Music Videos

Representation of black people

By Lauren Humphreys

Stereotypes of black people in music

The portrayal of black people in music and music videos has come under much criticism for negative messages. Men as money hungry, tough and hard. They talk about sex in most of their videos.

Women are portrayed as sexual objects and loose. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sv0w1yWddZo

Collins(2004); stated that Many African American women rappers identify female sexuality as a part of womens freedom and independence.

Hip-Hop music videos

Many videos rely on hip-hop style fashions, such as multilayered, oversized shirts, sagging jeans that partially expose boxer shorts, tattoos, and bandanas, in order to evoke images of controlled aggressiveness of Black men, and concealing mens bodies from view (Harris, 1999). Often Black men appearing in music videos are shown in prison scenes, hanging out on street corners, or emerging from jail. Black man backs his brothers, has wealth, power, women, and commands respect with his physical presence.

The Sugar Hill Gang

The first big rap hit, the Sugar Hill Gangs 1978 Rappers Delight, featured a catchy bass groove that drove the music forward, as the jolly rapper celebrated himself as a ladies man and a great dancer.

 MTV launched in 1981. Out of the 102 videos played per on mainstream music networks only 5.5% featured African American artists.

Black males and females were significantly more likely to appear in rap and R&B soul music videos compared to other genres. The majority of artists in country and rock videos tend to be White.

Brown and Campbells study

They found that Blacks were more likely than Whites to be shown engaged in domestic activities. Eg housework and child care. Many of these domestic roles appearing within music videos are stereotypically associated with Black women.

Gertrude Ma Rainey born Gertrude Pridgett

Ma Rainey (April 26, 1886 December 22, 1939) was born into a showbiz family that performed in minstrel shows. She was recognised as one of the earliest known Black American professional blues singers and one of the first generation of such singers to record. In 1923 Ma Rainey signed a recording contract with Paramount . She was the mother of the blues.

Behaviours
Levels of violence and sex are particularly high in videos featuring Black artists. For 8 of the 11 behaviours (fondling, simulated intercourse, simulated masturbation, simulated oral sex, sex talk, hot pants, male sex dance, and female sex dance), levels were highest in the hip-hop or rap videos. For only one behaviour (heavy cleavage) was the prevalence highest in the country and western videos.

Wiz Khalifa
Young wild and free- Wiz Khalifa The lyrics in this song state so what we get drunk, so what we smoke weed were just having fun. This is a bad example to young teenagers and shows negative representation of the black artist. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XjpuU1Yk 5Z8

Black male artists; guess who?