The Justin Bieber “Baby” video seems to offer a twist in the gender representations as women are normally known as the sensitive gender; whereas men are typically known to society as masculine, strong, aggressive, and more powerful than women. However in the video Justin Bieber is portraying a male figure that is more sensitive and emotional and the girl in the video seems more strong and independent. She seemed to be flirting, yet playing hard to get, teasing a bit if you will, where Justin Bieber was striving for her affection and to get her to notice him.
The genders interact while dancing in the bowling alley. It doesn’t seem like a traditional interaction although this type of interaction is not completely uncommon. Typically teenagers from all areas of the country do not meet up at their local bowling alley and turn it in to a dance session, but in this video it seemed completely natural the way they were sort of having a “dance off” competition. It seemed as if they were dancing to make a statement about who was the most dominant gender.
From the setting and location of this video one may consider that teenagers in the 21st century are going back to the old ways of having fun at public places and actually bowling instead of everyone hanging out in the parking lot. This is a huge change from previous conceptions about teenagers and their habits because recently it seems that teenagers have become more troublemakers than hanging out, bowling, and having harmless and innocent fun.
The merger of singing styles of Justin Bieber and Ludicrous is an interesting combination to say the least. The Ludicrous part of the video actually fits and adds character to the video; it is a refreshing touch of rap to the pop culture of today’s teen pop music.
Although the reality of this video is not entirely believable, the older generations can probably relate with it more because there was a time that this type of interaction was more common. The younger generation will not look at this video as reality based because it is way out of the norm for the way many teenagers do things today.
