task 5

Task 5

1) Study the mise en scene associated with Snoop Dogg in this music video, how far does it go to justify the Male Gaze theory?

2) How many different outfits does Katy Perry appear in and what outfit suggests a different personality?

3) Analyse the lyrics in Snoop Doggs rap, at what point does it suggest how women appear as an object?

4) What significance does the place California has on the male gaze theory? What is there? What is California associated with?

5) Do you think that the video suggests that women are appeared as objects? What role does Snoop Dogg have? Who is presented to have the majority of power?

Task 3: Music video conventions

Katy Perry's 'California gurls' seems to portray many themes that can be seen as a convention for music videos.

For instance, using young, attractive women as dancers can be seen in the majority of pop music videos, and even a lot of rock videos. This could be as the young attractive women, who are usually wearing very revealing clothes, offer some form of gratification for the wide male audience.

Katy Perry is known to use a lot of colourful images in her videos, or use a lot of contrasting colours that stand out very easily. This is very much the case in 'California gurls', as Katy Perry often wears clothes that really stand out, i.e wearing a bright red costume for one scene, and in the ending shot a polka dotted white dress. We can also see that the use of light and dark colours are used to represent what the different areas are like. For instance, Katy Perry crosses an area that looks like it is made of dark chocolate, however it also seems dangerous as she tries not to fall in. This suggests that maybe the ideas of light and dark portraying good and evil (respectively) are present in this video.

A shot where music matches the video could be where Katy Perry and her friends are dancing along to the words,and their actions are completely in time with both the music and the kyrics. This is common, however, in almost all videos thus the video can be seen as conforming to the conventions once again.

There is also a clear intertextual reference to Willy Wonka's chocolate factory. For instance, Wonka's factory is made almost entirely of sweets and chocolate, which is the same as the land that Katy perry stumbles through.

There also appears to be a short reference to Alice in Wonderland at the beginning of the video. We can see Perry walking around in pure amazement at what she is seeing, much like alice in wonderland does when she is sucked through to the world she visits.

In conclusion, Katy Perry's music video conforms to a lot of the conventions that are laid out in the music industry, like dancing in time to the music and using young women to garner male and female attention.

Task 4: Male gaze theory

Laura Mulvey has proposed a theory that takes the idea of ‘sex appeal’ and puts it in the eyes of a typical heterosexual man. ‘California girls’ by Katy Perry feat Iconic rapper Snoop Dogg, takes a concept of a board game and pictures Katy Perry as the character taking the role of a board game piece.

As the video progresses we visualise Perry taking the internal form of a binary opposition. We see her acting in two different ways. It is apparent that Katy Perry comes across as virginally innocent. This is quite clear due to the Alice in Wonderland-esque act Perry has put on. She is dressed in a sincere outfit that suggests to the audience she shows innocence. Throughout the video we learn that there could be another side to the character pictured. We quickly see a change in personality and it could become clear that the actions of the board game have changed the characters mindset.

It wouldn’t be that clear that Katy Perry is objectified. For a large amount of the time in the video, Snoop Dogg takes the place of a controller over this fantasy world we, as an audience, get sucked into. Whilst it would be critically incorrect to brand Katy Perry a ‘Whore’ in her second brash personality, there could be potential to brand Snoop Dogg a ‘Pimp’, often associated with vice and the idea that women are an object as opposed to human. This portrayal of Snoop Dogg justifies the Male Gaze theory.

Overall, this music video collates with the male gaze theory and the ‘sex appeal’ associated with the way a typical heterosexual man would view Katy Perry, accordingly. The typical attempt to perfectly present Katy Perry is shown when she is half nude surrounded by a flurry of pink colour to create a stand out effect.

Task 2: Uses and gratifactions

Katy Perry's "California gurls" and it's video is a thoroughly enjoyable video to watch, and it appears as though it is mainly targeted at the male audience, with Katy Perry and friends are constantly in very revealing bikinis, or even nothing.

The uses and gratification's theory lists escape as one of the factors the audience looks for, and this music video offers 2 major chances for the audience

to escape into a different 'world'.

The first is through Katy Perry's lyrics which describe California as a perfect place, "where the grass is really greener". This could prompt the audience into imagining whether or not California is really as amazing as the song suggests.

The second is through the strange Willy Wonka style world that Katy Perry moves through. The giant gummy bears and lollypop trees spark the imagination of almost anyone who watches the video, so simply watching this video an give the audience a great chance to escape, fulfilling one of the criteria for the gratifactions theory.

The video has one major example of intertextuality, that is, the land that Katy Perry traverses could easily be related to Willy Wonka's factory, even though it is clearly meant to represent the 'amazing' land of California.

There is little to identify with in this video; unless you are a 'California gurl'. The strange candy land will be practically impossible to relate with as walking through such a place would not exactly occur in everyday life. The lyrics, however do present what sounds like a great place to be, however this falls under escapism, and perhaps even Information.

There is a lot of material that can be used for entertainment, there are bright colour costumes and revealing costumes attracting the male audience. The video is set on a fantasy 'world', with unusual and funny scenes, with the use of whipped cream, weapons and rude gummy bears, which could make the audience laugh. The video is entertaining to watch and engages the audience with this virtual candy world, the story line also engages us, this girl tries to save others who are trapped in the candy world with her, which seems to actually be Snoop Dogs own little board game, suggesting that he has control over them as women.

We then get to see Katy Perry and her friends dance in revealing outfits ( which can be entertainment for the male audience) and then defeat Snoop Dog.

In conclusion, this music video seems to offer more in terms of entertainment for a male audience, through the use of scantily clad women dancing together.

Music Video- Katy Perry