Moral Panics

The moral Panics is theory created by Stanley Cohen. This interprets how society worries about the values and principles which society upholds . Stanley describes this as a person defined as a threat of societal values and interests. This also involves how the media can convert issues into major controversial matters.

“More moral panics will be generated and other, as yet nameless, folk devils will be created. This is not because such developments have an inexorable inner logic, but because our society as present structured will continue to generate problems for some of its members… and then condemn whatever solution these groups find”- Cohen

This is shown in the media because lots of minor issues get escalated into bigger issues, this is done because the media wants to create unnecessary controversy to fit the entertainment industry.

How males are represented in music videos

Specifically in rap, hip-hop music videos, males are seen as the dominant and overpowered ones. There music videos mainly always contain nude girls dancing around the male rapper/singer. Whilst the rapper holds back to look like the dominate character.

Stereotypical popular rap videos and the lyrics are just about naked women defining themselves as accessories and objects. this is done to obtain the viewer and to make the rapper look in command from everyone as he is surrounded by girls. Hip hop has convinced a large portion of society about how girls should be treated in music videos. In this genre of music, the viewers are almost expected to see half naked women and it is the exactly the same concept of it every time. Rappers make it seem like this is the result of becoming successful and having lots of money. So this is how its shown in the music video when girls are acting seductively around the men.

How females are represented in music videos

I think this year has been the most controversial year of the music stars seen across the media. Role models and inspirations to most audiences have all been shown a new light throughout this year. My opinion for this behaviour is due to the fact artists are competing to be in the limelight of the news. So by doing shocking and wrong things as a result for the public talking about the artist is acceptable.To get attention from public, women underdress and act inappropriately. In the three videos I have seen all have blew up into viral videos reaching millions of views in just a few days.

In Rihanna's new video, she has taken the role of a male rapper and is sitting in the throne to present power because she is famous. However is still giving a bad representation of women as she begins to twerk and wearing inappropriate clothing.

Women are seen as underdressing and going nude in music videos. Is this now acceptable? What does this say about the generation to come? “Women simply remain the object of sexual desire”The moral panics relates to this because society will learn to think this is acceptable and think it’s the norm to represent this image.

These photographs are of screenshots of recent music videos. This is portraying an image for younger generations and fans to think its acceptable to dress this way to get attention.

I've seen in the Lily Allens new music video “Hard Out Here”. The narrative of the video is that she is mocking how girls are seen rap/hiphop videos. These girls are seen half naked dancing.

It was implied that because these women are black, its okay for them to “twerk”. However when singer Miley Cyrus “twerked” the media blew up saying she couldn’t twerk and that white people can’t twerk in general. In Lily’s video she has shown this, as it only contains one white girl in the video (which is Lily).

The whole idea of this video was to imitate the past years music videos (Miley, Rihanna). But it doesn’t challenge the male gaze theory or the representation of “conditions that exists” for women in the music industry. Women are still seen as objects in these types of videos and somehow the music industry will always have that name for females. It is too late to change this representation as over the years its getting worse and more extreme.

How is race represented in music videos?

VMA Awards

This year at the VMA awards was another hot topic for the media to talk about. As a performer we almost expect to see Lady Gaga dressed inappropriately in all different kinds of outfits, and so when she performed in just a thong and bra, this was so surprise. However when Miley came out and dressed in nude shorts and crop top, Miley was the hot topic and spoken about worldwide in the media. My personal view on this topic, is that they are competing to be spoken about by the public, and in this awards- Miley essentially won.

Miley Cyrus was the lime light and the majority of viewers were talking about her performance.