Beyonce released her surprise album through iTunes on Dec.13 2013. According to Apple, Beyonce reached the top spot on the iTunes charts in more than 104 countries to selling more than 828,773 copies worldwide in its first 3 days with including, 617,213 in the U.S. That puts Beyonce's latest efforts of the fastest selling album on iTunes worldwide in history. Nearly 900,000 customers were willing to pay the full price to buy the album, which emphasizes the passion and dedication of B's fans. As the tradition of most artists is to pre-sell or hype albums by giving away singles on various websites, or streaming the album. This is done through advertising on TV, internet, taking interviews and discussing about the album and giving away promos so the fans are excited and aware about the release.
Beyonce is marching straight into the digital market square and laying out her wares. Her new self-titled album was released straight to iTunes with none of the PR (public relations) outlined above, and it's as immediate an experience as our highly mediated modern lives allow. Beyonce herself is exasperated with the cacophonous street-hawking in todays music, saying she's "bored" with the usual processes and that "there's so much that gets between the music, the artist and the fans."
Beyonce Flawless (one of her songs)- Feminism
This is one of the lyrics to beyonce's song that was just released entitled: Flawless
We teach girls to shrink themselves, to make themselves smaller. We say to girls you can have ambition, but not too much. You should aim to be successful but not too successful otherwise you will threaten the man. Because I am female I am expected to aspire to marriage. I am expected to make my life choices always keeping in mind that marriage is the most important. A marriage can be a source of joy and love and mutual support. But why do we teach girls to aspire to marriage and we don't teach boys the same?We raise girls to see each others as competitors not for jobs or for accomplishments, which I think can be a good thing. But for the attention of men. We teach girls that they cannot be sexual beings in the way that boys are.
The beyonce on the visual album is mostly evolved about power. She is also about sexual liberation, control and self-ownership, which are the backbones of most feminist ideologies.
Beyonce has successfully become the most famous female pop star in the world as she strongly upholds her marriage, cultivates her role as a mother to one child, and embraces her sexuality. Doing all this she is able to bring out a draw a new outcome of feminism. She's one of the few superstars who's claimed the scary titles of the word "feminist". In Beyonce's album love and men are the focus, but she strongly informs us of the songs are evolved around empowerment. There's a spoken word passage in "Flawless" as stated before, from a Nigerian feminist that calls for young girls to 'lean in' and be more than someone's wife. She sings about love and sex more boldly than ever, peppering thse songs with the messages and independence and motherhood. These are feminist lessons for every woman entwined among the usual addictive musical riffs. http://ideas.time.com/2013/12/17/flawless-5-lessons-in-modern-feminism-from-beyonce/
Some of Beyonce's songs that discusses feminism in a modern way.
1. "Pretty Hurts" the lesson- Obsessing about your looks is destructive.
Pretty hurts, Shine the light on whatever's worse, Perfection is the disease of a nation.. It's the soul that needs surgery..
This evidently shows and gives strength to females in today's generation as this is being sung by the most prettiest of women on the planet. In comparison to Britney Spears who sung about the fact that women had to look hot to get what they wanted. From this verse females find it comforting to know that the issue is with society, not females. Beyonce has tried to clear the internet of unflattering photos of herself after her Super Bowl performance and who has openly spoken about struggling with body image issues, feels the pressure of unfair expectations. - this gives females a realistic aspect to strongly and admirably believe in.
2. "Mine"- Motherhood and relationships aren't easy.
I've been watching for the signs took a trip to clear my mind.. Been having conversations about breakups and separations I'm not feeling like myself since the baby are we even gonna make it? Cause if we are, we're taking this a little too far.. All that I can think of is, we should get married we should get married let's stop holding back on this and let's get carried away...
Beyonce's typically doesn't reveal much about her relationship with her husband. From this females encounter it's okay to get married as a feminist. And more importantly it's okay to have problems with and doubts about your love life. B also admits that you can't just pick up your life as usual after having a child.
