Music Video Analysis 5

The pussycat dolls are a female music group, the music video I will be analysing is ‘buttons’ which was released in 2006, the music video is a performance based video, the group were signed to interscope records which  is subsidiary label of universal music. The establishing shot is a low angle shot of ‘Snoop Dogg’  who is a famous rapper who is used to help increase the target audience which will help sell the song. We see ‘Nicole Scherzinger’ strutting up provocatively towards snoop dogs which adheres the gender stereotype that men as rappers/singers and females as dances. We then see the rest of the artists in the group join along with her walking along in provocative manner, the audience get shown a low angle shot of the females which show  there superiority and there high status. The other artist are dressed up in tight black revealing outfits which would please male audiences which is known as the male gaze. The group then start to dance around in a tunnel which shows more of their revealing body and what they can do with it, after this they start to rip off their clothing and start dancing provocatively against a ballet bar,  the video has a very sexual theme as the group flick their hair backwards and forwards. The use of props further backs this up as they seductively dance round the chairs and use the chairs to help show off their body. A feminist reading of the video would say that there is sexual power derived from physical attractiveness to men, Snoop Dogg’s voyeuristic male gaze shows the male viewer to join in. A post-feminist reading into the video would be that the group offer messages of sexual empowerment who assert their authority and in  control of the gaze. The pussycat dolls would be seen as sexy icons and sassy. Snoop dogg is represented in a stereotypical rap role as he is wearing a hoody, baseball cap, and gold chains around his neck to show his wealth. The lyrics match the visuals that we see, ‘ these clothes are too hot for me’ then in the video we see the artists taking of their clothing. The music was a huge success by having 50million views on Youtube, the video was partly successful due to snoop dogg being in the video as he attracted his fans to watch the video, the video was also played on channels such as Mtv as they normally show mainstream artists that produce r n b music videos.  This video is mainly aimed and targeted to the male audience due to the nature of the video, the use of male gaze as the artists are very revealing of their body, the women are seen as sexual objects. Overall this music video adheres of what we expect from the genre which is the use of provocative and promiscuous women who visually please the male audience by satisfying their viewing of the video.