Resistance Gazes in Recent Music Videos

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Abstract. A number of recent music videos by women subvert the male gaze (Mulvey) through a number of techniques I construe as “resistance gazes.” *ese videos subvert the hypersexualization, infantilization, objecti+cation, and victimi- zation regularly seen in music videos using imagery that resonates with broader cultural movements such as ,metoo and ,timesup.

Laura Mulvey +rst de+ned the male gaze in [t]here is a fetishization of particular "12! as a dominant trope in +lm and media gendered subjects: face and body are pre- in which women are rendered as objects. She sented to the audience as pleasurable ob- states: jects through the use of big close-ups, so- lighting, and a shallow focus to minimize In a world ordered by sexual imbalance, distracting background, thus construct- pleasure in looking has been split be- ing the object of the gaze as spectacular, tween active/male and passive/female. . . . passive, emotionally receptive, isolated/ In their traditional exhibitionist role, removed from the world. women are simultaneously looked at and displayed, with their appearance coded Like Bannister, Jennifer Hurley broadens  for strong visual and erotic impact so the subject of the gaze to all genders, that they can be said to connote a to-be- suggesting that this practice a0ects “not looked-at-ness. only girls and women who are actively constructing their gendered subjectivity in Many scholars have adapted and built upon music video’s ‘gaze.’” this original conception of the male gaze, In this article I build upon these and other  particularly in relation to music video. Lisa post-Mulveyian perspectives on the male Lewis asserts that early videos on MTV gaze and how it might be adapted to the spe- relied on “coded images of the female body ci+c context of music video. I begin by iden- and conventionally positioning girls and tifying four speci+c ways in which the male  women as objects of male voyeurism.” Ann gaze regularly a0ects women in music video: Kaplan devotes an entire chapter of her "172 hypersexualization, infantilization, objecti+- book to understanding “how the televisual cation, and the victim trope. A-er providing apparatus constructs the female body” on clear examples for each of these in the fol-  MTV. lowing paragraphs, I will argue that many re- Writing more recently, Matthew Bannister cent music videos, especially by women and/ identi+es particular camera techniques as- or LGBTQ+ artists, subvert these and other sociated with the male gaze in music video, facets of the male gaze through a number of claiming that techniques I construe as resistance gazes.

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The Male Gaze in Music Video Elfman) proclaims his love for these “little girls” as he engages in sexually harassing In the video for Miley Cyrus’s “Wrecking behavior with several young women. *eir Ball,” the viewer sees Cyrus “displayed” (in youth is emphasized visually through cos- Mulvey’s parlance) as a hypersexualized tume: including a girl scout uniform, pajama object. In shots such as that seen in Figure ", party, and a young woman licking a lollipop the camera focuses on her naked body—es- in a white dress with her hair in pigtails with pecially her breasts and buttocks—in a man- ribbons. *eir small stature is also depicted ner that resonates with Jacqueline Warwick’s visually, as the women are always smaller assessment of the male gaze in music video, than the protagonist. Toward the end of the in which “spectators are compelled to look video, one of the women actually shrinks at images in +lm from the point of view of down to +t inside the protagonist’s hand. *e heterosexual men, regardless of their actual protagonist’s facial expressions and general gender identities and sexual preferences.” countenance depict him as a predator and Figure 9 shows an infamous example of the “little girls” as his prey. infantilization in Oingo Boingo’s "17" video A more contemporary example of in- for “Little Girls.” *e video’s protagonist fantilization occurs throughout Girls’ (played by the band’s lead singer, Danny

Figure ". Hypersexualization in Miley Cyrus, “Wrecking Ball” (9@"B, ":":).

Figure 2. Infantilization in Oingo Boingo, “Little Girls” ("17", ":!B).

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Generation’s video for “Gee.” Writing about Figure :. *e young woman is dragged this video, Soyoung Kim states, “Female art- through a variety of violent situations: she ists are o-en depicted as a hybrid between is shot at, handcu0ed, physically abused, children and sexually developed adults, . . . and thrown in and out of moving vehicles, essentially infantilizing mature adult women, all of which we see from the point of view making them seem like utterly clueless (POV) perspective of one of the criminals, children who must depend on older men to played by *e Weeknd. Even at the end of teach them about love.” *e musicians in the video, when all of the criminals have Girls’ Generation are not only infantilized— been killed and *e Weeknd lays dying, the they are also objecti+ed. In Figure B, we see young woman has no agency. *e Weeknd’s that the women are literally treated as ob- last act is to give her the key to her hand- jects (mannequins), carried by a young man cu0s, suggesting that even though he is near around a store. death, he still has more power and agency *e victim trope, in which women are over the young woman, the victim. helpless to defend themselves from male *is article is ultimately not about the aggressors, constitutes a fourth (though male gaze in music video; rather, it aims to probably not +nal) way in which the male highlight the steps women and LGBTQ+ folk gaze acts upon women in music video. *e have taken to resist it. In the rest of this ar- narrative action in *e Weeknd’s “False ticle, I will discuss some recent music videos Alarm” is divided between a bank heist, that subvert the male gaze through a number a police shootout, and the capture of the of techniques that I summarize as resistance helpless-looking young woman shown in gazes.

