I don’t get it. Is Keri Hilson a hypocrite or what? Either she is willing to do anything for fame, or she hired the wrong marketing team. In her upcoming sophomore album, No Boys Allowed, Keri Hilson has her single, “Pretty Girl Rock,” which calls for the empowerment of women. In this video, Keri dresses up as Josephine Baker, Diana Ross, Donna Summer, Janet Jackson, among other as her “way of paying homage to groundbreaking women, strong women who were fearless and so bold and so confident that they made women feel that way,” in hopes to do the same.
However, the video of second single of her upcoming album, “The Way You Love Me,” was released two weeks after “Pretty Girl Rock,” which takes an unexpected turn.
Keri Hilson takes the totally opposite route in the latter video and loses all class, visually selling her body. She stated,“I’m just saying what women really think and feel and if I’m gonna be honest about myself, I have to show that side of myself,” She also added that while the song is about being a freak, it’s about doing so within a committed relationship. “Look, sometimes, this is what we want. If I’m in a room and I’m writing from a girl’s perspective, I may be a small percentage of a freak, but I am a freak! There’s a time to be that. If you’re being real with yourself – I’m not talking about giving it to everybody – I’m in a relationship and I’m saying look, tonight, I don’t want to caress. I want you to f- me tonight!”
The main issue here is the image of women in the media.
Okay I love Keri Hilson, but “Pretty Girl Rock” is not about female empowerment. She straight up equates woman’s power to be attractive, citing “don’t hate me cuz I’m beautiful”, also feeding into the stereotype that all women are essentially catty. In fact, throughout the music video she doesn’t reenact strong female leaders but rather dresses up as other pop icons who essentially represent the same anti-feminist roles for women. Also, in general, pop artists don’t tend to produce material with a intellectually consistent message. Most of the times their songs are written by other people. Both Keri Hilson songs represent the same message though, that hot girls being hot translates into hot music.
I’m just merely stating Keri Hilson’s “ideals” behind these two songs. It is a bit of a stretch but “Pretty Girl Rock” can be seen as a focus on using confidence as a mindset for beauty and self-esteem, which is an issue among many, which is also seen in RuPaul’s Drag Race. However, at the end of the day, it’s a gimmick. A lot of the art that exists today is part of a marketing scheme for publicity, but some are successful, some aren’t. Obviously, the people behind Keri Hilson’s career need to re-evaluate their actions.
It is no surprise that sex sells, especially when it comes to female artists. Since the primary emotion for most rock music (since its inception in the 1950’s) has been the male libido circa age 14, it is not surprising that marketing and recording execs have used this time honored technique. The steady stream of young nubile women ready to provide “product” for this market indicates that this corporate model still has “legs” (so to speak.) I thought the Josephine Baker take off showed some “smarts” right up until she started shaking and twitching like 2010 instead of following a truer Josephine Baker model. Clearly this type of marketing strikes a nerve with the young women in the class (glad to see that). It could simply be too deeply ingrained in our DNA for the kind of general equality of the sexes that is at least possible on a case by case basis. (By the way, this is a complete knock off to begin with, as it sounds completely like this year’s answer to “If you like it then you shoulda put a ring on it.” The more things change, the more they remain the same.