Watch This!

The 2010 Super Bowl, the OHester Fest, and Miley Cyrus’s Wonder World Tour Concert. What do these things have in common? They’re all spectacles, or events, that people have indulged money and time to watch or participate in. Yet, there is a spectacle that everyone can participate in every single day and year round as well. Besides from listening to a song, watching an artist’s music video has become a spectacle in itself.

For something that is merely popular to become a spectacle, it has to take over the social context of society. Well, music videos have done this. An artist’s music video is not just a visual representation of their style. A music video seems to always bring up social debates such as whether a singer a good or bad artist, whether they are creative or typical, or if their music is relatable in any fashion. On that note, a music video doesn’t truly need to relate to life, but even the lives people dream to have. For example, having “stacks of money to blow,” according to rap artist, Drake.

With music, there is a music industry, which is the economic component to this spectacle. It is no question that music exists for the people to have some form of expression or relation. However, artists spend up to millions just to film a music video. What an artist is wearing, what kind of car is driven, what city the video is filmed in makes music videos a spectacle. Furthermore, it seems that music videos represent what people want to be. Images of wealth and power make people want to watch a music video. A music video is one that will be seen on a global scale, so image matters.

Sometimes, a spectacle can become political. For example, some of the major debates during the 2010 World Cup was that it was unfair to exclude countries from the games because of their political standing the international community. Because music videos are watched on a global scale, what an artist expresses can become a political issue. For example, Kanye West’s video “Love Lockdown” brought upon debates about the images of Africa. Some international newspapers deemed Kanye West as a disgrace to the music industry for basically stereotyping Africa and Africans.

Relating to popular culture, music videos have an affect on the social, economic, even the political aspects of our society. Maybe watching a music video is not the initial thought of something that is a spectacle. However, like other spectacles, music videos began as something entertaining and trivial. Yet, it seems that it has turned into something complex enough to be categorized as part of popular culture.