Figure B. Objecti+cation in Girls’ Generation, “Gee” (9@@1, @:@:).

Figure :. *e victim trope in *e Weeknd, “False Alarm” (9@"F, @::9).

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Resistance Gazes video and other media evokes tropes of hypersexualization and objecti+cation by Resistance gazes act in opposition to hyper- focusing on sex as a realized male fantasy sexualization, infantilization, objecti+cation, rather than a representation of love and victimization, or other facets of the male relationships. Two di0erent music videos gaze. *ey are most o-en found in music with the same title—Jill Sobule’s “I Kissed videos created by women and/or LGBTQ+ a Girl” ("11!) and Katy Perry’s “I Kissed a artists. Lisa Lewis claims that women’s resis- Girl” (9@@7)—both illustrate this clearly. tance to dominant male narratives (what she In Sobule’s video, the budding relationship calls “the female address”) arose as a separate that develops between her character and textual practice shortly a-er MTV began, the neighbor, both of whom are married citing Cyndi Lauper’s “Girls Just Wanna to men, is impaired by infantilization. *e Have Fun” ("17B) as a watershed video. cartoonish setting, bright colors, and fan- Murali Balaji identi+es music videos as sites tastical dream scenarios, along with shots of resistance for Black women particularly, of Sobule playing guitar in her bedroom highlighting Melyssa Ford’s dancing as a way and sitting in an oversized chair (Figure !a), to resist “being objecti+ed and controlled” ultimately present the women’s relationship throughout Mystikal’s “Shake Ya Ass.” as fantasy. Perry’s video uses hypersexual- Shanara Reid-Brinkley similarly +nds narra- ization and objecti+cation, which, alongside tives of resistance throughout Black women’s the lyrics “I kissed a girl and I liked it / performance in music video, further prob- don’t mean I’m in love tonight,” subjects the lematizing the hostility toward said resis- relationship to the male gaze (Figure !b). tance she witnesses in online chat boards. *e comparatively conspicuous sexualiza- In the following sections, I will attempt to tion in Perry’s video might say just as much build on this scholarship by highlighting sev- about censorship in the mid-"11@s; Sobule’s eral speci+c cases of women’s and LGBTQ+ video either did not, or could not, do this in folks’ resistance to the male gaze in recent "11! and get played on MTV. music videos, providing visual and musical “Girls Like Girls,” written and codirected analysis to bolster my claims. by Hayley Kiyoko, begins with a gratuitous Resisting Hypersexualization panning shot up a young woman’s bare legs all the way up to her bloodied face (Fig- A common depiction of lesbian relation- ures Fa and Fb, respectively). In depicting ships and female pansexuality in music a woman as both hypersexualized and as a

Figure !b. Hypersexulization in Katy Perry, “I Kissed a Girl” (9@@7, ":!F). Figure !a. Infantilization in Jill Sobule, “I Kissed a Girl” ("11!, ":B:).

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Figure 6a. Hypersexualization (?) in Hayley Kiyoko, “Girls Like Girls” (9@"!, @:"F).

Figure 6b. Victim trope (?) in “Girls Like Girls” (9@"!, @:"1). victim, it e0ectively calls attention to two Another form of resistance to hypersexu- facets of the male gaze but does so en route alization occurs through conscious reversals to becoming a video that subverts that gaze that depict men as objects while women in nearly every way. gaze upon them. Jennifer Lopez’s “I Luh ya *e bike-riding woman (Stephanie Scott) Papi” (see Figure 7) does this as an exercise goes to a party to meet another young in daydreaming. *e video unfolds as a woman she has a crush on (Kelsey Chow). dream sequence in which Lopez imagines Both women are verbally and physically what it would be like if men were objecti+ed abused by Chow’s boyfriend. Taking respite in music video (all while her agent pitches from these assaults, the two women retreat her sexist ideas for the “real” music video). to the bathroom to paint each other’s nails Subverting, or even reversing, gender norms and lips. Figures 2a and 2b display a resis- is an example of what Lewis identi+es as tance to the hypersexualization of women, “access signs,” one of her two forms of the particularly that seen in same-sex love female address regularly seen and heard in scenes. In Figure 2a Chow applies lipstick music videos. Matthew Bannister has iden- to Scott’s lips while Scott gazes into Chow’s ti+ed similar “reversal” techniques in a num- eyes and at her lips. Likewise, Figure 2b, ber of popular music biopics, stating that “in from the couple’s +rst passionate embrace, these +lms, the gaze is reversed and the male is shot entirely from the shoulders up, with lead is eroticized, sensitized, and his career so- backlighting emphasizing the women’s or life revealed as dependent on the agency hair, eyes, lips, and hands. *is resonates of female characters.” with Natalie Wilson’s praise for the 9@"! Sofya Wang’s approach in “Boys Aside” +lm Carol, directed by Todd Haynes, which (9@"2) is arguably more e0ective for its lack allows mainstream viewers to “see love and of hypothetical framing. Silver Michaelsen desire between women realistically ren- draws our attention to the fact that the men dered.” in this video are shown wearing far more

