Sven E Carlsson

Sven E Carlsson

Sven E Carlsson believes that everything is perceived as opposites e.g male or female, art or trash, hero or villain. This links into Claude Levi-Strauss' theory of binary opposites. Carlsson also believes that there are two main categories that music videos are able to fall into: Performance videos are when the audience are able to see the artist(s) singing and dancing throughout the video. The other category is conceptual videos are when the audience watch something other than artist throughout the video.

He also believes that artists are commercial exhibitionist, and that they are a monger of their own body- selling their lifestyle, body, face, voice and records. Some of these artist include people such as Beyonce, who portrays that you too can be a young black woman who can sing; this represents the idealised myths about genre and identity. Personally, I think that Conceptual videos happens to fall into the more mainstream music videos; people who are in the charts and artists who everyone listens too. I also believe that people who are mongers of themselves also fall into the mainstream categories and tend to be conceptual video artists too. Performance videos tend to fall more into the more obscure music artist who would want their videos to match their obscure music.

Jessie J - 'Do It Like A Dude' analysis

(YouTube.com)

 In the music video for Jessie J's Do It Like A Dude there are only females in the video. However all of the women are dressed to look like males; they are wearing baggy jeans, boots, baseball caps etc. the women act manly and are not represented as 'lady like' at all. The video represents males in a negative way. This is presented to the audience immediately as the first 5 seconds of footage are conceptual clips of stereotypical 'male' personalities. For example: gambling, smoking, tattoos, two girls kissing, a naked woman's body painted, sybolism is used and also linked with smoking a cigar the imagery is suggestive. This is why the speed that this imagery appears is so fast.



The Lyrics

The lyrics occasionally link to the footage on screen. This is a function that Carlsson discussed. Examples from Do It Like A Dude are:

A lyric that links with the imagery on screen would be when Jessie J sings 'grab my crotch...'. The image sees a woman sat smoking a cigar and with her hands placed down her trousers. Many young men these days think that it is acceptable to walk around in public places with their hands down their trousers and for everyone else who can see this it is quite disturbing. This is a representation of these individuals who think this is acceptable. You would not expect a woman to do this so it should not be acceptable for men to do so. The imagery would shock the audience and would make them realise it is not okay.

When the lyrics in the song say '...wear my hat low like you'. The imagery on the screen at this point are three women wearing baseball caps. The woman to the left of this mid shot has the cap down over her face so it is covering her eyes. This represents the gang culture in which young men sometimes fall into. They hate covering the eyes represents that they disconnect from society and . A denotation of the hat covering the eyes could be to hide the identity of the person as thee way men are being represented in this videos through the use of women is that men are violent. This is backed up by the body language and position of the character, she is cracking her knuckles in a threatening way like you may see people do before a fight. The video signifies to the audience that men are criminals.

Commercial Exhibitionism

In the music video for Do It Like A Dude Jessie J wears revealing outfits and some dance moves featured in the video are provocative. 

Do It Like A Dude was Jessie J's debut single in 2010 and so the video shows Jessie J 'mongering' herself to the audience to make her mark as a celebrity. This allowed her to be more easily recognisable to the public.

  

Throughout the video Jessie J wears a variety of outfits which are each revealing and eye catching in different ways. The first outfit is revealing as she is wearing a small, tight, low cut v-neck leotard. The leotard has a zip down the front which suggests that the outfit could become even more revealing. She is also wearing a pair of tights which give the illusion of a pair of stocking which are often seen as a sexual item of clothing. This matched with a bright red/orange jacket which attracts attention to the artist and allows her to stand out from the dancers behind her. Red-orange connotes desire, sexual passion, pleasure, domination, aggression, and thirst for action. If you link this with the lyrics of the song as well as the dance moves it is clear that this is the image and the portrayal of the artist that they are aiming for. The aim was to empower women whilst attracting male attention. 

The bottom image shows Jessie J wearing clothing which is ripped around the neck line into a deeper cut which reveals her bra. There are various other rips including multiple rips in the shorts she is wearing. This representation of the artist signifies that she is not typically 'ladylike'

Stephen Carlsson stated that there are three different types of music video which represent different types of performance. These are:

Televised Bard

A video which uses televised bard is a video which aims to portray emotion within their performance. The artist aims to address and express an awareness of a particular issue.

One example of a video which uses televised bard is No More Drama by Mary J. Blige.