Male Representation in Music Videos

Males are represented in two ways...

1. Rich and surrounded by women
2. Reserved, usually plays the guitar

In the first point, males are represented as 'lads', meaning that they can pull a lot of women and all these women are beautiful - whether or not the artist is is apparently irrelevant. The men have a lot of dominance over the women in these videos, the 'male gaze' is used a lot in these videos.  These videos are prominent in the rap genre, and even pop and electric. The video is usually set in a hot country with lots of beautiful women in bikinis around a pool in a very large house - this shows off the wealth of the artist and the kind of life that he supposedly leads. Sometimes it is set in a club to have the effect of lots of short dresses and sweaty bodies against each other dancing - to try and show off to the male audience; there is also the idea of drunk, willing girls in clubs.
The clothes that they wear are usually parallel to current fashion trends and still fit with the location of the video. The videos are usually edited to have a brighter colour hue to enforce the weather of the location onto the audience.
Occasionally, cash is out on the floor and easy to see in the music video - again to show off the artist's wealth.
An example of this is Sweat - Snoop Dogg.

For the more reserved men, their videos are usually more calm as well as their music. They are the more 'sensitive' men that always get the girls at the end of a film. Their videos are usually more reflective of their lyrics, and the lyrics aren't just about women, sex and drugs; these lyrics are about love and struggles - things that people can relate to and understand the lyrics' meanings. The 'male gaze' is used very little if at all, with the videos not focusing on the bodies of women or men but more their emotions and feelings. The lighting in these videos is dependant on what emotion the lyrics are focusing on - for sadder songs the video may be paler or in monochrome, or if the song is faster paced then the saturation levels may be higher, or it may have a bright colour hue on the video.
The clothes of the artist are typically 'normal', with things such as jeans and converse in Ed Sheeran's video 'A-Team' in which he only appears in two scenes.
The videos seem to be more experimental in how closely they follow the lyrics and how graphic the lyrics are. In 'A-Team' the reference to drugs in hidden through beautiful language but the reference is clear in the video, where she sells herself to pay for her drugs.
Another representation is the performance based videos, but these performance aren't concerts and festivals, but more low key open mic night kind of performances, on the down low.
Examples of these videos and this male representation are Give Me Love - Ed Sheeran and Broken - Jake Bugg.

 

 

 

Another approach to male representation can be the more violent approach - the rough upbringing, gangs, guns and drugs. Artists such as T.I and Eminem feature in this kind of music video, with their songs Live Your Life (ft Rihanna) and Lose Yourself. This represents them as rough and as survivors, making the audience feel inspired by their strength.

 

Lose Yourself







 

Live Your Life (ft. Rihanna)