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Figure 2a and 2b. Realistic de- pictions of love in “Girls Like Girls” (9@"!, 9:9B, ::"2). revealing clothing than the women, who ap- Subverting the Victim Trope pear fully clothed (even in the pool) and in As Murali Balaji notes, it can be diHcult to positions of power (driving the car). Tim- disentangle empowerment and objecti+ca- bral analysis of the video’s opening reinforces tion in hypersexualized music videos. Balaji this reversal of traditional gender norms. *e seeks to +nd “sites of self-de+nition by Black video opens with only tinny, trebley sounds women in music videos while accounting for played from a small pink radio. Other Gu0y, the cultural industries that reproduce and so-, pink items are shown (ice cream, a kit- exploit Black women’s sexuality.” Rihanna’s ten), until the camera pulls back to reveal “Bitch Better Have My Money” (9@"F) is an that they decorate the room of an e0eminate instructive case in this regard. While the cam- man. When the low synth-bass and powerful era focuses on Rihanna’s physical body—o-en beat +nally drop (@:97), the camera shows minimally clothed—the video also depicts Wang standing con+dently in the center of her as the locus of control. Rihanna kidnaps the frame, singing seductively to a woman a well-to-do white woman, holding her for about setting “all of those other boys aside.” ransom against a philandering husband who

Figure 7. Hypersexualization reversal in Jennifer Lopez, “I Luh ya Papi” (9@":, 9:!").

This content downloaded from 144.92.108.30 on Wed, 19 May 2021 18:38:32 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms '(#'$) : Resistance Gazes in Recent Music Videos !2 owes her (Rihanna) money. Instead of placing dominance owing to their objecti+cation of Rihanna in the role of the victim, the video women. Instead of paying Rihanna the money shows her as the perpetrator of physical vio- he owes, the philandering husband (Mads lence. Her vocal delivery throughout the track Mikkelsen) is seen on a bed covered in money is categorized by exceptionally tense vocal with two women. In the +nal scene, which folds vibrating aperiodically, just on the brink implies (but never shows) his murder, Ri- of a scream, which, as Kate Heidemann has hanna is seen selecting her weapon dressed in shown, listeners are likely to mimetically as- a transparent and revealing out+t, suggesting sociate with power and/or rage. that her sexuality is as much a weapon as the *e video’s +nal scene (see Figure 1) shows knife in her hand (Figure "@a). *e other male Rihanna luxuriating in a chest of the man’s character is a policeman (Eric Roberts) whose cash, covered not in her own blood, but in his. attention is diverted from the kidnapping as *is sense of agency does more than subvert Rihanna and her posse smile and wave at him the victim trope, it also helps us see Rihanna’s (Figure "@b). By Gaunting an air of availability, hypersexualized body as a site of self-empow- Rihanna is able to subvert the male oHcer’s erment rather than objecti+cation. However, power and veil her criminal activities through in merely reversing the dominant subject a projected innocence. positions, Rihanna’s video falls into a similar Figure "" returns to the climactic scene of pitfall that Marc Lafrance identi+es in P!nk’s “Girls Like Girls.” *is extended narrative “Please Don’t Leave Me” (9@@1) in that it requires a parenthetical audio insert, heard “con+rm[s] rather than contest[s] prevailing from B:91–B::: in the video, that is not heard stereotypes of gender, sexuality, and ability.” in the album version. At 9:!! we hear what Both of the male characters in “Bitch Bet- should be the dramatic swell from the bridge ter Have My Money” fall victim to Rihanna’s into the +nal chorus, which is about to be

Figure 1. Subverting the vic- tim trope in Rihanna, “Bitch Better Have My Money” (9@"!, !:"!).

Figure "@a. (a) Weaponized sexuality (!:!9); and (b) Subverting authority (B::9) in “Bitch Better Have My Money” (9@"!).

