Postmodern Analysis of Blurred Lines

In the music video of Robin Thicke’s song Blurred Lines many different postmodern ideas are used. First of all it is purely based on Robin Thicke and his sex life, this means there is self-references throughout the video, for example a hashtag appears on the screen throughout reading #THICKE which is a reference towards the thickness of Robin Thicke’s private area and the camera shots of the girls in the video while this hashtag appears is very significant as it shows represents how they must want him because of how good and big his private area is. Furthermore this type of self-referencing is also used at the end of the video because they have balloons which spell ‘Robin Thick has a big D’ which references what has happened outside in the press.
Throughout the video Laura Mulvey’s male gauze theory is perfectly portrayed. For example very bright fleshy type colours are used to exaggerate the exposure of women, furthermore the choreography is also a example of the male gauze because they are dancing in sexy ways and supposed to be seduced by the male characters this shows the male gauze because the audience see’s it from a male perspective compared to the females perspective. The male gauze is also used through the costumes the different characters in the video are wearing, for example female characters are wearing very small tops which are practically see through whereas in contrast the male characters are wearing black suits which suggests that the females are only their for sex and that the male characters are a lot more dominant.
Throughout the music video the female characters are doing many different physical activities, for example in one shot one of them is riding a bike this is a reference to society because it is trying to explain how society feels that females have to have the complete body to be able to get the best men which in this case is perceived to be Robin Thicke. Voyeurism is a huge part of the music video. This refers to the idea of constantly looking to gain sexual pleasure; this has been used throughout the video of Blurred Lines because the opposite sexed characters are always looking at each other in a seductive kind of way. As Andrew Goodwin said females will be objectified through camerawork and editing body shots, this has been done by Blurred lines director drastically to again over sexualise the female characters. The whole music video allows the audience to be invited to want the female and male characters to have sex because of the way both characters are portrayed; this uses pastiche because it is kind of parodying a soft porn movie where they begin to be seduced which will then be followed by sex. Because the female characters are purely objectified for sex and sex only many feminists have released parodies of the music videos in a protest againt’s this song and againt’s society because they feel that it isn’t right that women can be so easily objectified for sex without anyone thinking twice.
Furthermore in mise-en-scene in the video they have used props such as a lamb which is held by one of the female characters next to Pharrell who is wearing a farmer styled hat this is a good intertextual reference because it references the lamb as being innocent and him being dressed like a farmer implies he is going to ‘tend’ to her like a farmer would to a normal lamb, this uses intersexual pastiche referencing because the audience see the sexual message of the lamb rather than it just being another event in the video which isn’t connected and doesn’t have an implied message. The high key lighting which is used throughout the music video implies that everything goes right when men have authority and power compared to when the women do.
The video ends with a two shot of Pharrel going to touch Robin Thicke’s private this is a very quick shot however is very significant in terms that it has been done to try and quickly change the whole message of the music video, to just Robin Thicke is irresistible to everyone rather than just women. This video is very postmodern for many different reasons. For example Blurred Lines music video is clearly breaking all the acceptable rules which would be expected for a music video whether this is through Andrew Goodwin or it is through modernists the set of rules and conventions which are established for a music video are vaguely used however most of them are clearly being broken. Furthermore it is postmodern in the way that it uses intertextuality however it is blatantly sexualising females and using them as objects, which may offend a variety of people. However if the audience see it through the male gauze and that is simply that it may be found as a source of humour.