The music video featuring Charlie xcx and Rita Ora called ‘Doing it’ has the theme of Barbie throughout the video. It opens with a small girl playing with a pink truck, which gradually shows us the two singers in absolute perfection showing teenage girls what friendship looks like. As the video progresses the perfection, plastic theme runs right through to the end. For me, that its telling girls that the vision and image of Barbie and how girls are perceived will surround us but its up to young girls and women to do what we desire rather than conform to this image. Both women have created this world where they wear revealing clothes, shorts and a crop top; they look like they are having fun. It is okay for girls to imagine their own world as long as they do what they want. Later in the video, the Police car chases the girls and the ‘good girl’ image breaks down. When the little girl breaks the Police car it demonstrates the destruction of authority and the media telling girls what they should be like and should not be like. Katy Perry’s ‘Last Friday night’ gives us a view of what a normal girl would probably be like. The video starts off in a messy bedroom and we find Katy wearing pink and blue and has glasses and braces on. This image is a mixture of a typical nerd and a normal beautiful party girl. At first, she does not fit in with society’s version of what a ‘cool girl. However, Perry is quick to prove us wrong and shows girls that it is okay to have two sides to you. As a women/ girl you can be smart, sexy and fun. She tells us to embrace both sides and not to care about a girl’s image and what social media tells us.
Katy Perry ‘Last Friday Night’
Nicki Minaj’s ‘Barbie Girl’ consists of the ‘I’m a Barbie girl, in a Barbie world’ theme tune in the background while she provides us of her view of what Barbie is. She is unique and has different hair colours from turquoise to pink. She breaks down the image of the typical Barbie and shows us, we can be what we like, its not the materialistic things that matter. At one point in the video she is trapped by doll-like packaging, which she rips out of. The message is quit conforming and be who you want to be. Dolly Parton’s ‘Backward Barbie’, opens with a black and white background and a little girl and Dolly who are in colour. Their outfits and make-up are bright and stand out from the video. The little girl is more concerned about the makeup from the match and the fruits rather than the fascination of what each item is. They are both perfect blond models however the message is completely different. She wants to get rid of the perfect Barbie image because beneath all that she is deep and sensitive and her personality is what matters.
NIcki Minaj ‘Barbie Girl’
‘Knockout’ by Lil Wayne and Nicki Minaj is about creating their own version of Barbie and Ken is. The look they are both going for is different, unique and what society expects. Nicki has blond and green hair and Lil Wayne has long black locks and their outfits are darker from the typical Barbie and Ken. All the music videos are telling young girls and women to be who you are and that the outside is not as important as your personality. All girls are special no matter what shape, size and intelligent you are.
Nicki Minaj and Lil Wayne ‘Knockout’
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