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Figure "". Subverting the vic- tim trope in “Girls Like Girls” (9@"!, B::F). timed perfectly with the couple’s +rst kiss. But viewer in an Afrofuturist utopia, in which just before it drops, Chow’s abusive boyfriend an abandoned hotel in the desert is occupied pulls Scott by the hair, throwing her to the entirely by strong Black women. *ese futur- ground (B:91). *e attenuated low frequencies istic shots are curiously paired throughout of the audio-insert section, along with a di- the video with “throwback” shots (e.g. 9:::) egetic high-frequency ring, mimic the e0ects that utilize the ::B aspect ratio and track- of a concussive blow to the head. *is contin- ing lines associated with VHS technology, ues until B:::, at which point Scott retaliates cra-ing a transhistorical narrative that mir- against the abusive boyfriend with a punch to rors Monae’s blend of "17@s sounds with the head that is timed perfectly as an anacru- contemporary audio production throughout sis back into the +nal chorus; just as the +nal her 9@"7 visual album Dirty Computer. chorus’s beat “drops,” she drops him. In Monae’s vision of the future, women Using a low-angle shot, typically associated can and do celebrate all di0erent body types. with machismo power in rap and nü-metal A low-angle shot in which a pink baseball videos of the late "11@s, Kiyoko emphasizes bat dangles between a woman’s legs (":"2) the strength in Scott’s physical body as well as also demonstrates Monae’s commitment to her drive to protect Chow as she delivers blow trans women. *is phallic shot stands out a-er blow to the abusive boyfriend. Kiyoko because the rest of the video delights in styl- subverts the victim trope by depicting Scott ized depictions of the female reproductive not as the victim of physical violence but as system. Figure "9 shows the famous “vagina a woman capable of self-defense. *e video pants” seen throughout the video. ends with a recapitulation of the opening Other yonic elements featured include the shot, but now we see Scott smiling, brandish- inside of a seashell (":@2), a +nger poking the ing her facial wound as a battle scar. We now inside of a donut (B::2), and ice melting on understand the opening scene as a prolepsis a sliced grapefruit (B::1). *e video descrip- that withholds a crucial element of the plot tion reads: “‘Pynk’ is a brash celebration of until the video’s ending, yet another instance creation. self love. sexuality. and pussy power! of Carol Vernallis’s observation that “a music ‘Pynk’ is the color that unites us all, for pink video’s opening o-en foreshadows its end.” is the color found in the deepest and darkest nooks and crannies of humans everywhere . . . Matriarchal and Yonic Imagery ‘Pynk’ is where the future is born.” I read this statement as not only a celebration of em- Janelle Monae’s “Pynk” depicts women not powerment, but also a meditation on how our as victims, but as active participants in a shared color of Gesh unites all humans. Such jubilant celebration of the female body. CGI a description further celebrates the female dust (rather than wheels) under the car at reproductive system by linking this unity to the video’s onset immediately situates the

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Figure "9. Matriarchal imagery in Janelle Monae, “Pynk” (9@"7, ":@B). the “darkest nooks” and to birth itself. Cel- such NSFW (not safe for work) videos are only ebrating such traditionally feminine imagery possible in the post-MTV era, which has led is an example of Lewis’s other type of female to increased diversity in music video. In this address, or what she calls “discovery signs.” case, by depicting non-heteronormative sex Discovery signs in music video ful+ll “girls’ acts that make Madonna’s “Justify my Love” desire for recognition as expressive cultural (famously banned by MTV in the "11@s) pale subjects in their own right.” by comparison, “Rub” showcases a diversity of When Monae reached out to director sexual orientations and gender identities. Emma Westenberg, her only suggestion was A scene from Ariana Grande’s “God is a that the video should be pink. Westenberg Woman” (see Figure ":) reimagines Michael- uses color grading throughout the video angelo’s !e Creation of Adam in a matriar- to transform the desert’s sepia hues into chal society, in which Eve is a Black woman, pink tones. She also shoots with an infrared and God (in this case played by Grande her- camera in several scenes, which records the self) is enveloped, along with an ethnically desert’s abundant sunlight as pink. Benson- diverse choir of angels, in a womb-like con- Allott has argued that similarly transparent tainer. Whereas the +rst two choruses feature production techniques (e.g., VHS-like glitch- Grande singing the song title by herself, this ing, supernatural color grading), may disrupt scene matches the pictured matriarchal choir the male gaze by drawing attention to the with an all-treble choir heard reinforcing physical medium itself. Grande on the song title for the +rst time. “Pynk” is just one of a number of recent It might be said that many, or even most videos that celebrate yonic imagery as a direct videos—to the extent that they show a resistance to the phallic icons that dominate woman as an active, adult agent—resist the patriarchal society (such as the Washington infantilization and objecti+cation seen in Monument). Peaches’ “Rub”—a video directed “Little Girls” and “Gee.” But Miley Cyrus by a team of three women and featuring only goes one step further in her video “BB Talk” women and trans folks—opens with a butch by creating an absurd, self-conscious parody woman bowing to a monumental yoni in the of infantilization in music video. Figure "! desert (see Figure "B). As Korsgaard has argued, exempli+es most of the video’s imagery, in

This content downloaded from 144.92.108.30 on Wed, 19 May 2021 18:38:32 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms Figure "B. Yonic iconography in Peaches, “Rub” (9@"!, @:"").

Figure ":. Matriarchal rereading in Ariana Grande, “God is a Woman” (9@"7, B::!).

Figure "!. Critique of infan- tilization in Miley Cyrus “BB Talk” (9@"!, 9:@7).

