AN INVESTIGATION INTO PUBLIC PERCEPTION OF WOMEN OBJECTIFICATION IN NIGERIAN MUSIC VIDEOS

BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY: The value of connectivity can not be overemphasized. Communication has from the onset been a central and crucial aspect of human life. Without communicating, humans can not exist since communication is the only way by which concepts and information may be transmitted from one generation to the next. Baran (2014) is of the view that contact is the transfer of knowledge from a transmitter to a recipient. "Communication has been variously described as the passing of knowledge, the exchanging of thoughts, or the method of creating a commonness or oneness of thought between a sender and a receiver." (Belch & Belch, 2003. p. 139)

Communication has numerous roles, which include; knowledge supply, schooling and entertainment. These main roles are vividly inevitable in our everyday lives. As humans, we strive to learn more knowledge and teach ourselves about the environment in which we inhabit and often a desire to withdraw from the necessities of existence leads us to the use of entertainment such as films, books, magazines, computer games etc.

 

Defining music is not any straightforward feat to be done since music has a multitude of meanings and not an identical one. Many people have made deliberate attempts to add sense to music in a manner that serves them the best. Scholars have also given their own description of music in attempts to make it a common definition. According to Levinson (1990), as cited in Davies (2015), defines music as an art which involves a person momentarily creating sounds for the soul, with the aim of strengthening experience through active engagement such as dancing, listening and performing.

Music videos are an important part of the Western traditions' most important development cultural framework.Music videos have had a deep influence on fashion, adolescent traditions and music, and on the processes and frameworks that exist through film, advertisement and television, but hitherto, criticisms have dismissed the specific meaning of the structure and its cultural heritage. Music videos are a vital form of persuasion, either to build knowledge of a specific thing or to inspire citizens to respond in a particular way. They offer a means of amusement for the audience, involving them in audio and visual material to attract and preserve their focus on what is being watched. Music videos may not appear to be so, but they are a very effective way of disseminating information and even keeping people up to date on various events or happenings of interest.

 

Hogan, Bar-on and Strasburger (2009) opine that music videos are enticing to people, particularly young audiences. Bearing in mind that music videos combine two sets of media that are striking to young audiences who are television and popular music, it is important to research their impact on young recipients and to be apprehensive about the messages these music videos uphold. Music videos have been extensively investigated. They have various types and are mostly regarded as either ideas or results footage. As for a performance recording, a single artist or a group of artists are filmed during a performance, a concert typically. Although design videos show a plot to the viewer, a story has the possibility of being created from the music. This tale could often append material to the lyrics and provide a clear meaning that is repeated every single time a person hears the music.

According to Frith, Goodwin and Grossberg (2005), while watching a music film, the visual section normally occupies our focus automatically, only through arresting and individual eyes, by being on TV. Television evidently incorporates the musical matrix without effort and irreversibly into its visual field. A music video draws our interest at the same time to the song and away from it, precisely by putting itself in the location of what it depicts. According to Vernallis (2004), the music arrives before the recording, the soundtrack is recorded before the film is made and the producer creates photos utilizing the song as a reference. However, the video of the single would promote the song; therefore, it is accountable to the song in the perspective of the artiste and record label. Music videos have various forms to accompany an album. They also mirror a song’s type and pick up on precise harmonic features in the area of harmony, timbre and rhythm. The picture can also duplicate a sound’s fade and flow and its unknown borders. Videographers have developed a series of procedures for setting a pictures to music in which the image gives up its individuality and abandons some of its modes.