Könsrepresentation i musikvideor. : En kvalitativ innehållsanalys av manliga artisters videor över fem decennier.

Since the early 80’s the music videos have been essential for artists to spread their music. Even today the videos reach massive audiences through websites like YouTube. Music videos and visual media can have a substantial role to play in the construction and dissemination of gender norms in society. This bachelor’s thesis analyses how gender norms and stereotypes are used and reinforced in music videos by male artists or male groups. Gender norms are subject to constant change, and therefore we are also interested in if this societal development is visible in the production of visual media in the music business. To study this topic, we watched and analyzed the ten most watched music videos on YouTube from the 1980s to the 2020s, with two from each decade. The videos were transcribed inductively since we used qualitative content analysis, and further analyzed using several relevant theories regarding gender performance and social construction. The results showcase that music videos often portray men and women differently, with men often as adventurous and aggressive, and with women mostly as objects for men’s desires. Our findings suggest that a slight worsening in gender representation over time has taken place, taking into account the analysed videos across several genres.