This content downloaded from 144.92.108.30 on Wed, 19 May 2021 18:38:32 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms '(#'$) : Resistance Gazes in Recent Music Videos F" which Cyrus sits, lies, or rolls around on the the worse circumstances of domination, the Goor dressed in a diaper, usually with a bot- ability to manipulate one’s gaze in the face of tle, rattle, or paci+er. Cyrus’s lyrics solidify structures of domination that would contain this anti-infantilization theme. Delivered it, opens up the possibility of agency.” through both singing and digitally modi- *e artwork for Solange Knowles’s album +ed speech, her lyrics criticize a lover for A Seat at the Table (9@"F), shown in Fig- their incessant “baby talk.” What she wants, ure "F, illustrates a clear oppositional gaze. instead, is sex, if for no other reason than to Jeneé Osterheldt’s essay “Don’t Touch our make the baby talk stop. Both her speaking Hair” asserts that this album cover, “a direct and singing are delivered in an exceptionally celebration of ,blackgirlmagic with a revo- low range for Cyrus, further adding to the lutionary gaze, does not need white valida- uncanny and the satirical in this video. tion.” In this reading, Solange stares back at the viewer to catch them in the act (“gotcha”) Oppositional Gazes of assessing her hair against the rigors of white beauty norms. Similarly, the cover of Musicians in music videos can also resist Lizzo’s “Cuz I Love You” (9@"1) features the the male gaze by calling it out directly. bell artist casting a sideways glance toward any hooks coined the term “oppositional gaze” gaze that might meet her voluptuous naked to explain the ways that Black viewers as- body. similate to the norms of white phallocentric A number of recent videos by Black cinema, being forced to see whitewashed women do not necessarily use their eyes to versions of themselves on +lm and televi- enact this oppositional gaze—they use their sion. According to hooks, “sitting in the dark middle +ngers instead. Immediately fol- [she] must imagine herself transformed, lowing the lyric “pynk, like your +ngers in turned into the white woman portrayed on my . . .” Monae’s video cuts to the shot shown the screen.” *is also resonates with Balaji’s in Figure "2, in which the actresses preempt concern about the ways in which images of the viewer from imagining their bodies as Black bodies can be commodi+ed for the the objective site of penetrative digital sex. [male] viewer’s enjoyment. I would like to suggest that we may also adapt hooks’s concept of the oppositional gaze to empower the actions of the musi- cians and actors on screen in music video. In so doing, it may be possible to locate sites of resistance where musicians and actors gaze back at us, the viewers, to catch us in the act of [male] gazing. Anna-Elena Pääk- kölä has previously identi+ed precisely such an oppositional gaze in the +lm Secretary: “By returning the audience’s gaze in such an unabashed way, Lee [Maggie Gyllenhall’s character] shows both self-assuredness as well as a sense of control for not only her- self but also the audience.” Locating this resistance in musicians’ performance may Figure "F. Oppositional gaze on the album help animate hooks’s claim that “even in cover of Solange, A Seat at the Table (9@"F).

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Figure "2. Opposition in Jo- nelle Monae’s “Pynk” (9@"7, B:!1).

Beyoncé and her dancers hold their An Audiovisual Analysis of Resistance middle +ngers high throughout the 9@"F vi- *is article began by brieGy introducing four sual album Lemonade (see especially “Sorry” ways in which women are subjected to the and “Formation”). *e chorus of the former male gaze in music videos before ultimately provides a corresponding lyrical narrative demonstrating several that resist that gaze. through which to interpret this resistance I have largely demonstrated this resistance (“middle +ngers up / put ’em hands high through analysis of a video’s lyrics, vocal / put ’em in his face / tell him ‘boy, bye’”). delivery, instrumental timbres, cinematogra- “Sorry’s” chorus ampli+es this resistance by phy, visual imagery, and plot. setting up the expectation that this lyric will But linking musical analysis to suppos- occur on the +rst bar of an eight-bar phrase, edly “extra-musical” detail is nothing new, then surprises us with yet another middle especially for music theory and the “new +nger in bar 2 (9:"7), two bars earlier than musicology” of the early "11@s. *is line expected. of thinking has been applied extensively to Such combined visual/lyrical gestures of the analysis of opera, where musical detail resistance and opposition contrast sharply can be linked to simultaneous text and vi- with what Watson and Railton identify as sual elements. It is easy enough to +nd a a dominant trope in Black women’s music similarity between these musical/textual/ videos a decade before, in which performers visual assemblages in opera and roughly the would regularly “make themselves available same in music video. If we assume the male to the scrutinizing gaze and physical touch gaze to be a dominant, hegemonic force—a of an (o-en unnamed) black man.” Ban- set of expectations that a viewer has been nister reminds us that the male gaze in music conditioned to see in music videos—then videos by Black women transcends gender, we might start by identifying a similar set linking to race and other power structures. of musical expectations. In modern popular In both subverting and drawing attention to music, these might include the presence of these norms, these videos and the discourse a backbeat, largely diatonic harmony, verse/ surrounding them resonate with larger, in- chorus or strophic song forms, and com- tersectional feminist movements to empower monly heard timbres, be those associated all women, especially ,metoo and ,timesup. with rock (electric guitar, bass, drums),