Question:How has the introduction of the internet impacted upon the representation of women in the music industry in texts such as Miley Cyrus' 'Wrecking Ball'? Introduction: - How has the internet rapidly changed over the past years - What you going to be discussing include three texts: Magazine, E-Media and Broadcasting - Short summary on the impact of internet on women (Miley Cyrus) -Internet sensation statistics
Paragraph one: Changes (R)
- Disussing about Miley Cyrus's change in life from her point of view: "People get a connection. They feel like they really know you, and get really entitled.. and then they say she's changed 'well yeah!!.' People go through a type of transformation, the path from childhood to adulthood is tricky for everyone, as there are social pressures etc. Attention of the entire world into mix etc.
-Child stars fade from fame as they grow and later reemerge as a full-fledged adults. E.g: Lindsay Lohan and Hillary Duff example from images and internet - In the last 10 years the music industry has faced the most complex sets of changes in history. Conventional models have been challenged, due to the emergence of new technologies and new ways for music lovers to listen to, and own the music they love. For new comers it's vital to see how many of these new developments can be used to your advantage.
Paragraph two: The impact of internet (R) includes technology - Twitter has shown popularity amongst both celebrities and young uses signs of communication and publicity tool for professionals, including well-known politicians and celebs. Want to promote upcoming events concerts etc. example: Twitter quotation of miley cyrus From the book: QUOTE "Gender, Branding and the modern music industry"
The music industry is in a state of constant flux, but for female pop stars, some things never change. For more than 3 decades there has been an imperative to look beautiful and be willing to emphasize sexuality in order to sell their music. Today technology speeding the pace of the industry and ever-younger starlets popping up, the impulse to sell sex above music is stronger than ever.
Images of powerful women in the age of 'choice feminism'
A number of scholars and journalists have argued that Western culture has become ‘sexualized’.
Both women and men, they maintain, are highly sexualized in popular media. At the same time, scholars have examined the sexualization of women as part of a broader cultural ‘backlash’ against the gains of second-wave feminism and women's increasing power in society. We contribute to both of these fields with a longitudinal content analysis of four decades of Rolling Stone magazine covers.
First, we analyze whether both women and men have become more sexualized over time and, if so, whether such increases have been proportionate. Second, we examine whether there is a relationship between women's increasing power in the musicindustry(as measured by popularity) and their sexualization on the cover of Rolling Stone. In the first case, we do not find evidence that US culture as a whole has become sexualized, as only women– but not men – have become both more frequently and more intensely sexualized on the cover of Rolling Stone. In the second case, we find evidence that sexualized images may be part of a backlash against women's gains since, as women musicians' popularity increased, they were increasingly sexualized and under-represented on the cover of Rolling Stone.
Miley Cyrus has said she believes there is a "double standard" when it comes to men and women, and body image. She says, I feel like I'm one of the biggest feminists in the world because I tell women to not be scared of anything," she said. She also said that her on-stage persona and revealing outfits were all part of her act. "I don't actually walk around all day twerking with my tongue out dressed as a teddy bear." The 20 year old said she doesn't worry if people think badly of her controversial performances because she knows she is a "good person". Even though Miley is showing in numerous of ways through her videos, and steamingly cat fights on social networking sites with dirty dancing on live TV! In this specific interview Miley is represented in a different light as she says that she want's women not to be scared of anything. So in a positive way women are influenced strongly because Miley in this instance is showing that you should be who you are individually and not be dominated by another human being. The message she is showing through her 'act' may be looked differently through many people but as she is a 'good person' she isn't afraid or isn't always tensed on how people judge and view her performances. Because she's creating 'art' and as she says so whatever she does on live TV etc it's not like she's actually doing her signature moves and sticking out her tongue all day long, from this extract she is showing a message to her fans and believes highly on how of a high feminist she is.
Commenting on headlines suggesting she smoked marijuana at Sunday's MTV EMAs, she said: "I never worry about what I do on stage making me look bad."I think people if they actually knew me would be surprised at how normal I am."I'm definitely crazy but I'm normal. I feel like [I am] socially probably more acceptable than a lot of people in this industry because I've just always grown up around this and so I never have any kind of attitude."Miley has been criticized for the video for Wrecking Ball, which sees her swinging naked and licking a sledgehammer.
