Analysis: Jason Derulo "Swalla"

     After watching the music videos for this week, I chose to analyze the Jason Derulo "Swalla" video.  There is a lot to say about this video, so to make it easier to understand, I decided to address each question separately.  Here we go....

What roles do the men in the music video play?  What roles do the women play? 

     In the video, the men are at the center of attention, usually with a women draped on their lap or over their shoulder.  Jason Derulo has female dancers surrounding him throughout the video.  The women seem to solely be there to dance and look hot.  They are in  revealing clothing and are showing off their breasts and butts. Usually, men in music videos stand there while women dance around or on them.  Derulo is more active in this video however; he dances with his female counterparts.  Niki Minaj appears in the video, and I thought that she would try to distinguish herself from the other women in the video by dressing or acting differently.  But, she is dressed the same as the other dancers; she has a crop top on that shows off her cleavage, and tiny shorts to show off her shape.  She even lies on the ground during her rap while touching herself.  It seems that she cannot really get away from the sexual roles that most music videos have women in. As in the films we watched, Dreamworlds and Hip-hop: Beyond Beats and Rhymes, the women in this video are sexually open and submissive to men's sexual desires.    

Does the music video--as Sut Jhally insists all music videos do--tell a story about male and female sexuality?  If so, what story about sexuality does it tell?

     It seemed to say that women are happy to have men look at them sexually, and invite this attention with revealing clothes.  In the video, the men are more than willing to "enjoy the show".  The sexuality of the men in this video is represented by them being passive viewers who "let the women" interact with them sexually.  Only when the woman invites or instigates the sexual encounter do the men "give in" and reciprocate.  I think the most blatant representation of this idea is when the video shows a woman sitting in a chair posing seductively, nude, and covered in bright paint for the men to view. Derulo then pours paint over her, and begins to run his fingers down her chest.  The lyrics of the song invite "all the girls in here" to drink, presumably so that they will be more willing to let loose and be more sexually free.  Once this occurs, the men can more freely interact with the women.

What story (besides sexuality) does the visual music video tell?  If you had to watch the music video without sound, what story are you told and/or what message does the music video offer?

   
     The video has a simple message: Let's party!  Without the lyrics you can tell that the video is telling the viewer to go out to a club or party, get drunk, and have a crazy night. It mainly centers around alcohol being the key to having fun.  The video shows many images of the women holding bottles of alcohol juxtaposed with images of the women dancing. 

Does the music video reinforce harmful stereotypes or does it challenge them?  Provide examples from the video.

   
     I think that this video unfortunately reinforces harmful stereotypes.  It seems to suggest that all women are seeking excuses to be sexually promiscuous, and in this case they are told to drink alcohol so that they can party.  There is nothing wrong with women expressing their sexuality, but this video, like many others, suggests that all women want and need is sex, and that they need men to fulfill this desire.  Clips from this video could have been shown in the films Dreamworlds and Hip-hop: Beyond Beats and Rhymes as examples of these stereotypes.  I almost laughed when I saw the opening scene of the music video, which featured a woman draped across Derulo's lap, because Dreamworlds discussed how common this image is.  In Hip-Hop: Beyond Beats and Rhymes, Byron Hurt discusses how the men in music videos are often shown admiring women's bodies, especially their butts.  This was seen in Derulo's video as well, with a woman standing beside the rapper Ty Dolla Sign in short shorts showing her backside to the camera.  The men in this video are more than willing to watch the women dance seductively.  The men only interact when the women throw themselves at the men.  In one scene some of the women are using the men almost like a strip pole, and of course the men hold them up and enjoy the "performance". This is reinforcing the idea that men are there to watch and women are there to perform for them.  After watching the countless examples of music videos shown in the films, I can see that this music video has many repetitive themes and is stereotypical.  

Given that music videos' target audience is adolescents (13-18 years old), what do you think adolescents learn about men, women, and relationships from this music video?

      
     It looks like the video will teach girls to drink when they party so that they can be sexually open and promiscuous for men.  Viewers might think that women must always be showing off for men to get any kind of attention from them.  Men are shown as viewers, and women are shown as the ones who must perform. The lesson for men here is to meet women at clubs or parties, because the women there will be more likely to fulfill men's fantasies in these settings.  

Link to Jason Derulo "Swalla" music video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NGLxoKOvzu4&index=7&list=PLhS3DcL9XnJiyhbMAUPOK9d0qazofnb7O