Race to the Bottom
Butt-focus in music videos seems to be reaching critical mass. To what end?
Take out the anti-feminist/post-feminist argument and let’s look at the videos as the viral headlines of the music industry: crafted for maximum exposure and traffic.
I’m by no means a music critic, though I do listen to music — and I do spend a lot of time online. If you do as well (you do), then you’ve undoubtedly seen an uptick in music videos of late that all seem to celebrate the female form in ever-increasing visual fronts and reductionism. This seems really weird until you look at the attention these videos get. Then it’s pretty basic.
Some of the songs attached to these videos aren’t very catchy (Booty seems to have failed to catch fire — maybe because unlike the other videos, it’s backed by an objectively terrible song). Paired with the visuals of the video they are transformative, and in some ways seem a call and response battle amongst female artists (similar to rap) to top one another for renewed relevance — and that relevance in a world where radio play doesn’t matter as much as web traffic is reduced to the attention-grabbing headline and poster frame.
Despite some of the artists having more talent than others, the primary stage seems to be overselling the sex appeal as they bounce back and forth: Miley Cyrus, Beyoncé, Rihanna, Shakira, Ke$ha, Nicki Minaj, Jessie J, Meghan Trainor even Taylor Swift and now Jennifer Lopez and Iggy Azalea.
Some of the songs poke fun at the body/booty focus (All About The Bass and Shake it Off, particularly), and others almost dial it to the maximum amount to the heights of absurdity: Booty and Anaconda. The interesting thing is that these all are pulling tropes from the older 80s/90s rap songs and the electronic music videos of the 2000s, but are being reclaimed by female artists. Anaconda in particular pulls the music and cues from Baby Got Back.
The songs and videos and remixes are coming out in quicker fashion, with the artists offering frame-by-frame breakdowns of their videos. Each release pulls the previous crown down. These songs are in turn caricatured, remixed and re-recorded by normal people on the internet adding to the overall attention.
So what’s the goal? What are they saying? What are we supposed to say? I like to think it’s women claiming the right and power they inherently possess. Beyoncé’s claiming of the ‘Feminist’ title caused a lot of conversation in itself. Is it really about that, or about being the sexiest starlet, or something else?
Cynically I think it’s about traffic: headlines, hits, views and online discussion. It’s how things are accounted for these days — it’s the currency. It’s not revenue. The biggest buzz is the aim, not the biggest booty. The objectification of their form is a means to a different end.
And frankly, sex and shock sell viral videos. They fuel clickhole sites and are the engine that power Uproxx and Upworthy. The question I ask myself is whether the people selling it gain more by now being the objects as well as the peddlers.
Not that I mind, necessarily — but I think we should all pay attention to the fact that something interesting is happening with the visual and audio reductionism. We’ve all been attuned to viral headlines and articles — but this is something new. It’s the content creators playing in the same space.
I’m just not sure if it’s a good thing or not.
I guess I’ll have to keep watching.