Paragraph 4: Wrecking ball The mass media as an agent of culture has reinforced an ideal image that girls are too strive for an attain, therefore placing more emphasis on good looks than on good works.Women today enjoy greater freedom and more opportunities than their counterparts of the past, they are under more cultural pressure to look good.The gender differences are that girls begin to suffer bouts of clinical depression from the frustration that they experience when their bodies change.By the age thirteen, 53 percent of american girls are unhappy with their bodies; by the age of seventeen, 78%are dissatisfied. Societies influence: women found in their body image a sense of self definition and a way to announce who they are to the world. Today many young girls worry about the contours of the bodies especially shape, size and the muscle tone because they believe that the body is the ultimate expression of the self. Societies influence: fashion and the film industry are two huge influences on societal expectations that women display their bodies sexually. The sexual revolution liberated women from her Victorian of modesty but also demanded commitment to diet and beauty. Paragraph 5: Sexuality and identity
Joni Mitchell was a singer in the 1960’s she was trapped of the dilemma in wanting a man but at the same time needing to be free. And she knew how to sign about it and demonstrated that she was capable of earning a living through selling her creativity. She was the woman who represented how all the women were like at that time trying to come to terms with her identity. In the 1970’s there was a norm created where women stayed at home and looked after the children whilst men were outside the home potentially to generate political structure.
As we live in a time where there is popular music over the past 20 years no more than five women have been appointed heads of any UK based record companies, major or otherwise in the US. Women in the music industry get frustrated of working in a record label company where it’s dominated by males.
The music industry is in a state of constant flux, but for female pop stars, some things never change. For more than 3 decades there has been an imperative to look beautiful and be willing to emphasize sexuality in order to sell their music. Today technology speeding the pace of the industry and ever-younger starlets popping up, the impulse to sell sex above music is stronger than ever.
Paragraph 6: Socially and Historically In the 1960s, women started emerging from social roles placed on them by men from beginning of patriarchy World History Text Book, 4,000 BCE. This means that women stopped trying to fit into the stereotypical housewife/mother role, and started to embrace their sexuality, as well as demanding equal rights in working outside the home and contributing to society, and controlling their finances and bodies. As music videos didn't really start until MTV came out in the 1980s, sexualization in songs was wrapped up in the lyrics. Which millions enjoy listening too examples are:
Well she was just seventeen/ and you know what I mean/ and the way she looked was way beyond compare I saw her standing there' The Beatles
It was an itsy-bitsy teenie-weenie yellow polka dot bikini that she wore for the first time today, itsy bitsy teenie weenie yellow polka dot bikini, Brian Hyland.
A few years later in the midst of the summer of 'love' in 1967, a sexual revolution occurred, and women became even more freed from their gendered societal norms (something that is usual, typical, or standard) Some women in the music industry started to take charge of their own bodies and embrace their sexuality. And some started to try to appeal to male audiences by sexualizing themselves, which has remain evident and widely prevalent in today's music industry such as female artists like: Britney Spears, Katy Perry and Ke$ha.
- (the pills) were introduced no fear of pregnancy pre-feminism woman being objectified
- domestic settings/ sexualised
- more independence its not male run
- Lily Allen -my space
Paragraph 7: Economically and Politically As we are living in the economic crisis and rescission has made it hard for people to spend their money optionally. This results in Limited access to economic power which has made it hard for women to function in the music sphere as musicians, band leaders, managers, promoters and producers. As a result women end up as backing vocalists and dancers, at the mercy of their 'male' bosses. To be a band leader, manager, promoter or producer needs financial banking, which women don't necessarily have. Men are the ones who determine what happens in the music industry because they finance the music projects. This makes it hard for women to come in the music industry, however as the internet has become very popular sites such as: YouTube can make someone really well known and famous through the subscribers and views. Also social networking sites such as MySpace. As women in this generation are seemingly more independent and strong and want their voices heard they would go through the internet. Which would impact them to go through the music industry successfully and would help make them feel that's where they belong, therefore gradually the internet will start to impact them and change their outlook to fans and to make sure they have a wide spread fan base they may want to appeal to them through sexually showing their body and capturing the attentions. The promotion of music is politics, and a lot more goes on behind the scenes. It's way more complicated than walking into the studio and recording. You (or more accurately the record company) have to worry about image, artistic directions, demographic considerations, marketing, censorships, courting radio and music networks through legal means, and paying close attention to trends. It's never just about music. Women cannot just be musicians ,but are also lawyers, accountants and managers. Young upcoming artists are prone to becoming victims of these types of record deals. This links with the 80s and 90s when new female artists were victims of these deals. Paragraph 8: New and digital media
Sir Cliff Richard, possibly the only pop star on the planet yet to voice an opinion on Miley Cyrus, has now weighed in on the controversial singer.
