Images of the female singer - the structural characteristics of Taiwanese Mandopop music videos

Abstract

Music video visually communicates with music, in a storytelling manner with direct or subliminal messages to audiences. It encompasses many discourses over different contexts, and often used in contradictory ways to embody gendered aesthetic values of authenticity. This thesis sets out to investigate Taiwanese Mandopop female stars and their representations in the music videos seen in the Mandopop industry. At the heart of the body of work presented in this thesis is an exploration and examination of three case studies, focusing on female singers Winnie Hsin, Cyndi Wang, and Jolin Tsai, situating them within the Taiwanese Mandopop context, and in relation to their music videos: Understanding (1994), Love You (2003), and The Great Artist (2012). The representatives and adaptabilities for analytical interest are in relation to the three major themes, namely sadness, cuteness, and sexiness, meaning that their work can be seen to construct their specific star representation of femininity, feminism and creativity.

Writing on the theoretical dialogue between film studies, music video studies, cultural studies, feminism, psychoanalytic theory and postmodernism, the textual analysis, combining the concept of music video detail analysis and the reconstruction of representations of each performer, will show how their images are created, and lead to a discussion of the embedded semiotic meanings, links among audience reception, creative control, and artistic freedom. Finally, these texts, a link to how the representations relate to cultural tradition and social transformation, will offer a dialogue and critique of Taiwanese society, through representations of the female stars they created.

More information

Identifiers

ORCID for Tim Bergfelder: orcid.org/0000-0001-6585-6123

Catalogue record

Export record