“Music videos are
simply a tool for promoting an artist”. With reference to a promotional
campaign, how far do you agree with this statement?
Nicki Minaj is an American hip hop rapper, singer,
songwriter and actress who after success with three mix tapes released between
2007 and 2009, signed to Young Money Entertainment. Minaj’s debut studio album,
Pink Friday (2010), brought her great recognition with the infamous hit ‘Super
Bass’ topping the charts at number 1. Her promotional campaign for this track
was advertised in a glossy magazine that displayed an image of her striking a
dominant feminine pose, with her hands firmly placed on both hips. This
particular stance connoted to an audience immediately that Minaj was to be
viewed as a strong and confident women, ready to face the demanding world of
the music industry. Her facial expression within the advert also accentuates
the concept of woman power, in that she is not made to appear vulnerable but to
act as a potential idol to other females by showing a fierce and independent
attitude. She further breaks the ‘fourth wall’ by looking directly at the
audience, which creates the first person mode of address whilst highlighting
her passion and determination for music. The metanarrative established
throughout Minaj’s music videos is that to hide your true identity makes you more
enticing. For example, within all of her videos she is seen wearing brightly
coloured wigs, false eyelashes and lots of make-up. Accompanying her always,
are various masculine men who are purposely positioned around her to fulfil the
image of being desirable. With her identity constantly hidden from an audience,
Minaj creates art in the construction of her videos as they are unique and
individual to meet her ‘Barbie’ wannabe style.
Music videos can be defined in terms of genre of the track
and the encoding of formulaic conventions. Goodwin (Dancing in the Distraction
Factory, 1992) identified the idea of the notion of looking. He categorised
this into two main approaches: voyeurism and fetishism. When applying this to
‘Super Bass’, we can see the voyeuristic qualities as the camera is
consistently focused upon Minaj when she sings and performs. The camera
positions her within the centre of the frame with nothing else in the
background, in an attempt to encourage the audience to focus on her alone.
Fetishistic qualities are also conveyed with MCUs being included to emphasise
her feminine assets, underlined by the use of provocative clothing of low cut
tops showing her bra and shorts. Goodwin further identified the manipulation of
CUs incorporated within music videos as presenting an artist’s visual motifs. When
applying this again to ‘Super Bass’, we can determine that Minaj’s pink and
blonde wig, as well as pink and white all in one suit, are used to hold
connotations of the young girls Barbie doll toy. This image continues
throughout her music videos and becomes an indexical sign which we use to
relate to her. The video employs a creative approach to conventions in that we
witness things that aren’t real, but are a figure of imagination. For example,
there is a pink coloured swimming pool that has a relative effect on the
audience as we associate the colour with her, as this is built to contain
metonymic qualities throughout her videos. Therefore, admirers of Nicki Minaj
will feel obliged to invest in pink products such as clothing and make up, with
the music video marketing this quality associated with her.
Deconstructing the signifiers constructed in the digipak
enables audiences to evaluate the text in terms of representations and
ideologies. With reference to the album ‘Pink Friday’, signifiers such as the
way she is sat on the floor connotes “sexual magnetism”. This is represented through the length of
Minaj’s leg which is on show to an audience, portraying promiscuous behaviour
and appealing to the ‘male gaze’. Furthermore,
the implication of the light pink corset she is wearing also conforms to a
sexually active demeanour as it reveals her cleavage. The digipak itself is a
baby pink colour with a low light effect placed on it, this symbolises the tone
of the album as no harsh colours have been used which suggests the melodies
contained within the album are soft. A dominant reading path can be structured
around the use of the colour pink on the digipak, as it almost communicates
that pink is to be associated as being a girls only colour. This could be seen
as controversial within today’s society however and a negotiated reading could
be that perhaps pink is more related to females, but males possess pink
products also such as polo tops and shirts. Minaj is dedicated two quarters of
the space on the digipak in order to convey a sense of possession, in
emphasising that this is her album. As she is positioned on the floor, it
connotes comfort and contentment with the environment she has become consumed
within. This display of confidence inspires followers of Nicki Minaj to engage
with her positive attitude and buy her product.
Adverts make us feel ‘part of the world’ being represented
as they are photographed in such a way that we can picture ourselves with the
product being sold. With reference to Minaj’s perfume product ‘Majesty’, the
advert is depicted in an exotic rural location with a thrown appearing behind
her. The use of setting connotes royalty and an aspect of class and status,
with Minaj wearing a pink frilly dress to conform to an upper class look.
Therefore in purchasing her product, it is communicated that we are guaranteed
to get a high quality performance from it. Her body language within the advert
is very open and free, with her arms being spread widely. This could imply that
her perfume is an expression of herself and her own individual style of being
‘free’ to create new products for a global audience. Within this advert, she
challenges social myths by promoting a sophisticated product to potentially a
lower class audience, highlighting that quality products can be purchased on a
budget.
Dyers theory aims to deconstruct artist’s star image and to
discover their star persona by labelling them with individual star qualities. Nicki
Minaj is represented as a “sexual magnet” through the use of MCUs focusing on
her figure. For example, when she appears wearing a pink and white all in one
outfit in ’Super Bass’, her cleavage is made present purposely for a male
audience. When applying Dyers critical framework, it is evident that she has a
semi-mythological set of meanings constructed around her star image. Star
qualities such as youthfulness and rebellion are highlighted through the
manipulation of revealing clothing and ‘Barbie’ styled wigs which later go on
to act as her USP in other music videos. The incoherence of her star image
ensures that audiences continually strive to ‘complete’ or ‘make sense of’ her
style, as her identity is constantly absent to the audience with the different
uses of coloured wigs. However, the aspect of Dyers theory that doesn’t apply
to Minaj’s video is the idea that stars represent shared cultural values. This
is seen in Minaj’s many rap music videos which conform to anti-societal values,
promoting a deprived lower class background. Therefore, it can be argued that
she is rebelling against cultural norms as a result of her disadvantaged
upbringing which lacked discipline and led her to turn to the streets.
To conclude, women are commodified in music videos in order
to sell them to an audience of the opposite sex mainly. Minaj does conform
largely to stardom within her music videos with the use of expensive jewellery,
designer clothing and big hairstyles. Music videos have largely performed as a
marketing tool to promote her image especially, as it is so unique and different
to other artists who reveal their actual appearances instead of hiding it.
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