Emily Marks 23512407 Case Study ABSTRACT This content analysis examines the portrayals of gender in Hip-Hop music

Videos. This study investigated the representations of male and female lead performers in music videos. The study included 10 Hip-Hop music videos from MTVs top rated music videos from 2005-2009. INTRODUCTION Music videos have played a huge role in the music entertainment industry since they surfaced in the 1980s. The technology of music videos has given artists the opportunity to express themselves through film. Since record labels use music videos to sell music, an artists appearance is crucial. The content and imagery in music videos has been criticized for being overtly sexual and violent. All genres of music use videos to sell an artists music, but research suggests that certain musical genres have more sexual imagery than others in their videos. In a study of music video content, Rap and R&B music videos contain more sexual content than other genres (Turner, 2010). The majority of these artists were of color and race seemed to be a factor in the amount of sexual imagery in music videos. Rap and R&B are apart of what popular culture calls Hip-Hop music. Hip-Hop music originated from African American music in New York. Hip-Hop has become a culture that is portrayed in music videos. Watching contemporary music videos does not show our societys pro-women views. It illustrates a world where women are objects of sex and desire. The stories that are being told in music videos are not a representation of reality, but instead a fantasy. The nonverbal behavior in music videos is sometimes overlooked, but it is important to understand how gender roles are portrayed in music videos.

Since Hip-Hop Artists have been known to have more sexual imagery within music videos, this study examines gender roles in Hip- Hop music videos. LITERATRE REVIEW Cara Wallis (2010) conducted a content analysis to explore gender representations by male and female artists in music videos. Two coders analyzed a sample of pop, rock and rap music videos by male and female artists that aired on MTV and MTV2. The study was designed to measure the presence of nonverbal gender behaviors by lead female and male artists in music videos. Wallis found that there were differences in gender portrayals based on whether the lead performer was male or female. Male and female performers stereotypically reinforced traditional notions of masculinity and femininity. The findings show that in music videos women are portrayed in a sexually suggestive way and male artists are portrayed in an aggressive manor. Females are expected to act sexually and men are expected to act aggressively. Jacob S. Turner (2010) examined sex role portrayals and sexual behaviors in music videos from popular television networks. Two graduate students each analyzed 24 random music videos from the 120 music videos that were sampled. Each video was coded by musical genre and sexual content. The people in each video were coded based on ethnicity, gender, and level of provocative clothing. The results show that a little more than half of all the music videos that were sampled have sexual content and Rap and R&B were the musical genres that depicted sexual content the most. Black musical artists had more sexually suggestive acts in their music videos than White musical artists and Black female artists wore the most provocative clothing. Michelle E. Kistler and Moon J. Lee (2010) conducted an experiment to test the shortterm effects of watching Hip-Hop music videos that vary in level of sexual content. They compared the level of sexual content to the level of acceptance of the objectification of women,

sexual permissiveness, gender attitudes, and rape myth acceptance. Out of 195 college undergraduates that participated in the study 59 were male and 136 were female. The participants were randomly split up into three groups that either viewed a music video with strong sexual imagery, little sexual imagery, or didnt view any videos. All three groups filled out the same questionnaire whether they viewed music videos or not. The results show that the males who viewed the Hip-Hop music videos with high sexual content showed a greater level of objectification of women, sexual permissiveness, stereotypical gender attitudes, and acceptance of rape than the males who viewed the videos with low sexual content. The female participants results were mixed. Hip- Hop fandom played a significant role in participants objectification of women and sexual permissiveness. HYPOTHESIS H1: Women will more likely be associated with misogyny than men. H2: Men will more likely be associated with violence than women. H3: Women will more likely show displays of subordinate non-verbal behavior than men. H4: Men will more likely show displays of dominant nonverbal behavior than women. H5: Women will display more overt sexuality than men. H6: Men will display more nonverbal aggression than women.

METHOD This study is a content analysis of the gender roles in popular Hip-Hop music videos. The videos chosen for this study are currently the top ten highest rated Hip-Hop music videos on Music Televisions (MTV) website. The list of most popular Hip-Hop music videos is generated based on MTV.COM member ratings. MTV is among the most popular networks that airs music

videos and has been show to have an impact on popular culture, now on a global scale. (Citation) This sample is likely representative of Hip-Hop music videos that are currently popular because MTV is one of the top Music video outlets and this list was created from audience ratings. (Limitations) Main and supporting characters were coded for each video. Main characters were identified as a person singing or performing in the video whose name was in the title of the video. Supporting characters were identified as a person that was in the video for more than five scenes with main characters or a person in more than ten scenes regardless of whether they are with a main characters or not. Scenes are defined as sections with in a video. Scenes are differentiated based on a change in focus on the screen. Scenes change when the focus of the shot changes, but does not include zooming in or out in a scene. For instance, when the video changes from a scene in a bar to a scene on the street. Main and supporting characters were coded for age, race, sex, and clothing. The characters clothing was coded once for each outfit worn in the video as neutral, slightly provocative (clothing that reveals more of the chest, abdomen, or the thighs than in everyday work/school attire), or provocative (revealing most of the body). The characters were coded for the presence (1) or absence (0) of flinging hands/fingers, show of force, touching hair, delicate self-touch, suggestive dancing, smiling, and passionate singing. Both the characters and the video were coded for, misogyny. (WHY) Each video was coded for (0) no occurrence to (10) high occurrence for misogyny. The characters were coded for the presence (10) or absence (0) of misogyny. RESULTS DISCUSSION CONCLUSION

ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY Wallis, Cara. (2010). Performing Gender: A Content Analysis of Gender Display in Music Videos. Sex Roles, 64(3/4), 160-172. doi: 10.1007/s11199-010-9814-2

Turner, Jacob. (2011). Sex and the Spectacle of Music Videos: An Examination of the Portrayal of Race and Sexuality in Music Videos. Sex Roles, 64(3/4), 173-191. doi: 10.1007/s11199-0109766-6. Kristler, Michelle E., & Lee, Moon J. (2010). Mass Communication & Society, 13(1), 67-86. doi: 10.1080/15205430902865336