I just watched the new music video for a song I’ve long been enjoying by Arianna Grande & The Weeknd, and my disappointment is consistent with my general feelings about the visuals that accompany recent musical releases. WHY ARE ALL THE MUSIC VIDEOS BECOMING SO LACKLUSTER? The one I just watched consisted of Arianna Grande just rolling around on the floor and looking at the camera intertwined with occasional clips of The Weeknd standing alone and singing.
To bore yourself watch below:
Now this type of trend I’ve been seeing in a lot of videos where artists get a chance to boost their ego and prove the narcissism that’s been cast on the millennial generation. I find often that artists merely stand around singing and flaunting images of themselves rather than creating a video that I could call art.
Another huge problem I have with music videos is the gender bias depicted in them. In my opinion it seems like this may not necessarily be a problem across genres, but specifically be prevalence for young female pop/hip hop artists. Examples are artists like Taylor Swift, Nicki Minaj, Katy Perry, Jennifer Lopez, Rihanna, and Shakira. The videos released by these artists are primarily different angles of the artist looking directly at the camera and dancing with a few backups.
The lack of plotline and in some cases even a theme really puts the videos into one big blob of forgetfulness. I miss the videos that would end up revealing different meanings behind the lyrics or provide some insight into the artists’ life.
However, this all boils down to the commodification of women’s bodies that so insidiously permeates throughout our culture. Although I am disappointed in the lack of positive models of female empowerment in popular tunes, I do not blame these female artists. Even though plenty of the artists are feminists and take the issues of gender inequality seriously, the pressure of the industry to sexualize and devalue women is overwhelming.
Unfortunately, the negative repercussions of hyper-sexualizing women are far-reaching in their influence. The music and media industries treatment of women have been linked to promoting rape culture, increased rates of mental illness, body dysmorphic & eating disorders, as well as decreased motivation to challenge the patriarchal systems that sustain the power hierarchy. To read more on the societal issues surrounding this read below:
Evidently, my opinion about the tiresome nature of music videos these days has roots in my feminist socio-political views, but regardless does reflect a separate and honest disappointment in recent media productions. I would be much more happy to see music videos depicting both positive and healthy images of women that included some sort of story line or theme.
To end the rant before I get carried away with the spectrum of negative cycles in our flawed society, I will leave you with a few examples of fun and positive music videos to leave a little light at the end of the tunnel.
austencoles 
