Music Representations in BM and STY

Music Representations in BM and STY

Black Magic

• Little Mix as stereotypical geeks

When Little Mix are dressed as stereotypical geeks, heir outfits are baggy and boring. This is because a stereotypical geek doesn't tend to care about their appearance. Their ages are between 20-25 and the group are mixed races and ethnicities. 

• Little mix as stereotypical popular girls

When Little Mix is shown as stereotypical popular girls in the music video, their hair and makeup is full glam, their outfits are tight, revealing and brightly coloured and they walk down the school corridor as if it's a catwalk, as their posture and walk shows their confidence and their long legs are being shown off. 

• Male Geek character
• Popular blonde female 
• Popular attractive male

This character is represented as a male, asian, popular and attractive guy everyone wants to be with. The girls are fighting over him throughout the music video and he is surrounded by a group of people at all times to show his popularity in the school. This is a subdominant representation of asian males as they're stereotypically represented as nerdy, geeks, unattractive, undesirable and only interested in things tech or math related. This is a positive representation on the audience as it challenges these stereotypes, and possibly changes the mindset of some members in the audience. 

• Group of popular girls
• Teacher 

This character is represented as a male teacher of african descent. He is shown boring the class with his representation of wearing dull coloured old looking clothing, glasses, and having grey hair. This mise-en-scene on top of his blank facial expression as he points at an old-fashioned black board covered in algebraic equations is a stereotypical representation of teachers. This could be offensive towards members of the audience who may be teachers or have connections with teachers, however this is unlikely because the target audience for this music video are younger girls.
Despite this, his representation takes a complete turn because once the girls cast spells on him, he is represented as a cool, fun professor as he's seen dancing to the music with the rest of the class.
This is a subdominant representation of men of African descent because of the unfortunate fact that they're usually represented poorly and very stereotypically as criminals, gangsters, rappers, dangerous, aggressive etc.... This has a positive effect on the  audience because it shows the audience (which has a majority of younger girls) that these representations are inaccurate of every person of a whole race. It tells them  that they can trust men of any race and that they shouldn't be scared of a race of people because they can be fun, exciting people. 

Overall, the music video is very inclusive. It includes an array of ages, genders, ethnicities and races. This is because it tells the audience (targeted towards young girls) that they are beautiful regardless of their race, ethnicity and gender and that diversity is a beautiful thing (as represented through the diverse set of characters within the one school)

Somebody To You

• The Vamps

The band is made up of young, British, white males who are represented with this image throughout the music video. They are seen playing their instruments in clothes with a convention relating to the rock genre on a raised small stage set on a beach. The raised stage suggests that the group have some sort of superiority or power over the other characters in the music video, but also that the audience needs to focus on them as the main 'characters'. The superiority displayed here is a dominant representation of White Males as unfortunately the stereotype is that white men are more in-power than people of racial minorities or even white women.  

At other points in the music video, the boy group are represented as fun, down to earth, relatable guys.

They are seen laughing under the sun, having picnics, playing games outside and playing sports with a group of girls on the beach. A rather happy, summer vibe is being displayed in these scenes. 

The camera shot-types used here also help represent this image as hand held movements and messy zoom ins and outs suggests that another of their friends is filming them to have a laugh. This makes the audience feel as if they are with the group having fun, and enjoying life together as a friend group. Therefore this represents 'The Vamps' as a fun boy band who maybe aren't so famous, so that they can still laugh and have fun with friends in the summer time. 

• Demi Lovato

Demi is represented as a young, white, female singer. For her solos taking place in the music, and parts where she joins in to sing with the vamps, she is either sat in a comfortable looking position in a casual spot on the side of the beach or dancing on the main sand of the beach. She is smiling throughout  and seen dancing and moving her body enthusiastically to the music as she sings. The camera also seems to be hand held as it's moving. All these aspects together represent her as a very kind, happy, down to earth character as she can have a bit of fun and smile. 

• The Girls

The group of girls seen during the music video are represented as beautiful, white, young females.

Their tall, thin physiques are seen in revealing summer outfits and bikini's which is a dominant representation of the voyeurism displayed all throughout media. Therefore, this aspect of their outfits conforms to the Male Gaze Theory. A theory that states all females in media are shown for the sexual pleasure of men. The Girls in this music video conform to this because the exposure of their unrealistic bodies and close ups whilst in suggestive poses means that this could have been set up specifically to the male audience's unrealistic but desired view on women. Despite the target audience being for young girls, the production team still wanted to find a way of gaining the biggest audience possible, and this tactic was voyeurism through gaining male audience by exposing the girls desirable bodies.