Ida Ottesen
Syddansk Universitet Odense, Humanities, Graduate Student
- University of Liverpool, School of Music, UndergraduateUniversity of Sussex, School of Media, Film and Music, Graduate Studentadd
- Sociology of Music, Music, Musicology, Music and Gender, Popular Culture, Popular Music, and 19 moreGender Studies, Women's Studies, Queer Theory, Television Studies, Gender History, Women's History, Youth, Comedy, Voice (Music), Christmas, Girlhood, Feminism, Gender, Sociology, Cultural Studies, Television Music, Media and Cultural Studies, New Media, and Film Studiesedit
The body positivity, or body acceptance, movement seeks to advocate the importance of being happy with the body you are in, and not to be constrained by society’s notion of the “ideal” female body but it seems that women and weight have... more
The body positivity, or body acceptance, movement seeks to advocate the importance of being happy with the body you are in, and not to be constrained by society’s notion of the “ideal” female body but it seems that women and weight have always been connected (McKinley, 1999) and we now find ourselves at a point where weight has become a “normative discontent” amongst women (Tiggemann & Slater, 2004, p. 48). The discourse on women and body image can be observed in the way that women are portrayed in music videos, whether as dancers or performers.
Via a detailed analysis of the music, lyrics, and music videos of the two tracks mentioned above, I aim to show how Trainor and Lambert negotiate various embodiments of feminism and especially how discourses about (ideal) women and weight find their way into pop music. With regards to the music it is clear that the two tracks are widely different; Trainor sells a (imagined) sense of nostalgia, whereas Lambert focuses more on the spoken word as personal expression. An analysis of the lyrics will address the critique of Trainor’s “skinny bitches” in relation to sizeism and the music videos will be analysed by using Butler’s (1990) idea of gender performance, specifically with regards to gesture and style but also look at theories on female excess (McKinley, 1999; McAllister, 2009) to show how women are defined by society in relation to their bodies.
I argue that the saying “the personal is political” is very much in effect when looking at the two case studies presented in this paper and that, when taking into account the resurfacing of the feminist movement, the ways in which women are represented in the media become even more or a pressing issue.
Via a detailed analysis of the music, lyrics, and music videos of the two tracks mentioned above, I aim to show how Trainor and Lambert negotiate various embodiments of feminism and especially how discourses about (ideal) women and weight find their way into pop music. With regards to the music it is clear that the two tracks are widely different; Trainor sells a (imagined) sense of nostalgia, whereas Lambert focuses more on the spoken word as personal expression. An analysis of the lyrics will address the critique of Trainor’s “skinny bitches” in relation to sizeism and the music videos will be analysed by using Butler’s (1990) idea of gender performance, specifically with regards to gesture and style but also look at theories on female excess (McKinley, 1999; McAllister, 2009) to show how women are defined by society in relation to their bodies.
I argue that the saying “the personal is political” is very much in effect when looking at the two case studies presented in this paper and that, when taking into account the resurfacing of the feminist movement, the ways in which women are represented in the media become even more or a pressing issue.
Research Interests:
Apps have become such a ubiquitous presence in most people’s lives, that we no longer notice how much time we are spending on them everyday. However, despite the pervasiveness of this time-consuming new media form, scholarship in this... more
Apps have become such a ubiquitous presence in most people’s lives, that we no longer notice how much time we are spending on them everyday. However, despite the pervasiveness of this time-consuming new media form, scholarship in this area is lacking.
This paper seeks to set the foundations for the various elements that one must consider, when studying apps with music as a primary feature. Instead of relying solely on ludomusicological texts, theories on games, interactivity, and musical instruments will help shed light on the nature of these apps. Two case studies are offered for analytical purposes: My Singing Monsters (Big Blue Bubble Inc.) and Bebot (Normalware), which each highlights certain aspects of the aforementioned theoretical areas, and which will lead to a classification of these apps as interactive interfaces, or “sound toys” (Robson, 2002; Dolphin, 2014), due to their goal-less nature and the way they put the user squarely in the role of creator. The paper will conclude by offering an interpretation of these music apps as part of a minimalist aesthetic, which, together with repetition and the concept of Zen, draws attention to how we use apps in everyday life.
This paper seeks to set the foundations for the various elements that one must consider, when studying apps with music as a primary feature. Instead of relying solely on ludomusicological texts, theories on games, interactivity, and musical instruments will help shed light on the nature of these apps. Two case studies are offered for analytical purposes: My Singing Monsters (Big Blue Bubble Inc.) and Bebot (Normalware), which each highlights certain aspects of the aforementioned theoretical areas, and which will lead to a classification of these apps as interactive interfaces, or “sound toys” (Robson, 2002; Dolphin, 2014), due to their goal-less nature and the way they put the user squarely in the role of creator. The paper will conclude by offering an interpretation of these music apps as part of a minimalist aesthetic, which, together with repetition and the concept of Zen, draws attention to how we use apps in everyday life.