Super Bass is Nicki Minaj’s 8th solo video from her album Pink Friday. The video was released in May 2011 where it reached number 8 on the UK’s singles chart. The video was digitally distributed on TV channels such as MTV and KISS, as well on air which therefore reached a mainstream audience. Super Bass draws from Hip Hop and Pop genres which are a feature that again attracts a mainstream artist who listens to Hip Hop and Pop music. In this video Nicki is suggestively seductive. This is shown through her choice of clothing which is a skin tight leather pink jumpsuit. The costume highlights and emphasises her womanly features such as her bum and breasts. The way she is dressed leaves her open to the male gaze as she dances erotically and wears revealing clothing thus appealing to a male audience. The lyrics also tell us that she is talking about a boy she has a crush on which could suggests the reason she is dressed in a promiscuous way. In comparison to Nicki’s previous video’s sexuality is especially highlighted in this video which suggests that she still coverts to typical Hip Hop rnb conventions despite exploring different identities in her previous video’s. The use of sex appeal also is a convention Nicki uses to keep her audience keen and intrigued. This is because Nicki uses the ‘Barbie’ identity she conveys in all her video’s, but uses the Barbie image in order to portray herself sexually. From her first video there is a clear transition in the style of music video’s Nicki sings/raps in, in that the themes, narratives and costume all show different persona’s. Through this different persona method Nicki has successfully been able to establish herself as an artist in a non typical way, the typical way being each music artist has their own unique identity whereas Nicki has multiple identities never quite revealing her true self and presenting her feelings and attitudes through different characters which inevitably is a way Nicki has been able to sustain a large mainstream audience.
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