I am a huge fan of music and the whole culture that revolves around the creation and appreciation of music. Lately, I have been into house and electronic music. It is a great culture and environment but it is still a culture with the “male gaze”. This can be seen in the song lyrics, Artist names, and the music video’s/ covers. I was looking up more house music over the weekend and the “male gaze” was everywhere. This got me thinking of how much of this is out there and what type of music it is most prominent in.
I started with just the house and electronic music for this weekend. By simply going through my iPod I was able to find names that were from the “male gaze”. The first one that stuck out like a sore thumb was PANTyRAiD. The songs that I have from PANTyRAiD are electronic/house contain one line repeated or no words at all. It is just the name itself that caught my attention. The name is just there to catch people’s attention and has nothing to do with the music. While I love the music the name is funny and completely unnecessary. Another artist I found was SOFI. SOFI stands for Some Other Female Interest and is featured on a lot of other house/electronic artists. The interesting thing I remembered about this artist is that SOFI is female. She is sticking to the “Male Gaze” with her name and her lyrics are about getting used for entertainment of men. The songs are good but they fit the “male Gaze” almost perfectly.
I also found that the covers for the house music mixes almost always have a half-naked girl on the cover of the mix that has nothing to do with the track lists. The models are most likely strung around a expensive car or on the beach. There is no reason for them on the cover other than having people check out the mixes because of the girls. Its complete “male gaze” marketing for the songs and it seems to work because most comments on the mixes are about the girls and not much about the songs in the mixes. It is sad because the music itself is great but it seems to be degraded to just background music for the girls on the convers.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LGtLJDP1BIk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gDndZn0YPdI&ob=av3e
For the “SOFI needs a ladder” song, the top rated comment is “SOFI needs to get back in the kitchen”
What in music or in music culture have you seen that the "Male Gaze" has been brought into? It can be music videos, lyrics, or even television shows or movies where the music is used to promote the "Male Gaze".
ReplyDeleteBrendan, you are totally right that there is male gaze even in the titles of music. It is unnecessary and degrading, but they do it in order to get people to listen to it. Your examples showed that that is what you were talking about, but do have pictures of their album covers? You should place them where you mention the band, so they we understand more of the underlying message.
ReplyDeleteI also found that the male gaze is demonstrated in music videos. For example, Shakira and Beyonce are famous for their sexy dancing.
Shakira, She Wolf:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=booKP974B0k&ob=av2e
Beyonce, Single Ladies
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4m1EFMoRFvY
Both videos get their attention for the sexy movement and way the camera follows them with a "male gaze." The "Single Ladies" video is supposed to give the impression of a strong, powerful, independent woman; however, they portray it using the male gaze. The woman are in tiny leotards and high heels, which is totally ironic because that outfit shows that they want attention and care how men see them.
The specific culture item is male gaze in music.
ReplyDeleteThe examples you showed perfectly matches and support the main point.
The main idea is there are male gaze involved in the music, and sometimes these male gaze elements can degrade the music.
The video posted are two good visual elements and give audiences a better understanding of the main point. But for the covers for the house music, I hope you can show that also.
I couldn't think of any examples of male gaze in music now... so i will post my response to your question later.