Good evening ladies and gentlemen, my name is Vader-Ann Wegner and I am here this evening with Today Revealed to discuss with you Meghan Trainor’s so called body acceptance anthem. We are here today to raise awareness of youth about highly constructed nature of texts that society engages with on a daily basis. “All About That Bass” has notched more than 120 million views on YouTube, has been perched atop of the billboard charts and is nothing but a true earworm catchy tune that is being played religiously on the radios of millions of people, the youth being the largest sum of them. This parody music video has a very retro feel, but incorporates many modern musical elements to keep it contemporary. This hit gives a contradictory message to society and youth of today as it is highlights how full-figured women are perfect compared to the expectation of the modern, pencil- thin figure. …show more content…
It’s because they can express a variety of ideas, beliefs, attitudes and values of a society. The role of music and music videos can both reinforce and challenge ideologies of society to the youth of today in a number of ways, positive and negative.
Children and Teenagers would be the main target audience for this music video and song due to it being an upbeat tune with very catchy lyrics. The main gender in which this song is intended for is women or girls as the video is of a girl herself playing with her barbies and dancing around which is potentially what girls ‘love’. “All About That Bass” is quite the scattered and shambolic song. In some verses it uplifts the ideas of body positivity and self-worth, and in others, and in others it destroys those ideals by putting down other women. Let’s delve into and breakdown this catchy tune a little
Using “All About That Bass” as an entry point, I will analyze how “body positive” media perpetuates a “white feminist” ideology of who is included and targeted in their messages. For this analysis, I will look at three key themes embedded within the song’s lyrics and music video. First, I will discuss the song’s (cis)heteronormative basis for its “body positivity,” as well as how sexuality and fat politics are often paired. Next, I will analyze the function of the racialized body and what it means for Trainor, a white woman, to appropriate racial tropes for
He wants his audience to understand that the music video’s messaging is that the most important aspect of a woman is her
“No matter how much people may talk about its artistic merit, it nonetheless objectifies and therefore demeans women by casting them in the mould of whore.” (Cox) The present statement is what Laura Cox, journalist at the Daily Mail, summarizes of “Pour it up”, the music video released in 2013 by Rihanna to launch her new song (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ehcVomMexkY). The video is constructed on an extreme usage of female’s bodies and it poorly represents the image of women expressed today by mainstream media channels. Moreover, the singer fluctuates her body; she portrays pole dancers, strippers and some dance moves including ‘twerking’, a particular alluring hip-style of dancing. (Cox)
Meghan Trainor made headlines with her earworm hit “All About That Bass.” Many critics praised the song for its message on body positivity, however, a closer look at the lyrics reveals the song is not as positive as the general public has been led to believe. Much like John Fiske’s analysis of a news report, one can use Louis Althusser’s technique to expose the bias of “All About the Bass” and reveal just how the listeners of this song are being hailed.
The music video Booty (by Jennifer Lopez and Iggy Azalea) is about the bottom and how it is used to show that skinny girls with larger assets are more attractive than girls with a more flat chest and bottom. This essay explores the idea of sexualization of women in music videos and how women are shown through the 'male gaze', also this shows how women are easily portrayed in the media. The main purpose of this video is that they are trying to say that having a bigger bottom will help you to succeed more in life but it will also help you to gain attention from either sex. In the video by not wearing very many clothes that cover up very much, it will help to gain attention therefore creating more views than what they would have got with more
The "All About that Bass" music video was released in 2014 and has a fun beat that teens as well as young adults hearted, favorite, and liked. The video became so popular that it was nominated for a Grammy and was featured on the Billboard Hot 100 chart (Mullen) . The artist Meghan Trainor is among the female who dominated the media for empowering women to be confident and forget the expectation that society has set for them. Meghan Trainor, a young 21 years old American singer and songwriter made her debut in 2014 with “All About That Bass” (Mullen). The video on Youtube now has more than 1 billion views since its release. She captured her audience with her positive support with full bodied females and sings to them “Cause every inch of you is perfect from the bottom to the top”(All About, line 14). In the music video Meghan Trainor empowers her audience with a strong attitude to be confident with their body by displaying full bodied women dancing and having fun with no care for the impossible expectations that society and media has set on them.
