Month: December 2024

Music Video and the Politics of Representation 

Chapter 6: Masculinity and the Absent Presence of the Male Body

This chapter provides an intersectional lens into popular reflections of masculinity, taking as an example the music video for D’Angelo’s Untitled (How Does It Feel). The chapter examines prevalent academic theories of how masculinity exists, influences, and is depicted, in relation to this music video, essentially arguing that “The presence of masculinity is predicated on the absence or deletion of the male body” in this context. 

Music videos are especially useful in tracing depictions of masculinity. The chapter references Connell and Messerschmidt’s (2005) geographical model for analysing hegemonic masculinity – a model which asserts that there are different types of masculinities based on three geographical regions – the local, the regional, and the global. Music videos are depictions of specific local/regional masculinities, but in their consumption they serve to inform a wider, global depiction of masculinity. Furthermore, based on public reception/dissemination of a music video, multiple definitions of masculinity can emerge. The text asserts that, despite differences in the type of masculinity being presented in a music video- Kanye West’s Gold Digger and James Blunt’s You’re Beautiful are cited as two contrasting but contemporary examples – the depiction they serve is essentially heteronormative and therefore contains the risk of extending “the range of ways of being a man who ‘acceptably’ oppresses women”. Taking on a nuanced analytical framework that acknowledges the sexed and raced structures of different genres and artists, the text analyses D’Angelo’s music video for Untitled (How Does It Feel). 

The text argues that the video is both typical and atypical in its depiction of black male masculinity. It is typical in the sense that it focuses on D’Angelo’s bare body; the video is a single-take performance shot of a nude D’Angelo from the waist up. The camera focuses on skin, specific parts of the body, all in all creating a sexualised, fetishized, and aesthetic depiction of black male masculinity. The video is essentially an image of fascination fixated around D’Angelo, typical in the characterisation of defined bodies as sexually appealing (and thus serving to depict a localised masculinity specific to black male America). On the other hand, the video is atypical in that it defines black male sexuality in the absence of women. The text cites examples like Wayne Wonder’s No Letting Go, Cassidy’s Hotel, Sean Paul’s Ever Blazin’, and Akon’s Bellydancer to show how critical the music video interplay between women and men is to cementing an idea of masculinity. In D’Angelo’s video, there is a distinctive absence of a feminine presence that is uncommon amongst other popular contemporary music videos. Thus, the text asserts that D’Angelo is an outlier, and, generally speaking, the male body is absent in representations of masculinity in the context of music videos. Masculinity as a premise is built through interactions with women, the ready availability of women to a music video protagonist, and the sexualisation of women by said protagonist. 

Thus, the chapter concludes that D’Angelo’s depiction of masculinity is “perhaps more aesthetically complex and politically important” as a working representation of masculinity that contextualises the historical depictions of the black male body, than other discursive structures of analysing masculinity. 

Railton, Diane, and Paul Watson, ‘Masculinity and the Absent Presence of the Male Body’, Music Video and the Politics of Representation (Edinburgh, 2011; online edn, Edinburgh Scholarship Online, 20 Sept. 2012), https://doi.org/10.3366/edinburgh/9780748633227.003.0007, accessed 11 Dec. 2024.

Sfire 7 is a song released in 2015 under Sfire, the collaborative project of producers SOPHIE and Jeffrey Sfire. In this blog entry, I will analyse how Sfire 7 is able to communicate meaning through sonic and melodic variety, in the absence of vocals and lyrics. 

The song is in 4/4 at 128 BPM, with a four-on-the-floor drum pattern and a bouncy, metallic bassline throughout. It features over this a variety of melodic loops played on various electronic synthesizers. One could assert that these leads serve essentially the same purpose as vocals would – like a demo track where the melodies are played on synthesizers. This is emphasized by the discernable melodic, sonic, and structural differences between lead sections.

For example, the prominent synth lead of the first 16 measures has an arpeggiated structure which ascends and descends over the span of two octaves. In the key of A Major, this arpeggiation sets a playful introductory tone, especially considering the bubbly, wide, and harmonic synthesizer the melody is played on. The sound is chorused, with a relatively long attack and sustain. The high end shimmers with a short reverb as the hero of the sound, while the low-mids are cut into by the aforementioned bassline. It also occupies a distinct focus in the mix. Such forces combine to create an introductory melody that communicates a sense of vocal familiarity, indeed in the sense that the sound occupies the same range, and is treated with the same equalisation and effects, as a vocal would be. As such, this becomes a set-up for the second major discernable synth lead.

The second lead communicates the tension of a pre-chorus vocal, and is vastly different from the first. Here, the bass stays on a single note for 8 measures, adding to this sense of build-up. The lead sound has a quicker attack, is in a lower octave, and has a shorter decay. It also disregards the quick(er) arpeggiation of the first synth, and instead plays drawn-out, sustained three-note ascensions interjected with syncopated fills. The sound is also noticeably less bright as well as monophonic (in opposition to the first, chorused, lead). Critically, it is almost ad-libbed by a pitch-bent siren on certain downbeats, adding a sense of call-and-response similar to vocal performance. Despite all this, it occupies a central place in the mix, perhaps further cementing the importance of different synth leads in communicating meaning. 

These two examples illustrate the importance of sound selection and melodic variety in the work of Sfire, as well as the work of SOPHIE in general. In my view, SOPHIE’s unique use of synthesizers allows for melodic elements to communicate a sense of meaning as a vocal would – the introductory lead communicates playfulness and innocent danceability, whereas the second lead communicates tension and uncertainty.