To what extent have you challenged dominant ideology in the construction of your artist?

To what extent have you challenged dominant ideology in the construction of your artists?
 Within our media product, we have aimed to keep to the codes and conventions within the specific genre of R&B; this means our media product will be conventional. Through detailed research we have found re-occurring aspects that are significantly presented within R&B music videos. For example each artist within R&B music video’s have a constructed identity.
 These constructed identities that are presented seem to be significantly similar within the genre. Our aim as a group is to keep this conventional, however, there is room for our particular artists to challenge the dominant ideology of artists within R&B music videos.
Within R&B music video, the artist is usually of a black ethnicity, Beyonce, Neyo, Chris brown and Rihanna, are all examples of R&B artists who are defined by the genre of R&B. Within our music video we have decided to keep to the conventions of this, as a group we agree that this ethnic background is significant into defining the genre, as originally R&B is the abbreviation for ‘Rhythm and Blues’ and this is a genre which is popular African American music which has now become more mainstream. The artists present this particularly as they present the culture and background history to the genre. As a group our character that is posing as the artist is of black ethnicity as is the female character. We find this a vital aspect for our target audiences as well, as the characters reflect our specific audiences, and our music video should be categorised as R&B.
Gender in our music video conforms to dominant ideologies especially, as the female character is seen as less superior of the male character. This is due to the lyrics of the song to be of one perspective (The males), meaning the male has been more sinned against rather than sinned. If we were to challenge the dominant ideologies of females and males within R&B possibly the moving image can be doing the total opposite to the lyrics, expressing the man being just as bad as the female character, or even add a female perspective to the song. This means sympathy can be given to either characters, but due to dominant ideologies, females are seen to be more of a villain to be ‘cheatin’ as they say in the lyrics of the song.
     Dominant ideologies suggest that females need to be presented beautifully. This is the exact case within R&B music videos, again as a group we have all agreed to keep to the codes and conventions of R&B in order to keep our specific target audience. The idea of women being presented just for show is a common ideology and is within our society to this day. An example of this is females wearing makeup, buying pretty hair accessories and there clothing.  An example of this within our music video, is we are going to present the female character in a very ‘sexy’ style, minimal clothing is vital and key as most R&B music videos have these aspects especially when there are females presented.
  The setting of R&B music videos is usually open, and shows the aspect of money and wealth possibly a sense of new wealth. This is constantly associated with people who have black ethnicity where they present themselves in ‘bling’. The dominant ideology here could be that people who are of black ethnicities, like to bling themselves or even present money in very specific ways that relates to there culture. 
 There are dominant ideologies for ‘young’ people in society, and this is relevant to our genre. From our research we have found out that props, such as guns, expensive jewellery possibly drugs are associated with this genre. Thus the target audience (young people) is associated with this to. Within our music video, none of this is presented; therefore we are challenging this aspect of the genre. However, we do however present the theme of love, and its diversity within life and what it may lead to for the future. It also shows different aspects through the artists who represents young people with society we get to witness emotions that real ‘youths’ could actually be going through.
 Men often have the advantage in society, especially above women. This is a common ideology, and is very much so presented within R&B music videos. This could be due to the song only being from the males perspective, but yet he’s perspective is extremely biased, and he presents the female to be more guilty than him when they are both as bad as each other. Yet through his portrayal of events the female is presented in a negative light in comparison to the artist.
Through this aspect the song is conforming to the codes and conventions of the R&B genre, however our plans for the moving image may show the perspective of the female. So as an audience we will get to see two sides of a story, and be able to decide for ourselves who we feel sympathetic for.
Camera shots and Camera movement will be particularly important for a music video as they are going to be cutting back and forth from the narrative giving different points of view but also different elements of time (whether it’s the past or present). These camera shots particularly can frame a particular character whether enhances the female, or creating sympathy for each character.
 On a whole, we are aware of dominant ideologies and we are applying them to our music video, however there are some aspects in which we are conforming but are also there are some in which we are challenging. These ideas have been previously explained above.