This video represents young youth, but in a positive light. Yes these teenagers are having fun and having a party, but they are not drinking/taking drugs, but just simply having a harmless good time amongst friends. Also the song itself does not feature swear words and is suitable to be played in full on public radio, and this is reflected in the video itself.
In some other music videos, girls are represented as dressing in very little, and are just seen as 'accessories' to men. But in this video, they are seen as equal to the boys and are dressed acceptable to attend a summer party wearing things such as shorts and vest tops, whilst the boys, who are also dressed in summer clothes, wear longer shorts compared to the girls and are more covered up in general. This, reflecting on society, shows that it is more acceptable for girls to go out in very little but boys are known to dress in more no matter the weather, therefore implying that girls wearing little is a common sterotype. Although the girls are featured in this video, the main people shown are the boy band themselves. Nearer the end of the video, it shows stero typical boy band video aspects, which means dressing to impress their female fans. This may be seen as cheesy, but in this video it is so subtly done that it doesn't come across as 'typical' or 'cheesy'
This camera shot shows the 5 main members of the group in the front, with mainly girls behind them. Again this shows equality between the males and females in the video, but mostly shows that the boys are 'irresistible' which sends this message to female viewers at an attempt to gain more fans and make current fans like them more. This could also be a hidden message, meaning that the boys are wanting to say that they see fans as friends. The current fan base of one direction is mostly teenage girls and this video shows no attempts to reach out to any new potential fans. For example all the people featured in the video are around the teenage age, therefore making teenage viewers relate to the theme of young youth. Most of the fans featured a lot amongst the five members of the boy group are girls, with the exception of a few added teenage boys. This could intimate young men/boys watching the video as they may not relate to the video concept of having girls surrounding them and therefore take a dislike to the group, which is extremely common. As the shot is at a low angle looking up, it makes the band seem very powerful with fame, and as there is a group of girls in the background, again makes everyone seem equal. In conclusion, One direction's music video 'Live While We're Young' shows young youth having harmless fun, and shows everyone as equal and also keeping traditional boy band video traditions. I think that this video doesn't need a age certificate as it doesn't show offensive material or unappropriated behavior but just shows young people as they are in a good way.
You make some clear points about how young people and the different sexes are represented in this video. You could consider how many shots the band are featured in and what kind of shots these are and compare this to how many shots of fans and what types of shots these are. All the band are male (active in the video) - are all the fans female (not in the band, therefore their only role is more passive, as a fan of the boys)? Are there any men in the 'audience' or 'fan' group? How are the girls dressed? How would this come across to a young fan base? Could you explore the representation of different ethnic groups in the video? And develop the idea about the band's image and their fan base further: what would a fan of 'One Direction' get from this? Perhaps they could imagine that one day they could be in the video...? Relate this to 'uses and gratification' theories and what audiences would get from this video. Ms Keenan.
ReplyDeleteCan you develop this work, with targets given above? Thank you. Ms Keenan
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