Female Australian Rapper, Iggy Azalea, truly reached popular culture on
a personal level with the debut of her single, "Work." Azalea tells
her listeners where she is from and reveals all the struggles she has faced
before she reached this level of success. Lyrically, the song is rather
inspirational as it creates a motivational image that viewers can look up to
but upon watching the music video, it is not wrong to question the song's
authenticity. In the first scene of the video, we see Azalea walking through a
vast desert while talking about where she came from. Although it is clear to
visualize that she wasn't "made" in the best of communities, we see
the rapper walking through the dessert and outback community glamorously.
Looking at the clothes she is wearing while strolling around it is not hard to
spot the expensive designer pieces on her, which is rather contradictory as the
whole theme of her song is talking about everything that she didn't have
growing up. The video continues as she walks through the desolate community and
begins to as if she is "looking down" upon the community
members. She
is priding herself in coming from that background but in the music video, she
is walking around what is perceived to be her background, as she is better
and more powerful than it. It shows that she has clearly forgotten where she
came from. It disrespects people that are still living in
those communities and makes them seem like they are worthless
compared to people like her. From these observations, it is
important to ask, why was this music video directed to portray the musician
with this glamorous image in the first scene? It is believed that
product placement has a meaning to this video. By placing these distinct brands
on the musician and making her appear better than the general community, brands
are able to tell viewers that they have the power to be better than these
communities if they were able to associate with products such as the ones
Azalea is wearing. Additionally, the real controversy starts to take place when
the outback scene transitions into Azalea dancing in front of a group of men
with backup dancers behind her. Again, this is in fact contradictory as her
seductive movements disregard the real message that she is lyrically trying to
bring across. This scene creates the idea that the only way woman can succeed
is by seducing men and deceiving. So overall, not only does Azalea marginalize
the female population in the music video, it offends people in
impoverished societies. The concepts discussed in the video are ironic to the
lyrics and message that Azalea puts across, which shows that she has been
influenced by the attitudes of the music industry and popular culture. “The
industry took my innocence, too late now I’m in this.”
