Analyzing Music Videos

Lip Gloss

1. What is the song basically saying about how to live a good life? Paraphrase the main idea.
The song Lip Gloss is basically giving out a message to all young people that you have to be cool in order to be accepted. As you can see in the video in order to be "cool" you have to have expensive products and materials, look a certain way to get attention from others especially the opposite sex. these messages are influencing young people that they have to act like someone that they're not to be accepted in a group.

2. What lyrics particularly speak to that perspective? Use quotes as evidence.
At the beginning of Lil Mama's video she is sitting in the care with her mother ready to go to school as shes about to get out she tells her mother she wants to be "part of the cool crowd" her mother gives her the lip gloss and as the video begins she quotes,
"They say my lip gloss is cool
My lip gloss be popping
I'm standing at my locker
And all the boys keep stopping
What you know 'bout me?"
In this quote she is saying that because her lip gloss is so "cool" guys are after her and girls are jealous of her. She wants to be the center of attention which is what a lot of young girls these days tend to accomplish.

3. How do the video images support, re-orient, or challenge the dominant theme of the lyrics? Analyze.
There is a part in the video that show a "geeky" boy with eyeglasses turns "cool" as Lil Mama blows some sparkles at him and automatically he drops his glasses and begins to dance ridiculously. You can see in the video that they are in a school dancing through the hallways, not even getting an education learning about important subjects but being educated on how to be cool. The video also shows a clip where there is a poster that has Lil Mama for class president. The meaning behind that is voting for her because she is "cool" and good looking, not because she will contribute to the school's education and intelligent.

4. What else do you notice that's interesting? Look for internal contradictions, aspects of the message that resonate with other messages from the pop culture, points that connect to your own perspective, etc. Analyze squared.
Most videos similar to these give mixed-messages to young people. Some may say its the way they express themselves as showing how much fun they're having as young people but they are really brainwashing people that there is a specific way to live a meaningful life which is to have all the glamor in the world. Pop culture has influenced young people so much that they truly believe that to be happy in life you need all the expensive products and materials, that you need to be good-looking and I feel that is when all the fixing you body up doing surgery, botox etc. comes in. people want to look like their favorite singer or celebrity and they will do whatever it takes to look and feel like them. People need to realize that being cool is not going to make your life more meaningful but its going to show how dim-witted you really are.