How Gender is represented in Pop Videos- 'Girls Aloud Love Machine'

I have chosen to look at how gender is represented in Pop videos as I believe representation is a key factor into targeting the chosen audience. Girls Aloud are a great example as they have been in mainstream media for almost 10 years now and have a very large fan base. Also, not only are they famous for their music they all have gone on and made their own careers expand into various things for example Cheryl does TV and Nicola does fashion. They would not be able to do this without being extremely popular with their target audience and I am interested in how they appeal to them as I would like my pop video to be as successful and with a similar target audience.

At the start of the video there is some very ‘classy’ music being played with a text over the video reading

‘THE ESKIMO CLUB’

After you see the girls appear walking into the club with a close up on the legs and also on their party dresses. There is also a long shot on them flirting with the band and portraying them as having lots of male attention. This appeals to the audience as it shows them to be popular like many teenage girls wish to be. The next shots are of a bar man making cocktails very ‘stylishly’ with the girls having a laugh portraying them as fun and ‘cool’ as the bar is conveyed as contemporary.

The dresses of the girls are all different however all are the same style; they show cleavage, there legs are on show which reveal their tanned and very slim bodies which portrays them as being ‘attractive’ and would appeal greatly to the male audience as well as allowing them to be idolised by the female audience.

There are plenty of close up shots on the different instruments, champagne and people dancing which again reinforces the cool and contemporary feeling about the girls. I have also noticed that lighting is used greatly to represent the gender. For example this shot of Nadine shows spotlights and beams focusing and highlighting her in the mid shot of her on her own. It highlights her figure showing that it’s very important in the representation of women whilst also showing them as ‘bright’ and ‘fun’ which is what they want to be perceived as.

There are also mid shots of the girls doing dance routines on the table conveying them as quite rebellious as ‘normal’ people don’t often get the chance to do that which appeals to the target audience of teenagers as they all wish they could be rebellious.

Most of the camera shots featured in the video are close ups of the 5 girls faces to portray the ‘beauty’ and ‘attractiveness’ of them to the audience again conveying the am being able to be ‘idolised’ as many young girls will want to try and look like them. Also near the end of the video there is a continuous long shot of the dance floor with Girls Aloud dancing in their dresses with a large group of people, which portrays the women as popular and ‘sexy’ as the dancing could be perceived as that.

To conclude Girls Aloud have been portrayed as confident, confident and attractive women which is what the target audience want which is a factor to why they have succeed so well.