This content downloaded from 144.92.108.30 on Wed, 19 May 2021 18:38:32 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms '(#'$) : Resistance Gazes in Recent Music Videos FB hip-hop (drum machine and synth), or EDM Biting lyrical critiques of patriarchy are (vocoders, +lter sweeps, and sidechaining). also nothing new. Riot Grrrl bands such Beyoncé’s extra middle +ngers in bar 2 not as Bikini Kill, Heavens to Betsy, and Brat withstanding, it seems far-fetched to claim Mobile wrote lyrics about rape and the that any resistance to these more abstract self-harm caused by oppressive social con- norms might also suggest a resistance to he- structions of the “perfect woman.” While gemonic patriarchy. Riot Grrrl was notoriously resistant to the I +nd lyrical analysis and vocal delivery mainstream, several rock bands comprised more fruitful in this regard. Like all recorded mostly or entirely of women, including *e popular songs, music videos present lyr- Breeders, Hole, and Veruca Salt, did receive ics as a hybrid musical-textual assemblage. mainstream video airplay in the "11@s. We hear the lyrics (including the manner *ough Catharine Strong notes that, even in which they are delivered) and also pro- when such acts were successful at break- cess them as lexical indexes of meaning. ing into the mainstream, “they are far more “Girls Like Girls” provides, through its lyr- likely to be sexualized vocalists than to play ics, textual resistance to heteronormativity instruments,” the women in these bands and other sexual binaries. Kiyoko’s precise o0er another form of resistance by appear- delivery of those words, which can be heard ing not as hypersexualized, infantilized, or as as either “girls like girls / like boys too” or victims, but rather as bona +de musicians. “girls like / girls like / boys too” adds further Figure "7 shows a screenshot from Veruca critique. Janelle Monae’s pregnant pause a-er Salt’s Seether ("11:), in which the women “pink / like your +ngers in my . . .” encour- are shown in modest clothing playing iconic ages us to wonder just what she was going to Gibson Les Paul and SG guitars. sing next, at which point we are immediately “Cannonball,” the "11B hit video and song reprimanded by multiple middle +ngers (,9 Billboard Hot Modern Rock Tracks) by thrust into the air. Music videos add a third *e Breeders, a supergroup composed of dimension to this musical-textual assem- former members of *e Pixies and *row- blage by allowing us to attach interpretations ing Muses, illustrates audiovisual resistance of visual stimuli to the meaning of the lyrics. to the male gaze as well as any of these early

Figure "7. Women as mu- sicians in Veruca Salt’s “Seether” ("11:, @::9).

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"11@s videos by women. Sonic Youth bassist with simulated VHS tracking lines cover- Kim Gordon co-directed the video alongside ing the musicians’ lower halves; Figure "1b a then up-and-coming skateboarding +lm- shows the band’s full-coverage costumes maker named Spike Jonze (Jonze’s practice with additional image distortion added by of +lming skateboarders is evident through the careful placement of mirrors—another numerous low-angle tracking shots of can- trick used throughout the video, especially nonballs moving laterally at high rates of when both twins (Kim and Kelley Deal) are speed). “Cannonball” refuses both the clar- singing together in the chorus. ity and stillness the male gaze demands of *is visual distortion is coupled with its subjects. Visual distortion of many if not musical distortion, most o-en literal. While most of the images couples with the conser- thick guitar distortion was certainly nothing vative/funky dress of the band’s musicians to noteworthy in early "11@s rock music, the all but thwart opportunities for gazing upon. level of vocal distortion heard on Kim Deal’s Figure "1a shows an example of the former, voice is. Figure 9@ shows the moment when

Figure "1. (a) VHS tracking (9:B9); (b) Full-coverage cos- tumes (B:B!) in *e Breeders’ “Cannonball” ("11B).

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Figure 9@. Simultaneous image and vocal distortion in “Cannonball” (":B9).

Deal sings the chorus hook, “want you/ of instrumental performance provides the cookoo/cannonball.” Deal’s screaming face is further possibility of extending the kinds anything but hypersexualized, victimized, or of visual resistance to the male gaze I have infantilized. Rather, it’s musically expressive identi+ed in this article to the domain of and aggressive, the highly distorted delivery musical analysis, especially if that musical paired perfectly with visual distortion owing analysis is linked to the textual or visual do- to the underwater camera and hue manipu- mains a0orded by music video. lation. *ough not as beyond the pale, there are a handful of instrumental gestures in the )IJ>; track that confound easy comprehension, ". See Laura Mulvey, “Visual Pleasure and Nar- keeping listeners on their toes rather than rative Cinema,” Screen "F, no. B ("12!): "". comfortably gazing at the musicians. *e 9. Indeed, Anna-Elena Pääkkölä suggests that “Mulvey’s theories of the male gaze have been iconic bass ri0 opens the rhythm track by discussed in cultural studies over recent decades twice ripping up to an A high on the neck in such detail that it feels redundant to regurgitate (matching the pitch of the singers’ opening them here.” See Anna-Elena Pääkkölä, “Sound vocalize), but the song is actually in B-Gat, Kinks: Sadomasochistic Erotica in Audiovisual which the bassist “corrects” as soon as the Music Performances” (PhD thesis, University of rest of the band enters by moving the ri0 just Turku, 9@"F), "12n:9. one fret higher. Such refusal to “play by the B. See Lisa Lewis, “Female Address on Music rules” (of rock conventions and tonal har- Television: Being Discovered,” Jump Cut B! (April mony) might be read as a hallmark of musi- "11@): 7. cal resistance. :. See Ann E. Kaplan, Rocking Around the Just as lyrics in music video operate si- Clock: Music Television, Postmodernism, and Con- sumer Culture (New York: Methuen Press, "172), multaneously in two di0erent domains (the 1@. aural and the lexical), instrumental timbres !. See Matthew Bannister, “Funny Girls and in music video operate in both the aural and Nowhere Boys: Reversing the Gaze in the Popular the visual. We not only see these women as Music Biopic,” in Rethinking Di"erence in Gender, competent musicians, we hear them as such. Sexuality, and Popular Music: !eory and Politics Analyzing women’s vocal delivery and mode

