A Theorist Perspective:

Theories That Apply To The Music Video & Industry Norms Today

1. Stuart Hall 

Representation & Encoding/Decoding Meaning

• The media doesn't reflect reality; it constructs it.

• Meaning is encoded by producers and decoded by audiences or viewers.

Music video in this perspective:

• Music videos construct ideas about: Youth, Gender, Culture, and Identity.

• Lyrics and visuals work together to encode meaning into the music video.

How the Industry links with this:

• Record labels encode the preferred meanings aligned with brand image.

• Audiences may accept, negotiate, or reject these meanings accordingly.

2. David Gauntlett 

Identity Theory

• The media (MVs) offer tools for identity construction for the viewers.

• Modern audiences are active, not passive.

Music video in this perspective:

• Music videos provide role models and lifestyles.

• Indie videos show reflective and emotional identities.

• Mainstream videos show confident and glamorous identities.

Culture wise:

• It shows how identity in modern culture is fluid and diverse. Audiences adapt to various identities and have influences from different products.

3. Laura Mulvey

The Male Gaze (Feminist Theory)

• The media is structured around a male point of view.

• Women are often represented as objects of pleasure.

Music video in this perspective:

• Pop or hip-hop videos frequently sexualize women.

• Camera angles, editing, and costumes reinforce objectification.

Industry works on this:

• Sexualized representation is used as a commercial strategy to sell the music.

4. bell hooks 

Intersectional Feminism

• Representations should consider race, gender, and class together.

• The media often excludes marginalized voices.

Music videos in this perspective:

Critiques how women of color are: Hypersexualized, Stereotyped, and Underrepresented.

Culture & industry say:

This highlights the power imbalance between demographics in music production and promotion.

5. Theodor Adorno 

Culture Industry Theory

• Media products are mass-produced for profit.

• Popular culture is standard and repetitive.

Music video in this perspective:

• Mainstream music videos follow fixed formulas: Similar visuals, Predictable narratives

• Encourages passive consumption.

Industry from this perspective:

• Record labels mostly prioritize their profits over creativity and innovation.

6. Antonio Gramsci 

Hegemony

• Dominant groups all control the cultural meanings.

• The media maintains the status quo and no change is observed.

In the music video perspective:

• The mainstream videos promote: Wealth, Fame, Beauty standards

• Alternative videos challenge these dominant ideologies and break sterotypes.

7. Jean Baudrillard

Hyperreality

• The media creates a fake reality more appealing than real life for the viewers.

• Audiences consume simulations, not reality. We are stuck in a black hole of simulacra and representations that we use to satisfy our expectations from reality.

Music video in this perspective:

• Luxury cars shown, perfect bodies, and the perfect girl summer or Pinterest girl aesthetics, extravagant lifestyles.

• Creates unrealistic expectations for audience.

In Culture:

• It shapes the consumer's desires and aspirations and settles high expectations in their minds.

8. Richard Dyer

Stereotypes & Ideology

• The media uses various stereotypes to simplify meaning.

• Stereotypes serve ideological purposes for audience.

Music video in this perspective:

• Youth, gender, and class are often stereotyped.

• Some artists challenge these stereotypes through alternative representations and styles.

9. Andrew Goodwin 

Music Video Theory

• Music videos follow these specific set of conventions.

His main points are:

• theres a relationship between lyrics and visuals

• The star image is central in all.

• Audience often is in Voyeurism, they are positioned in such ways that they watch these stars in a way that gives them visual pleasure.

• Intertextuality is used and reffered.

Industry uses this again:

• Because star image is carefully constructed by labels using this power of gaze.

10. Roland Barthes 

Semiotics

• Media texts use signs to create meaning.

• Denotation (literal meaning) and connotation (hidden meanings).

Music video in this perspective:

• Costumes, settings, and gestures act as signs.

• Music videos rely heavily on symbolic meaning.

Overall, the music videos are shaped by different cultural, ideological, and industrial forces that combine together. According to Stuart Hall, meanings in music videos are often constructed through representations, while Gauntlet argues that they provide tools for different identity formations in the audience. The music industry often reinforces dominant ideologies through hegemony, which is Agrakshi's concept, and hyperreality, which Baudrillard proves, particularly in mainstream videos. However, alternative music videos challenge these norms and reject stereotypes like Adorno, and stereotypes are broken by different challenging norms, which offers a more diverse and realistic representation of media for the audience.