Voyeurism

Voyeurism is the act of watching someone perform in sexual behaviours, such as: dancing, undressing or intercourse, in order to gain sexual gratification from what they are viewing. In the vast majority of circumstances, the person being looked upon is often unaware of their audience, and in practice during music videos it is usually a male's controlling gaze towards that of a female, whom may have been sexually objectified, whether that may be through choreography or costume for instance, as outlined in Goodwin's Theory.

Goodwin stated in his work that such female acts are sexually objectified through the use of specific camera movement and editing styles and techniques, which include fragmented body shots, essentially close ups of provocative areas of the body, which emphasise the sexualised treatment of the performer. By using voyeurism in this specialised way it is able to help the promoter to sell a product to their audience and to create an interest from there onwards, which can be exemplified below.

Analysis and examples of voyeurism in practice:

Call On Me is a song that reached number one in the UK Singles Chart in 2004 that was written and recorded by Swedish DJ and producer Eric Prydz. The progressive house and dance track has been widely popularised for the music video that accompanies it which features an aerobics class full of women with one male participant, dressed fully in 1980's styled outfits performing both sexually suggestive and provocative gym routines, much to the delight of the solitary man.

Featured in the music video for the track are multiple low-angled and eye-level close ups of specifically chosen parts of the objectified female's and occasionally the male's body, which are in most costs show in slow motion, where fades and jump cuts are also used to introduce the viewer to the next sexually suggestive image, for example: gazing at the other gender whilst lip biting and staring into the mirror, gyrating hips and various types of aerobic poses and positions and also a close encounter between both the female instructor and sole male participant at the end of the video.