Within popular culture today, objectified female bodies can be represented everywhere from advertising images to magazine covers, television, music and many more. Through these media institutions, we allow them to construct social identities in ways that allow us to understand what it means to be black, white, Asian, male or female etc. Within many popular culture mediums such as music, stereotypical representations of racially marked female bodies are often formed. Thus, these representations also have the ability to create stories about a certain culture. In music videos, it does not go unnoticed that women are portrayed as objects whose objectives are to pleasure men. In this paper, I will argue how racially marked female bodies are represented. This paper will mainly focus on how these racially marked women are depicted in the hip hop culture. To demonstrate this, I will draw examples by using award winning music videos by Nicki Minaj, R.Kelly, 50 cent to exemplify representations of the female body and how they are objectified as sex objects. In conclusion, we will be able to see how the female bodies are used in mainstream hip hop videos to convey seductively.
The music piece I choose is a very well known song amongst adolescents, and not only is it very popular but it definitely started a vast trend around the world known as twerking. Anaconda by Nicki Minaj is a song without a doubt that most adolescents enjoy dancing to. While analyzing the lyrics to this song I noticed that it is not supposed to be relatable to a day-to-day life of an adolescent or adult, but it is supposed to encourage all women around the world to embrace their curves and to be confident in their own skin. Although this message is an amazing one to give to women within society today, Nicki Minaj goes about it in all the wrong ways, this is shown mostly in the song but the music video clarifies her true message behind the song.
As expected, it seems Trainor is quite optimistic in sharing the message that everyone is different and should be accepted just the way they are. Though there is controversy surrounding “All About That Bass,” it is a prime example of Trainor suggesting that bodily figure is one of many things that should be accepted
Music is a mainstream thing in today's society, it can make you feel a certain way, influence
Music allows an artist to give those whose voice may not be loud enough to be heard. Their music can cover any issue of poverty, discrimination, segregation, people of color, oppression, and etc. The lyrics are the key part to get any point across but also any footage that accompanies gives the viewer more of an insight into these issues. Many artist/bands like Bob Dylan, Fort Minor, Joyner Lucas, Hurray for the Riff Raff, and Michael Jackson address many issues the class talked about and the point of view of those who are viewed as minorities. The music these artists and bands produce gives the listener an idea of what exactly is happening in the world and what has happened. Each song individually covers the importance that we, as humans, must change the way we think and act and listen to the problems others have and even if it does not affect us.
There is no disputing that society is influenced by its choices of entertainment. Some ways in which people are influenced are positive, but others are harmful. In the society we live in, the harmful ways always outnumber the positive. If we gravitated toward the positive forms of entertainment a little more often than the negative, then our society would have fewer problems. Popular music has a negative effect on society and endorses a lack of creativity.
Music is a form of expression that delivers a message. However over the years, the message of music has changed. Hundreds of years ago, music started with slaves. The slaves would sing spiritual hymns to motivate them and help keep up their spirits. Later, R&B and Hip Hop formed and at first there were motivational songs and rappers even rapped about a better life. But over the last thirty years the motivational songs have ceased. R&B and Hip Hop now is degrading to women, less subtle, and influences bad behavior.
In only the spam of 24hours, 19.6 million people around the country watched the music video to her single ‘Anaconda’, while generating debates of sexuality and empowerment. It shouldn’t come as a surprise when Nicki is seen parading her body around in a music video, the way in which celebrities are still relevant is through the ability to produce revenue and have people talking. Nicki doesn’t shy away from criticism and stereotypes, in the very first shot of the video she appears from the jungle, calling on the idea of how society places judgement and ideals of a black women being of an “exotic and animalistic” beast. Her body alone is a statement within itself, not only is she reclaiming the idealistic images of a curvy women but she is also reclaiming it to fit the realism of how females come in different shapes and sizes.
Tv shows and music videos can be educational. On channels like MTV there isn't just inappropriate shows on channels like that. Many shows on MTV are educational. A show called Teen Mom on MTV show people dealing with children at a young age. They deal with many problems, but they get through them. The show can show kids not to have a baby at young age or when the time is right. The children could learn that when you have a kid you have to be responsible and take care of it. Music videos can help with kids education. Music is known to help students work. A lot of schools have electronics and can use them for music to work. Instead of downloading music that costs money they could look it up on youtube. Some of the songs can be inappropriate butA the songs are catchy. That is why I think shows and music videos are educational.