Chapter 1 Introduction

perpustakaan.uns.ac.id digilib.uns.ac.id CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION A. Background of Research Since women become the minority and live under male supremacy, in the society there is a feminist ideology and movement that develops. The primary goal of feminism are freeing woman from the “male-values” (Willis, 1984). Feminists are against male’s view that said “the appreciation to woman is on their body not on the function of their body”. The feminist ideology and movement happen to answer the challenge of dominant male culture that sees women only in sexual terms. (Fernandes, 1991). The first wave, second wave and even post-colonial feminist have different shape of movement. After the booming of second wave feminism, post- colonial feminism as known as the third world feminism takes a place as a new form of feminist movement. This movement is different from the previous movement that just focuses on women in America, post-colonial feminism is a movement of women in third world country. This movement happened because the second wave feminism did not representing women in all country. Second wave feminism assessed just represents and focuses to feminist of the mainstream. Although post-colonial feminism firstly happen in the third world country, however, it spread out and become the new form of post-feminism, not only just in the third world country but in all country. There also many people, that speaks their idea about post-colonial feminism through their written and work. Many commit to user theories and studies about post-colonial feminism also established in order to give 1 perpustakaan.uns.ac.id digilib.uns.ac.id2 knowledge about post-colonial movement and ideology. In addition, there are many medias, such as books, pictures, even music that give a representation about the post-colonial movement. We can say that this era is the era of female singers, as we know there are many female singers that become popular singer in the society and get many music awards. If in the 90s we have Madonna as the popular female singers in that era, in this era we have Katy Perry: female singer who was born on October 25, 1984, started her career as former Christian folk singer and then turned into the pop singer. On her first years career she used name Katy Hudson and released her album on 2001 but this album wasn’t successful. In 2004, she became the vocalist of The Matrix production team and recorded some songs with Ballard, through her sessions with Ballard, Perry was heard by Capitol Music executive, Jason Flom who then agreed to sign her in Spring 2007. However, her career did not fully take off until the release of her next single, "I Kissed a Girl," this single reached the top of the charts during the summer of 2008. And her success was followed by her debut album,” One of the Boys” that became Top 10 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. Her song also earned Perry a Grammy Award nomination for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance. From that time, she becomes the female singer that has big influence in American music industry. But, not only in America itself, Katy Perry also conquered international music industries that is proven by her fame in other countries. Katy Perry achieved many awards for her songs and her music videos. The newest award that she achieved is Favorite Music Videos in People’s Choice commit to user Award and Video of the Year and Best Female Music Videos in MTV Video perpustakaan.uns.ac.id digilib.uns.ac.id3 Music Awards. She got double awards as Favorite Music Videos because her two music videos “Last Friday Night (T.G.I.F)” and “E.T” won that category. From Videos of the Year and Best Female music videos, her music video “Firework” has won the categories. From the awards that she achieved we know that she is the female singer that has big influence in the society and her two music videos “E.T” and “Firework” become the most influential music videos in the society. Then, in 2012 also she released her new music video “Wide Awake”, fromwhich the biography from Katy Perry’s life was taken, which steal many attention from public. Since the first album, Katy always made the music video for most of her songs. Her music video is always different from one to another. She always tries to give a new concept that is different for her each music video. From a playfull and naughty concept to the uplifting, heartbreakingly wistful and spiritual concept are delivered in Katy Perry’s music video (http://www.katyperry.com/bio/). Her first album, One of The Boys, still delivers the naughty side of Katy and in this album she still shows her femininity in her music video. In the second album, in some music videos that are released first, the naughty and playfull concept that deliver the post-modern life is still used in her music video. However, in her music video, such as Firework, which is a self-empowerment sung by Katy, and all video that are released after it, the naughty Katy is transformed into a woman that try to become an inspiration to other. Moreover, all videos that are released after that seem to be representations of women’s life in this era. Katy Perry’s music videos are no longer just an entertainment, but also become an inspiration commit to user perpustakaan.uns.ac.id digilib.uns.ac.id4 and representation of what happen within women in society. For that reason, Katy Perry can be categorized as a post-feminist singer. Katy Perry always gives something new to her audience. It is proven by her three music videos that have different concept and theme. Each of music videos describes Perry as different character, but still all of these had become the favorite music videos and always on chart. From the fantasy concept of “Wide Awake” until the science-fiction theme of “E.T”, Katy Perry’s music videos can deliver the new story and concept of music videos for American society. From her success, Katy Perry can be assumed as a figure of the female power in this era. She can be a figure of the post-colonial feminist and her music videos can be the representation of post-colonial feminist image that exists in American society. For that reason, this thesis will analyze how Katy Perry’s three music videos “Firework”, “E.T”, and “Wide Awake” construct the women image and power in the society. B. Scope of Study This research is conducted under the field of American Studies particularly about one aspect of American culture reflected on American media. The focus of this research will be mainly about the analysis of the women image, women’s femininity, and the femininity as women’s power represent by Katy Perry’s music video. Some essential theories and approaches related to media and gender studies will be used to answer the research question of this research. C. Research Question commit to user perpustakaan.uns.ac.id digilib.uns.ac.id5 This research is conducted based on the following question: 1. How does Katy Perry’s music videos represents femininity as a power? D. The Objectives of Study The objective of the study is: 1. To explain femininity as a power that is portrayed in Katy Perry’s music videos. E. Benefits of the Study This research is expected to give an understanding about the concept of women image and femininity as women’s power. It is expected to be beneficial to: 1. For students of English Department: to make them aware about media constructions especially music videos towards the society and how this construction influences the members of society, especially in gender studies. 2. For the other Researchers, this research is expected to provide additional references about women image in music videos and women’s femininity . F. Research Methodology 1. Types of Research This research about women image and femininity as a power in Katy Perry’s music videos is included as descriptive qualitative research. This research is a form of systematic empirical inquiry into meaning (Shank, 2002). And qualitative research studies things in their natural settings, attempting to interpret, commit to user phenomena in terms of the meanings people bring to them (Lincoln, 2000). perpustakaan.uns.ac.id digilib.uns.ac.id6 2. Data and Source of Data The source of data in this research is three Katy Perry’s official music videos taken from www.youtube.com. The three Katy Perry’s music videos are “E.T”, “Firework”, and “Wide Awake”. The music videos chosen because “E.T” music video is winning People Choice Award as the Favorite Music Video (http://blog.music.aol.com/2011/10/25/peoples-choice-award-nominees/) and also “Firework” are Video of the Year in MTV Video Music Awards (http://www.billboard.com/events/mtv-video-music-awards-live-coverage- 1005331372.story#/events/mtv-video-music-awards-live-coverage- 1005331372.story), while “ Wide Awake” is the newest music video released by Katy Perry in 2012. This music video is the biographical music videos from Katy Perry. The main data of this research are lyrics, music and the visual images in music videos which have function as signifiers, such as sentences on the lyrics, story line, tone, beat, costume, body movement, gaze, color and camera angle. The supporting data of this research are articles about Katy Perry’s biography, gender articles, and articles about media. The supporting data are taken from library sources, such as books, journals and articles from any disciplines: cultural studies, gender studies, media studies and semiotics.

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