The singer and philanthropist, 73, expressed concern for Cyrus's headline-grabbing antics, saying he "just hope she grows out of it".
Cyrus caused a fuss last weekend when she lit what appeared to be a joint on stage while collecting a trophy at the MTV Europe Music awards. It was the singer's latest publicity stunt, following a semi-naked video for her song Wrecking Ball and a subsequent war of words with Sinéad O'Connor.
Sir Cliff refused to blame Cyrus for her behaviour. "The [music] industry has changed drastically and that damages young artists," he told Sky News. "They don't have the same support system that we had, they wanted us to be happy."
He continued: "This industry can be very destructive, I'm not sure why that happens, or why I was lucky enough to not have that happen to me. I don't know whether she's done the right thing. Will it see her through to becoming a mature star, or will it be thrown at her? Years ago, a woman might be told: 'I won't take your picture unless you take your top off.' I took my top off for a picture once. And after that I kept my vest on."
Conclusion: (A) - summarize the question in full detail - internet impact- negatives on celebrities:e.g twitter fights e.g "Media one of the social networking sites which Miley Cyrus has is Twitter. From this site the audience are able to identify her and view her as how she is representing herself on the twitter. Miley Cyrus and Sinead O'Connor had a row which escalated all over the social networking sites. Sinead O'Connor the Irish singer warned her not be exploited by the music business. During the series of tweets, Miley Cyrus mocked O'Conner and compared her to US actress Amanda Bynes before alluding to O'Connor's mental health problems. O'Conner accused Miley Cyrus of "irresponsible behaviour" The conversation started after Miley, cited O'Connor's video Nothing Compares 2 U as an inspiration for her explicit Wrecking Ball Video. Cyrus found fame as a child, has been criticised in recent weeks for her performances in places such as MTV Music Awards in Brooklyn, and in reply to this O'Connor said she was "extremely concerned" that those around her to believe that it is in any way 'cool' to be naked and licking sledgehammers in your videos. O'connor stated that she would take legal action against her if she did not remove the tweets, as Miley Cyrus have made really bad remarks about the singer with mental health issues. " - Life will never be the same, whatever she tweets will determine her reputation in society and life
- show the true colour of Miley Cyrus: As Miley cyrus is nude in the video she has responded stating “I think the video is much more if people get past the point that I’m naked, If you actually look at me, you can tell that I actually look more broken than even the song sounds. The song is like this pop ballad that is one of those songs everyone is going to relate to, everyone’s felt that feeling at some point.”The use of colour is very evident and useful as the use of white is becoming a norm and identity of Miley's, as it was shown in 'We Can't Stop', in clothing and setting, which is representing her new beginning as a different person from being Disney's Hannah Montana. - show the advantage of internet in the 21st century.
Socially and Historically In the 1960s, women started emerging from social roles placed on them by men from beginning of patriarchy World History Text Book, 4,000 BCE. This means that women stopped trying to fit into the stereotypical housewife/mother role, and started to embrace their sexuality, as well as demanding equal rights in working outside the home and contributing to society, and controlling their finances and bodies. As music videos didn't really start until MTV came out in the 1980s, sexualization in songs was wrapped up in the lyrics. Which millions enjoy listening too examples are:
Well she was just seventeen/ and you know what I mean/ and the way she looked was way beyond compare I saw her standing there' The Beatles
It was an itsy-bitsy teenie-weenie yellow polka dot bikini that she wore for the first time today, itsy bitsy teenie weenie yellow polka dot bikini, Brian Hyland.
A few years later in the midst of the summer of 'love' in 1967, a sexual revolution occurred, and women became even more freed from their gendered societal norms (something that is usual, typical, or standard) Some women in the music industry started to take charge of their own bodies and embrace their sexuality. And some started to try to appeal to male audiences by sexualizing themselves, which has remain evident and widely prevalent in today's music industry such as female artists like: Britney Spears, Katy Perry and Ke$ha. The pills were introduced which thus became a very satisfying aspect for people in the 60's. They had no fear of pregnancy and pre-feminism woman were becoming objectified. There were more domestic settings and sexualising occuring. There were no more independence and it was run by a male dominance.
