In Sinead O'Connor's video for "Nothing Compares 2U'' released in 1990, the emphasis of her appearance is her androgynous figure and natural, neutral beauty - she has shaved hair, is wearing barely any make-up and her entire body is covered by a long black loose-fitting cape/coat. She is not at all dressed to impress men or target the girly, glamourous audience. Her song is rather dramatic and slow and the video is quite toned down and plain, which, with the music, has a rather powerful effect.
Other female artists with similar representation not fixed on selling a woman's music through her sexuality/ body would be Annie Lenox, Patti Smith or k.d.lang.
A more recent and modern band with a female lead singer Romy Madley Croft who does NOT sell her band with her sexuality in any way, are The XX.
Her boyish looks (short hair, neutral/no make-up) could even make someone think at first glance that she is male, until her soft female voice is heard after which it is immediately clear that she is a woman.
In contrast, Beyonce's 2008 ''Single Ladies'' video is trying to sell her music to the main stream target audience of teenagers/young adults. Girls want to be like her and men are attracted to her tight fitting leotard, showing off her curves, her glamourous puffed up hair and makeup emphasising her big eyes and big lips. It is quite sad to see how many talented women in the music industry nowadays are reduced to plastic beauty and sexy dances, giving the audience no choice but to objectify them for their bodies. It is hard to take artists like Beyonce, Rihanna, Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera seriously because all they are known for is dancing around wearing tight-fitting short clothes and singing shallow songs, whereas most of them may actually have more to them than just their sexiness.
You may decide to do a case study on the representation of women in the music industry if this interests you. In order to strengthen these posts you may wish to link the two constrasting music videos with Goodwin's theory about voyeuristic shots of the female body, particularly lips, eyes and thighs!!! And of course the part of the body a certain royal exposed to a camera with a powerful lense!!!!
ReplyDeleteOne of the problems with objectification of female performers in the music industry is that they're not taken seriously as artists, and it's a tough enough industry for women anyway! Lady GaGa sends this up and Madonna has always had an ambivalent attitude to the sexualisation of some of her performances.
Sinead O'Connor gives a powerful performance without the need for looking like a hair shampoo advert!