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The music video has never been more popular in the wake of its YouTube-led renaissance and the unlikely king of the clip is South Korean phenomenon Psy with his breakthrough hit Gangnam Style clocking up 1.6 billion views and counting.īy contrast, the 13 minute plus Thriller mini-movie has had more than 137 million views since it was uploaded to Vevo in 2009, although its champions would argue it has been seen billions of times since it made its world premiere on the fledgling MTV in December 1983. Beyoncé, Lady Gaga, Rihanna and Nicki Minaj have all used various tactics to directly comment on, and often challenge, contemporary discourse surrounding body image.AS Thriller celebrates its 30th anniversary, it faces a worthy rival for the title of greatest music video of all time. Popular female artists present their views regarding body image issues and their implied power relations through various means in their music videos. Artists are using music video in a range of ways, as platforms to bolster their personas, comment upon celebrity culture, and air their political views. In a welcome shift of cultural mood, the backlash against this video was so extreme, that Thicke’s career has never fully recovered.īut although sexual objectification is commonplace in music videos, more recently it may well provide the space to challenge these representations. While Robin Thicke’s controversial Blurred Lines is another extreme example of male objectification of women. Ariana’s Grande’s playing into the age old “virgin/whore” trope in Dangerous Woman provides a case in point. Many women in mainstream popular music have had to address their visual representations and ultimately accept mass objectification in exchange for success. Artists such as FKA twigs, for example, shift from using this very visible platform for music product to participating in adverts for brands like Nike, while still presenting her music in ways that appear to confirm her authenticity as an artist.īut the music video also remains a vehicle for the presentation of commercialised celebrity culture and stereotypical ideas regarding gender and sexuality. Now that the music video no longer remains coupled to the financial base of major music labels, a diffuse and more complex audiovisual landscape is emerging. Technology and changes in the industry has meant video making has become much more interesting, egalitarian and less restricted by label bosses who were previously producing content that was destined almost exclusively for MTV. Now “unofficial” videos and newer stars – such as Unicorn and Philippa Price – vie for attention online while pushing the format into new territory. Technological advancements have allowed new contributors making interesting videos that were once the preserve of big budget mavericks like Cunningham with clients such a Bjork. This has led to some weird and wonderful oddities, catering to very specific markets with examples including the recent Arca videos and their exploration of male sexuality and male vulnerability. The move away from the MTV playlist means that video producers no longer need to create content to meet that demand and are able to make videos directly for their fans. In 2017, the VMAs (as the awards show is commonly abbreviated) continued the recent trend of falling viewing numbers with its lowest ratings yet. Thriller notably won in three categories at the first ever MTV Video Music Awards in 1984. Swift’s Look What You Made Me Do does indeed conjure up Thriller but it also betrays exactly how much change has taken place since John Landis turned Jackson’s titular album track into an ambitious 14-minute promo, referencing both The Return of the Living Dead and his own American Werewolf in London. But instead of curling up and dying, the music video has evolved and embraced online platforms like the undead embrace the apocalypse. The growth of the internet and social media has seen the power of MTV wane.
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But the world in which Taylor’s zombies drag their feet is totally different to the TV realm that Jackson dominated. Watching the rotting zombified corpse of Taylor Swift claw her way out of a grave, one could be forgiven for thinking that the music video hasn’t come very far since Michael Jackson’s Thriller in 1983.