This content downloaded from 144.92.108.30 on Wed, 19 May 2021 18:38:32 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms FF !"#$% &'( )*+ !,-$'. $!&.+ ":.9 / ;<==>? 9@9" of Ambiguity, ed. Gavin Lee (New York: Rout- "F. Several scholars have written about the “les- ledge, 9@"7), ""7. bian gaze” throughout Carol. See especially Julia F. See Jennifer M. Hurley, “Music Video and the Teti, “Female Agency and *e Lesbian Gaze in Construction of Gendered Subjectivity (or How Todd Haynes’ ‘Carol,’” !e Playlist, June 9B, 9@"7, Being a Music Video Junkie Turned Me into a Fem- https://theplaylist.net/lesbian-gaze- inist),” Popular Music "B, no. B ("11:): B92. Writing carol-9@"7@F9B/; in "11:, Hurley broadens her scope to “boys and and Natalie Wilson, “*e Lesbian Gaze of ‘Carol,’” men,” though today I would extend that scope even !e Establishment, January 2, 9@"F, https://me- further so as to move beyond gender binaries. dium.com/the-establishment/the-lesbian-gaze-of- 2. See Jacqueline Warwick, “Midnight Ramblers carol-7971aeF@"FB". and Material Girls: Gender and Stardom in Rock "2. Lewis, “Female Address,” "@. and Pop,” in !e Sage Handbook of Popular Music, "7. Bannister, “Funny Girls and Nowhere Boys,” ed. Andy Bennett and Steve Waksman (Los Ange- ""7. les: Sage Publications, 9@"!), BB:. "1. See Silver Michaelsen’s “Analysis of Sofya 7. See Soyoung Kim, “Female Empowerment Wang’s ‘Boys Aside,’” accessed July ", 9@"1, or Exploitation?” !e Harvard Crimson, October https://vimeo.com/BBF"1"":9. 7, 9@"B, https://www.thecrimson.com/column/k- 9@. Balaji, “‘Vixen Resistin,’” !. pop-generation/article/9@"B/"@/7/Female_Em- 9". Stan Hawkins suggests that we should inter- powerment_Exploitation_Kpop/. rogate camera angles for how they “discipline 1. I should be careful to admit that I am analyz- the musicalised body and totalise the gaze.” See ing this South Korean video from a North Ameri- Stan Hawkins, “Introduction,” !e Routledge can perspective and have little cultural context Companion to Popular Music and Gender, ed. Stan within which to situate it. Hawkins (Abingdon, UK: Routledge, 9@"2), :. "@. For more on the male gaze in popular music, 99. See Kate Heidemann, “A System for De- see Doris Leibetseder, Queer Tracks: Subversive scribing Vocal Timbre in Popular Song,” Music Strategies in Rock and Pop Music (Farnham, UK: !eory Online 99, no. " (9@"F): B."@. Ashgate, 9@"9), chap. :. 9B. See Marc LaFrance, “Going Too Far: Rep- "". Lewis, “Female Address,” 1. resentations of Violence Against Men in P!nk’s "9. See Murali Balaji, “Vixen Resistin: Rede+n- ‘Don’t Leave Me,’” in !e Bloomsbury Handbook of ing Black Womanhood in Hip-Hop Music Vid- Popular Music Video Analysis, ed. Lori Burns and eos,” Journal of Black Studies :", no. " (9@"@): ":. Stan Hawkins (London: Bloomsbury, 9@"1), B12. "B. It is also important to note that Reid-Brin- 9:. For more on the role of prolepsis in cinema, kley highlights Black women’s e0orts in this resis- see Brian Henderson, “Tense, Mood, and Voice tance while simultaneously critiquing narratives in Film (Notes a-er Genette),” Film Quarterly BF, of resistance for their reinforcement of neoliberal, no. : ("17B): :–"2. bourgeois values. See Shanara Reid-Brinkley, “*e 9!. See Carol Vernallis, “How to Analyze Music Essence of Res(Ex)Pectability: Black Women’s Videos: Beyoncé’s and Melina Matsoukas’s ‘Pretty Negotiation of Black Femininity in Rap Music and Hurts’” in Burns and Hawkins, Bloomsbury Hand- Music Video,” Meridians 7, no. " (9@@7): 9BF–F@. book of Popular Music Video Analysis, 9FB. ":. *is attention to nuanced detail in the video 9F. Robert Strachan has argued that “particular attempts to answer LaFrance and Burns’s call for types of +lm and video stock, editing techniques, engaged, closer analysis of intimate relationships visual e0ects, and post-production all signify in music videos. See Marc Lafrance and Lori historical +lmic eras but also draw upon the speci- Burns, “Finding Love in Hopeless Places: Com- +cities of their historical use within the mediation plex Relationality and Impossible Heterosexuality and cultural documentation of popular music.” in Popular Music Videos by Pink and Rihanna,” See Robert Strachan, “Post-Digital Music Video Music !eory Online 9B, no. 9 (9@"2): B.". and Genre: Indie Rock, Nostalgia, Digitization, "!. See, for example, the hypersexualization of and Technological Materiality,” in Burns and same-sex love throughout mainstream dramas Hawkins, Bloomsbury Handbook of Popular Music such as Orange is the New Black and !e L Word. Video Analysis, ":!.

