Institution and Audience
This music video is likely to be played on mainstream music channels such as Kerrang! and MTV due to Shakira's worldwide success making her a well known superstar. It is for this reason that she will be given a lot of "air time" as these channels know that she will bring the viewers in. However, due to her superstar status in the music industry, a music video is not particuarly necessary and therefore will be more the focus of ambient viewing rather than focused as it will most likely be on in the background while the viewer is doing other tasks.
In terms of institutional context, the video is a metaphor for the way in which she sees her own life: she has been on the road and travelling since she was very young hence her decision to use the term ‘gypsy’ due to the lifestyle they lead and it’s resemblances to hers. The video received a lot of criticism from the gypsy community however because of the appearance of Shakira as a gypsy and due to the racist stereotypes in the lyrics that label them as thieves.
Representation
In Shakira’s ‘Gypsy’, she appears as the stereotypical woman in a music video. This is because she is seen with a very artificial look, with airbrushed skin, loose hair and the ‘perfect body’ which is difficult for the audience to relate to her as this is not what ‘normal’ women look like, infact, it is almost impossible to look so perfect and will have more of a negative effect on women who watch the video. Dismemberment also makes an appearance as there are close ups of her lips a lot and of her legs. This makes her seem less real as people are only allowed to see parts of her. It can be argued that commodification is present too as she is seen dancing for the man in the video while he sits and watches, therefore showing how men use women as objects. The ritualization of subordination is seen during the kiss when Shakira is seen lying back on the floor with the man on top of her.
Due to the title of the song, Shakira is meant to be portraying gypsies: if this is her interpretation of a gypsy, then she is challenging the stereotypical views of this social group, due to her extraordinary appearance. The visuals and the lyrics however, almost seem to contradict each other. The lyrics at times depict gypies as theives, whereby conforming to stereotypes, but her appearence represents gypsies as beautiful and talented.
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