A positive aspect from a social networking site was 'MySpace' in which Lily Allen became very famous. This shows that in order to become famous and let people know about you, you don't have to invest in a huge amount of money, you can just create a social networking sites and if the fans and followers like you your in the music industry straight away. And it's not long until someone recognises you.
Economically As we are living in the economic crisis and rescission has made it hard for people to spend their money optionally. This results in Limited access to economic power which has made it hard for women to function in the music sphere as musicians, band leaders, managers, promoters and producers. As a result women end up as backing vocalists and dancers, at the mercy of their 'male' bosses. To be a band leader, manager, promoter or producer needs financial banking, which women don't necessarily have. Men are the ones who determine what happens in the music industry because they finance the music projects. This makes it hard for women to come in the music industry, however as the internet has become very popular sites such as: YouTube can make someone really well known and famous through the subscribers and views. Also social networking sites such as MySpace. As women in this generation are seemingly more independent and strong and want their voices heard they would go through the internet. Which would impact them to go through the music industry successfully and would help make them feel that's where they belong, therefore gradually the internet will start to impact them and change their outlook to fans and to make sure they have a wide spread fan base they may want to appeal to them through sexually showing their body and capturing the attentions.
Politically You see, the promotion of music is politics, and a lot more goes on behind the scenes. It's way more complicated than walking into the studio and recording. You (or more accurately the record company) have to worry about image, artistic directions, demographic considerations, marketing, censorships, courting radio and music networks through legal means, and paying close attention to trends. It's never just about music. Women cannot just be musicians ,but are also lawyers, accountants and managers. Young upcoming artists are prone to becoming victims of these types of record deals. This links with the 80s and 90s when new female artists were victims of these deals.
1. "For me, nudity has never been something that I've ever tripped about. I don’t really see it the way everyone else sees it, ”“I’d rather be naked than cry in front of people, because I don’t like showing weakness and that’s a lot of vulnerabilities.”
Even though Miley was fully naked on a gigantic grey ball while she sings wrecking ball. She states"It was so natural and organic".VEVO presented her with the award of most views on record, scoring over a 100 million views for each video:“We Can’t Be Tamed,” “We Can’t Stop” and “Wrecking Ball.”
Paragraph 3- Tuesday, October 29 2013- Hollywood Life - By HL Intern
As Miley Cyrus has become an older person and is growing quickly, she wants the world to notice that. But as she has had her heart broken she wants to show the world that she is a very strong person that's why her statement is that instead of showing signs of weakness she'd rather show herself of to the public naked. She likes being 'natural and organic' as shown in her wrecking ball music video. This evidently presents her in a different light, as from this it shows that she wants to be a role model for those insecure girls who don't feel comfortable around their skin.
2.Joan Jacob Brumberg
Joan decided to trace female plight of self consciousness in American and European societies, where women have experienced a great deal of concern about their body image and physical changes that occur during the natural development. The mass media as an agent of culture has reinforced an ideal image that girls are too strive for an attain, therefore placing more emphasis on good looks than on good works.Women today enjoy greater freedom and more opportunities than their counterparts of the past, they are under more cultural pressure to look good.The gender differences are that girls begin to suffer bouts of clinical depression from the frustration that they experience when their bodies change.By the age thirteen, 53 percent of american girls are unhappy with their bodies; by the age of seventeen, 78% are dissatisfied. Societies influence: women found in their body image a sense of self definition and a way to announce who they are to the world. Today many young girls worry about the contours of the bodies especially shape, size and the muscle tone because they believe that the body is the ultimate expression of the self. Societies influence: fashion and the film industry are two huge influences on societal expectations that women display their bodies sexually. The sexual revolution liberated women from her Victorian of modesty but also demanded commitment to diet and beauty. Powerpoint by Melaine Lord- 2013, Title: Feminist theory: Reference Belief in the social, political, and economic equality of the sexes, the movement organised around this belief.
Bibme: Bibliography
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