Going further into Carry Out

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NRdHsuuXxfk&ob=av3e

Within the past two decades, hip-hop and rap music have become incredibly popular, especially among young people.  A few notable themes in rap and hip-hop music videos are men surrounded by women, use of profanity in their lyrics, and young women dressed in bikini clad clothing. While the beat may seem very catchy and the video may look sexy, what is really going underneath it all?

In this video, Justin Timberlake and Timbaland are being surrounded by a bunch of women in various costumes. Some examples of these costumes include carhop waitresses, maids, and costumes that feature quite a bit of leather.  There are shots of women dancing sensuously and striking provocative poses. There are also some up close camera shots of women with food in or going towards their mouths in a slow and deliberate manner.  This seems to be the marketing strategy for the political aspect in Kellner’s article.  In it, he states “looking toward entertainment, one cannot fully grasp the Madonna phenomenon without her marketing strategies, her political environment, her cultural artifacts, and their effects.” ( Kellner 11)

So how exactly does this video objectify women? Well let’s consider the Rose article “There Are Bitches and Hoes”. In this article, she basically says how women in rap videos are seen as “gold diggers” and “ the common portrayal of black women were seen as ugly, aggressive, and hyper sexual.” ( Rose 323).  In the video,  not only are black women seen as hyper sexual, but Caucasian women are seen that way as well.There are a few camera shots in which there are women who are dancing very suggestively but it is in a low light setting, and there are a lot of shadows that are cast on the body. Here is an interesting observation; I noticed that the Caucasian women did the choreographed group dancing and the black women are doing the seductive poses and seductive eating and gazing.  Towards the middle of the song, there is a shot of a pair of a woman’s legs in fishnet stockings with Timbaland on the couch between the legs, and this shot is shown twice. This seems to imply that the legs of the woman are the only focus and the rest of the body doesn’t matter. Like in the film Dreamworlds 3,  the narrator states how it’s popular for a part of a woman’s body to be the focus or used as an object.

There are flicks of shots that shows a woman turning around to reveal cheeky bottoms or low cut shirts that reveal a lot of cleavage. There are also shots of women looking suggestively at the camera by either moving their body slowly or just looking at the camera.

In the section of textual analysis, Kellner explain semiotics, in which he says “ semiotics analyzes how linguistic and nonlinguistic cultural ‘signs’ form systems of meanings…” ( Kellner 12). In this video, Justin Timberlake and Timbaland are seen with 2 or 3 women draped over their arms. These women do a variety of things, from slowly caressing Timberlake’s body to dancing around the men and giving them sweet treats. According to Dreamworlds 3, the symbol of male power is defined by how many women are surrounding males.I am not sure if this has to do with the semiotic definition of power, but there was one shot where Justin Timberlake has his back to us, and while he is pointing his fingers to the beat in a cool fashion, you see a pair of feminine arms slide slowly down his torso. Maybe I am over thinking that, but I feel like it could be a form of power. On a different note, it is intriguing how Justin Timberlake and Timbaland are looking cool, stoic, and lounging around in chairs while the women do all the work around them. 

 

Kellner describes the third component of textual analysis to be audience reception. He states that “ media culture provides materials for individuals and communities to create identities and meanings” ( Kellner 13). In other words, the use of pop culture “ can form communities that enable people to relate to others who share their interests and hobbies” ( Kellner 13).  So how does this relate to hip hop videos? Maybe people who share the same taste in music ( like rap and hip hop) can relate to each other and form a community based on their interests. Maybe people who can relate to the stereotypical image of a hip hop artist form communities with others who share the same feeling.

Work Cited

 Kellner, Douglas.  " Cultural Studies, Multiculturalism, and Media Culture." Gender, Race and Class in Media. Gail Dines and Jean Humez. SAGE Inc, 2011. pp 11-13

Rose, Tricia. " There Are Bitches and Hoes." In The hip-hop wars ( pp. 167-185). New York: Perseus.