Music video analysis
For this assignment I picked this music video of a song The Light by HollySiz.
I don't usually watch that many music videos and this one happened to come by when I went through my old Youtube likes. I don't think I've listened to this artist before. The song is beautiful though.
According to Wikipedia HollySiz is Cécile Cassel, an artist and an actress. This video is from 2014. It has over 2,7 million views.
The genre is pop. I'm not very good at identifying music genres and I was looking for other genres it might represent from the artist's webpage. But it is plainly listed as pop. It's easy to listen to and I think it would appeal to many people.
Gender is a very big part of the video and it tells a very clear story about it. The whole clip is basically a short story about a modern family, a husband and a wife and their son.
In the beginning the son, who is an elementary school kid, is seen wearing a dress in the school. Other kids are staring and making fun of him. After that we see the boy is admiring his dress in front of a mirror and playing with pony toys in his room. In the next scene the family is eating and the dad angrily takes away the boys pony toy and throws it away. The mother gets angry at his husband and they have a heated discussion about it. Then the mother walks outside with now a happy looking boy and people are once again staring at them. Next we see the frustrated father coming to take the son home after school. People are staring and laughing.
Next we see the parents having a discussion with someone in the school after which we see another dinner scene where the boy is no longer wearing a dress. He is clearly feeling down and moping and the father doesn't let the boy leave the table until he has finished his food. Next morning when the parents come back to the kitchen they find the boy still sitting there. The parents have a huge argument and the now clearly shaken mother hugs the boy multiple times.
Before we saw the father playing a very typical "masculine" Playstation game. In the next scene he is jogging outside and stops by, in deep thought, to watch another father and his kid playing basketball outside. Next he sits in his sons room holding the small dress in his hand.
The video ends with another day, the son is walking to the school gates to meet his father. The boy is still wearing his "normal" boy clothes. Surprisingly the father is standing there wearing the mother's floral dress with a proud, almost defiant stance. He has the son's dress with him. The son is of course delighted, runs to the father, and they hug and walk hand in hand away. You can see the strong grip the father has of his son's hand. People are once again laughing at them, but in the end it doesn't feel important anymore.
The message is very clear throughout the video and not much is left for imagination. The message can be about gender normative clothing or more widely about gender as a whole concept. For me it feels more about just the general way we categorize clothing and toys for two genders. It was a very current topic 4 years ago, and it still is.
It tell a small story about the struggle between our norms and the bond of the family. What's worth sacrificing, or is it much of a sacrifice to begin with, for us to keep what's the most important. I think the video makes a good point of making gendered clothing seem very trivial matter in the end, but also representing the old views a lot of people have.
Sometimes the future is not about the father and son playing basketball together to form a bond, but something else equally good.
I don't usually watch that many music videos and this one happened to come by when I went through my old Youtube likes. I don't think I've listened to this artist before. The song is beautiful though.
According to Wikipedia HollySiz is Cécile Cassel, an artist and an actress. This video is from 2014. It has over 2,7 million views.
The genre is pop. I'm not very good at identifying music genres and I was looking for other genres it might represent from the artist's webpage. But it is plainly listed as pop. It's easy to listen to and I think it would appeal to many people.
Gender is a very big part of the video and it tells a very clear story about it. The whole clip is basically a short story about a modern family, a husband and a wife and their son.
In the beginning the son, who is an elementary school kid, is seen wearing a dress in the school. Other kids are staring and making fun of him. After that we see the boy is admiring his dress in front of a mirror and playing with pony toys in his room. In the next scene the family is eating and the dad angrily takes away the boys pony toy and throws it away. The mother gets angry at his husband and they have a heated discussion about it. Then the mother walks outside with now a happy looking boy and people are once again staring at them. Next we see the frustrated father coming to take the son home after school. People are staring and laughing.
Next we see the parents having a discussion with someone in the school after which we see another dinner scene where the boy is no longer wearing a dress. He is clearly feeling down and moping and the father doesn't let the boy leave the table until he has finished his food. Next morning when the parents come back to the kitchen they find the boy still sitting there. The parents have a huge argument and the now clearly shaken mother hugs the boy multiple times.
Before we saw the father playing a very typical "masculine" Playstation game. In the next scene he is jogging outside and stops by, in deep thought, to watch another father and his kid playing basketball outside. Next he sits in his sons room holding the small dress in his hand.
The video ends with another day, the son is walking to the school gates to meet his father. The boy is still wearing his "normal" boy clothes. Surprisingly the father is standing there wearing the mother's floral dress with a proud, almost defiant stance. He has the son's dress with him. The son is of course delighted, runs to the father, and they hug and walk hand in hand away. You can see the strong grip the father has of his son's hand. People are once again laughing at them, but in the end it doesn't feel important anymore.
The message is very clear throughout the video and not much is left for imagination. The message can be about gender normative clothing or more widely about gender as a whole concept. For me it feels more about just the general way we categorize clothing and toys for two genders. It was a very current topic 4 years ago, and it still is.
It tell a small story about the struggle between our norms and the bond of the family. What's worth sacrificing, or is it much of a sacrifice to begin with, for us to keep what's the most important. I think the video makes a good point of making gendered clothing seem very trivial matter in the end, but also representing the old views a lot of people have.
Sometimes the future is not about the father and son playing basketball together to form a bond, but something else equally good.
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