hip hop songs were coded according to the name of the artist and year of production. The data was analyzed under three sections: Linguistic analysis, Image analysis and Gender analysis. The study revealed that indeed there is gender bias in the language of the favourite youth culture. This was revealed in the lexis that distinguishes gender, in the syntactic analysi...
Izumba and Keya
What a Video Queen is to a Male Artist: the Social-Semiotic Analysis of Music Videos and Lyrics in Tanzania
2019 •
Antoni Keya, Hyasinta izumba
This paper is set to examine the representation of women by male artists in bongo flava. It aims at disclosing the discursive practices taking place between men and women in the music industry. The study used Teo van Leeuwen's social semiotics to analyze the data through exclusion, role, specific and general, and categorization. The linguistic analysis showed that a woman is subservient to man; she is permissive with her body, allowing the camera to focus on her boobs and buttocks. The dancing styles and flaunting are to attract the viewing audience. In the lyrics she is a harlot, slu*t, lunatic, killer, involved in commercial sex, unsettling in relationships and all she sees is money. Interviews with male artists show her as a means to the male artists' end, she is ready to do anything for money because she is a prostitute. Focused group participants, being unsophisticated viewers, do not take this woman to be a special kind of woman; she represents other women rather than the ones she is categorized with. She is a product of the habitus whose socio-cultural and economic situation needs to be interrogated.
Sexuality and 'Sexual Largess' Themes, Lyrics and Images in Nigerian Hip- Hop Music Videos: A Content Analysis
John Jemisenia, Jemisenia Oluwaseyi, Roseline Ezenagu
Sexual contents in the media have received great attention from scholars and researchers since the 1980s till present, regrettably very little has been done in this area of research in Nigeria, where increasing controversies have continued to trail the contents of videos that are shown on such terrestrial channels as Channel 'O', Hip-TV, Soundcity, Mtv base, and BET. Issues surrounding the rate of sexuality, sex, sexism, objectification, materialism, and the 'good life' (as it is shown on these music channels) have come under intense scrutiny by observers, commentators, scholars and the general public. Consequently, this study analyzed themes, lyrics and images bordering on sexuality and sexual largess in Nigerian Hip-Hop music videos on two popular stations on the terrestrial channels: Soundcity and Hip.Tv music channels between the periods of April to June, 2015. Through a multi-stage sampling technique, 132 videos were selected for analysis. Two independent coders were trained. The Cohen's kappa (k) symmetric measure of agreement was employed in order to ensure the reliability of items. The Cohen's kappa (k) for this study was 0.792. Altogether, result revealed that sexual themes, lyrics and images that are derogatory to womanhood are predominant in the analyzed music videos. The study recommends among others, enlightenment on the part of musicians/artistes on the need to promote messages of gender equality.
Gazed representation: Analysis of gender portrayal in Hindi and English music videos
amir ilyas
The study based upon content analysis, mainly compares gender representations through male gaze, framing, and camera lens in Indian and European music videos from year 2009 to 2013 It is an analysis of sixty music videos, thirty from each industry, comprising the top six chart busters from each year of the chosen time frame. The theoretical framework of this research is embedded in the nexus of Laura Mulvey’s male gaze and lookedatness. It observes the sexual depiction of lead characters through dressing style, onscreen gender presence as well as gender representation in popular music videos. Findings reveal that Hindi songs were shot with stronger male gaze slant as compared to American/British songs and more screen time was given to females in both music industries yet individually, Hindi songs were more centralized on female leads. Both Indian and European music videos featured females in provocative sexual apparels while displaying seductive behaviors, while majority of singers/heroines were barely or semiclad yet males were usually fully dressed in almost all observed songs. Results also reveal that most of the songs were sung by male singers/leads but the focus of the videos remained primarily on female characters and their bodies. This study provides an important approach for future researchers, as the manufactured reality of gender through the contemporary Eastern and Western music industry is strikingly different from the real gender trends and practised culture in the respective societies, which needs to be further investigated in the context of globalization.
Sex Roles
Sex and the Spectacle of Music Videos: An Examination of the Portrayal of Race and Sexuality in Music Videos
2011 •
Jacob Turner
GENDER ROLES IN TURKISH MUSIC VIDEOS
Fatma Yasa
It’s a well-known fact that mass media has a substantial role in today’s world in the sense of disseminating information and cultivating social values and beliefs. Media can also manipulate and shape people’s attitudes and opinions on any subject such as gender roles. As a part of the media, music videos have an active role in disseminating gender roles as well. The main purpose of this paper is to explore gender roles in Turkish music videos. To this end, the music videos on the top 40 list of PowerTürk music channel were analyzed by dividing into 30-second-units. Findings revealed that there were significant differences between men and women in displaying gender roles. And these gender displays reinforced stereotyped gender roles. Women were depicted as sex objects and subordinate. On the other hand, men were displayed as aggressive and dominant. These findings were interpreted as the indicators of that we are still a male-dominant culture.
‘’WOMAN BODY’’ IN MUSIC VIDEOS TO YOUNG.pdf
Dennis ochieng
Music plays an important role in the socialization of youths. The effect that popular music has on youth’s behavior is of paramount concern and research on popular music videos has explored its effects on schoolwork, social interactions and behavior. Music videos have become more explicit in their references to sex over the years with the dominant discourse in music videos reproducing distorted ideologies of women’s sexuality and placing a great deal of emphasis on women’s sexual appeal as well as reinforcing the stereotype of women being sex objects existing primarily for the pleasure of male voyeurs. Society puts blame on media content the youth are exposed to for their moral decay. This study therefore set out to establish whether stereotypical music videos primes’ sexual aggression related attitudes, impacts social interactions and behavior change among University students. The research design used was descriptive because it provokes the `why' questions of explanatory research. The researcher concentrated on students of Egerton University Nakuru Town Campus and investigated social patterns, relative music genres of their liking. The study was objective and provided literature to support it in getting a solution to the research question. The study was grounded in the Cultivation Theory, which claims persistent long term exposure to media content has small but measurable effects on the perceptual worlds of audience members. The data gathered from the respondents was a representation of the whole population. The study intended to sample 60 respondents using the probability sampling method.The researcher used questionnaires to collect data, which were then analyzed and presented in graphs and tables. The results gathered were used to draw conclusions that could help in future studies on the effects of objectification of women bodies in music videos among university students.
