Music Video

This is a music video by Selena Gomez, called ‘Come and Get It’. It only stars Selena Gomez in it however it does reflect a lot about the representation of teenage girls and the impacts this could potentially have on them and their personal views on themselves. Selena Gomez is an actress/singer that is very well-known amongst teenagers. She is looked up to by many and therefore her actions and the representation she displays is a clear example of teenagers in the media. In her music video for ‘Come and Get It’ there are numerous features which help to establish these connotations of teenage girls.

The first feature that helps the media establish a representation is the use of costume. In the music video Selena is dressed in very raunchy outfits that show off her small feminine body. Her make-up is heavy and with very heavy mascara and eyeliner to draw attention to her eyes with bright red lips to deliver a very sexy look. This will provide a negative effect on teenage girls as they will aspire to be the same weight and wear the same sort of clothing as her. The stereotype in play is that teenage girls have to be sexy to look good and while Selena Gomez is now an older person in their lives, rather than a mid-teen, but she is still someone of significant importance to the representation of teenage girls. This makes this feature and representation here not very accurate and fair, considering the fact that teenagers don’t necessarily dress in tight bodices with flowing, see-through skirts. She is viewed as a teenager still, and her representation of one in this music video wouldn’t be seen as young and natural, rather as one that is trying to act as a grown-up, which is one very negative representation that could be taken from this.

The second feature used in this music video is the camera shots. Instead of using shots which would make Selena look younger and more of a teenager, they used ones that had close-ups on different parts of her body that may have more serious connotations towards sexual images rather than innocent teenagers. There are numerous close-ups on her bright red lips, which is very seductive and not something a typical teenage girl would wear. This can show us that the representation this music video may be getting across about teenage girls is how they want to act older than they are and that perhaps they aren’t content with being their age. Due to many camera angles and shots showing off Selena’s more feminine parts and showing a much sexier side, this could be proof from the media that teenage girls are becoming less innocent with their actions and in particular the way they are portrayed. These representations are clearly negative and also not at all true concerning what teenage girls are like. The reasons for these types of connotations coming through could be due to many things in today’s society, including the way girls behave, and the way they are starting to act and dress. This will not help with the assumptions made regarding stereotyping teenage girls within today’s society. The reality is that no one actually acts in that way in real life compared to what is portrayed in the music video.

The third and final feature used in the music video is the lighting. Generally associated with bright pink colours and whites and usually light happy colours are what teenage girls, or at least younger teenage girls are stereotyped as, the lighting in this music video are not very bright. They have used many dark colours and occasionally contrast with background light coming in, like in a few shots the sun is rising in the background and that is the intended light of the shot. The rest of the time, the lighting is very moody and often quite dark.  This results in a representation for teenage girls being produced that they are very moody, grumpy and dark characters, which once again is an incorrect stereotype. It is a strong stereotype that teenagers are moody and quite often grumpy however, just because this music video is reinforcing that does not mean it is true. This will result in society perceiving teenage girls as being moody and grumpy whereas that is not necessarily exactly what they are, at least not all of them. The lighting was obviously used in the video to create a more mysterious feel, along with the emotions that being in darker colours will bring on.  The representation results in the stereotype of teenage girls being moody and grumpy people as opposed to happy, which it is likely as an unrealistic stereotype.