Hello this is a rough cut of our video

In this essay I will be examining the way the women are represented in Pixie Lott's music video Mama Do.
Within the video Pixie and her fellow females are filmed using voyeuristic angles with their costumes often being minimalistic. However they draw strength from their sexuality, utilising it to their advantage, breaking the idea of binary opposites which are sometimes used to highlight gender differences and power roles.
During the beginning section of the song Pixie is shown through contradictory stereotypes; she is sheathed in white a (symbolism for innocence) but her heavy makeup and her outfit which consists of a male shirt, partnered with the objectifying camera angles all suggest to the audience that she is a sexual symbol. The use of opposition shows how Pixie wants to appear to be an innocent vision to her parents whilst at the same time revealing her true nature to the audience. This is backed up by the lyrics ‘What would my mama do?.... What would my daddy say?’ This thesis is then concreted when she puts on a short red gown, over the top of her white shirt, as it signifies her transformation and utilises the idea that red is the colour of aggression and sex.
The use of feminine sexuality is a reoccurring theme through the video. The voyeuristic shots which utilise the male gaze all cause Pixie Lott to appear as a subject of fantasy and are repeated throughout the song. The camera often lingers on her eyes, lips and legs in order to appeal to a male audience and to position the audience as male.
The girls draw power form their sexuality, instead of appearing vulnerably with their lack of clothing they seem to relish in their ability to shock. However the song is about heartbreak, deceit and being treated in a shameful way, so the minimal clothing could signify defiance, or be a way of showing their counterpart what they are missing. Their power is signified through aggression: in one scene they are depicted wrapping bandages around their wrists and clapping chalk into their hands, mimicking the actions of a boxer before a fight. When the males show up looking very stereotypically masculine on their motorcycles ,the women are shown through a wide angle shot which emphasises their unity, as the fight/ dance ensues both the men and women walk up to their retrospective places along the battle line showing them as equals and as opposites. However instead of the females being defeated by the masculine presence they hold their own and eventually, through the use of violence conquer their respective partners. This shows to the audience that the women are the ones in control; they dress this way because they choose to, not because they are told to.
The three different costumes Pixie Lott wears in her video highlight her state of mind and range of emotions. The dazzling white emphasises her pure and innocent side, whilst the vibrant red shows her aggression and sexuality leading to her ultimate black costume which connotes power, darkness and deceit.
The stereotype of vanity is also used within the video to show the women’s femininity and also to signify their choice in the way that they look. The beauty salon scene with its baby pink lighting and gilt framed mirrors create the look of the salon, or dressing room giving the audience the impression of stardom, however vanity is a sin and suggest that the women are shallow giving them a negative persona. Moreover in the concluding section song after the women have defeated the men they take over their place within society, which is shown through Pixie Lott mounting a motorcycle which could be used as a phallic symbol. This use of replacement suggests that there can never be a point of equality.

I have decided to include some comments (some of which have been monitored due to language and disgustingly graphic detailing) which appear on YouTube on Pixie Lott's videos Mama Do and Boys and girls... and they say women are not objectified.
"jamzster99
she is so fit :P
jgilly1994
absolutely gorgeous shes so hot and cute my perfect date
Dannham
Pixie Lott is so amazingly Hot! Omg, i wanna marry here ... her legs (L) Shes a babe man!i cant believe some people think shes ugly ... freeks .. what wrong wiv yer?she beautiful!!! XD
b191191
her body and her legs :P :P
AND THE QUOTE OF ALL QUOTES
Arsenalfanelliot
yeah well, if ur a popstar then ya have to be pretty hot and sexy (and I all ways assumed it was about whether or not you could sing)

One point I would like to draw upon from these comments is the fact that they were all posted on line. Sights such as YouTube allow people to air their ‘views’ whilst maintain an anonymous character. HotGirl19 could really be a forty eight year old man, but the Internet allows people to be who they want to be (or who they want to pretend to be). So whether they are or aren’t who they say they are, and whether they can or can’t ‘Track you down from your IP code and beat you up’ as someone recently left on a video I watched to a fellow poster doesn’t matter. The fact is the gives people anonymity the power to say and do whatever they want, and there will always be those who exploit that power. Commenting on a pop star’s video claiming you want to ‘get with her’ doesn’t mean a thing; its fictional a fantasy, no one is going to hold them up for it. Their mum isn’t going to come running in yelling at them for being misogynistic and so they are provided with an outlet a way to fit in or cause hassle. It’s a way of them being free to say what they want, to who they want.
Apart from the anonymity posting on sites gives the user a power over their objectified person. By harassing a performer and casting slander to their name you immediately feel satisfaction for getting one over on that character. This means that many people also uses the post to air their frustrations, masculinity or femininity.

The target audience for the 'Sail away with me' music video will be fifteen to twenty five year olds as this is usually the demographic which watches music channels.

Therefore the questionnaire featured below was give to sixth form students in order collect research in to how audiences view and consume their music

The first question that I asked my target audience was, how do you access your music? Five out of the ten participants claimed that the Internet was their preferred portal for accessing the music that they listened to, the four sites YouTube, Limewire, Spotify and iTunes were listed as the consumers favourite music Internet sites. New media is having an growing effect of the way the music industry is distributing its goods, first of all it seems that my target audience see no harm in using the illegal site Limewire or free sites such as Spotify and YouTube, This is having a detrimental effect on the music industries profits as it means that each day less and less people are buying Cd's, and of course being in a time of recession will convince people to source music form the cheapest or in these cases free way. This will effect the way that I distribute my own music video, as I will have to make my music media friendly. I can do this by uploading the video onto the Internet and providing a download link so that my users will be able to upload the video to their ipods and MP3's, which in turn will allow me access to a larger base audience. The video will also be placed onto YouTube allowing user feedback and fan messages to be left about the video, however the embedding code will be disabled so that viewers will not be able to link the video to other web pages. Another idea that could be used to promote the video on the Internet is setting up a Myspace, Facebook and Twitter page for the artist and the song which will allow fans to easily access information on the artist and give appreciation to the artist whilst keeping up to date with their latest releases, which in turn will provide free advertisement.
Another question which I asked my audience was which genre of music do you listen to? For this question pop came out on top followed by rock and Indie, this will have an influence over the type of music I choose to use for my video and also which narrative I use as I want to create a video that will reach my audience in the best way and trying to preach to them about a new genre of music instead of their preferred genres, will be unsuccessful and in some ways insulting.
The final question my target audience group was asked was what do you think makes a good music video? I felt that this question was important and it provided me with base ideas of what I should include in my video. The top two answers that I received were the narrative and the performer. This is important as its suggests that a video has to be aesthetically pleasing in order to attract an audience. It also shows me that I must concentrate on strong casting and plot when I am planning my video so that I can come up with an appealing final product.