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92. *is quote appears in Caroline Framke, against those of music theory; see Ko+ Agawu, “Janelle Monáe Doubles Down on Feminist Self- “How We Got Out of Analysis, and How to Get Love with Her New Music Video for ‘Pynk,’” Back in Again,” Music Analysis 9B, nos. 9–B (9@@:): Vox, April "@, 9@"7, https://www.vox.com/ 9F2–7F. culture/9@"7/:/"@/"29"172:/janelle-monae-pynk- B1. See, for example, Carolyn Abbate, Unsung video-tessa-thompson-dirty-computer. See also Voices: Opera and Musical Narrative in the Nine- Brittany Spanos, “Watch Janelle Monae Celebrate teenth Century (Princeton, NJ: Princeton Univer- ‘Pussy Power’ in ‘Pynk’ Video,” Rolling Stone, April sity Press, "11"). "@, 9@"7, :@. For more on the formal, rhythmic, har- https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/ monic, and timbral expectations in modern pop- watch-janelle-monae-celebrate-pussy-power-in- rock music, see Brad Osborn, Everything in its pynk-video-F97192/. Right Place: Analyzing Radiohead (Oxford: Oxford 97. Lewis, “Female Address,” ":. University Press, 9@"2). 91. See Eddie Fu, “Framework: *e Making of :". Martin Scherzinger has suggested that, to Janelle Monáe’s ‘PYNK’ Video with Emma West- the contrary, a purely musical analysis can itself enberg,” Genius, May "@, 9@"7, suggest broader social critiques: “close listen- https://genius.com/a/framework-the-making- ing can encourage a social consciousness not of-janelle-monae-s-pynk-video-with-emma- wholly absorbed by the ‘rei+cation’ of capitalist westenberg. rationality.” See Martin Scherzinger, “*e Return B@. See Caitlin Benson-Allott, “Going Gaga for of the Aesthetic,” in Beyond Structural Listening: Glitch: Digital Failure @nd Feminist Spectacle in Postmodern Modes of Hearing, ed. Andrew Dell’ Twenty-First Century Music Video,” in !e Ox- Antonio (Berkeley: University of California Press, ford Handbook of New Audiovisual Aesthetics, ed. 9@@:), 92!. Claudio Gorbman, John Richardson, and Carol :9. See Kristen Schlitt, “‘A Little Too Ironic’: *e Vernallis (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 9@"B), Appropriation and Packaging of Riot Grrrl Poli- "92–B2. tics by Mainstream Female Musicians,” Popular B". See Mathias Korsgaard, “Changing Dynam- Music and Society 9F, no. " (9@@B): 7. ics and Diversity in Music Video Production and :B. For more on the underground politics of Distribution,” in Burns and Hawkins, Bloomsbury the Riot Grrrl movement, see Marion Leonard, Handbook of Popular Music Video Analysis, "B–9F. “‘Rebel Girl You are the Queen of my World’: B9. See bell hooks, “*e Oppositional Gaze: Feminism, Subculture, and Grrrl Power,” in Sexing Black Female Spectators,” in Movies and Mass Cul- the Groove: Popular Music and Gender, ed. Sheila ture, ed. John Belton (New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers Whiteley (New York: Routledge "112), 9B@–9!F. University Press, "11F), 9!B. ::. See Catharine Strong, “Grunge, Riot Grrrl BB. Pääkkölä, “Sound Kinks,” !1n"@. and the Forgetting of Women in Popular Culture,” B:. hooks, “Oppositional Gaze,” 9:7. Journal of Popular Culture ::, no. 9 (9@""): :@". B!. See Jeneé Osterheldt, “Don’t Touch Our :!. In Elvis Costello’s “*e Other Side of Sum- Hair,” Aperture, December 1, 9@"F, https://aper- mer,” women playing instruments appear as sub- ture.org/blog/dont-touch-our-hair/. servient to his role as musical frontman; they are BF. See Diane Railton and Paul Watson, Music depicted not as musicians, but as eye candy for the Video and the Politics of Representation (Edin- male gaze. burgh: Edinburgh University Press, 9@""), "97. :F. Jonze, who is, of course, now one of the B2. See Bannister, “Funny Girls and Nowhere most widely acclaimed music video directors of all Boys,” ""1–99. time, had just +nished working with Kim Gordon B7. Ko+ Agawu summarizes the aims of the new on Sonic Youth’s video for “"@@.” musicological movement and situates its goals

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