Representation in 50 Cent - Candy Shop

This is the music video for 50 Cent Candy Shop. This video was released in January 15th 2005. There is a strong male gaze as there is a lot of focus on women and their bodies. The genre for this song is hip hop/rap. There are many issues with the video that give bad and false representations of different people.

At the beginning of the video 50 Cent drives to a mansion and he is represented as rich as he is in a sports car and wearing expensive shoes. He is also wearing a lot of expensive jewellery. He then walks into the mansion which is full of women in their underwear. This is done for the male gaze and make men watch the music video and sell the song. The male gaze is often used to sell the song and make men look better as they have all of the women. This is a common in music videos as women are represented as just sexual objects. This has caused much trouble within the feminist community and the problem seems to be getting worse with videos Blurred Lines.

The video also uses star power as 50 Cent features throughout the video and mimes in some of the shots of him alone. He is also wearing several outfits one of which is a fur coat which looks very expensive which is again making 50 Cent look rich. This is 50 Cent promoting himself and his success with his money and women. The video may be saying that there is a link between women and money which may mean women are being represented as only being interested by money. This is a highly false representation of women and also quite offensive.

There are many shots of 50 Cent with women all over him. This is once again the male gaze and making 50 Cent look irresistible women. There are also moments were women are in pictures and painting which represents them as being there only to look at which is a sexist representation. There is also a small part of the video were 50 Cent takes his top off. This may be for the female gaze but it is only brief and he only has his top off.

There is a lot of editing in the video as lots of it is in slow motion and there are also some visual effects such as when the paintings move. The slow motion is put in place for the audience to take everything and also to go with the slow paced beat. It also allows the women to be looked at for longer and allows the male audience to look at them.

There are many cuts which go with the beat and many of the shots are cutting from women to women or to 50 Cent. This use of camera makes the video go with the beat. This helps the music and video feel like they were meant to be together. A lot of women get very little screen time which makes them look unimportant and also just something to look at.

I think the video was made to make men envy 50 Cent as he is rich, gets the girls and also has a muscular body. Many men would like these things and in this video 50 Cent has them. The video is dominated by the male gaze as men look at the women and also want to be 50 Cent. It is highly focused on males and encourages men to watch the video by using women.