READING RESPONSE 5

Blake Shelton: Who Are You When I’m Not Lookin’? –Music Video;
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0xXD9-1mLBY
• He sings from the bedroom on a bed
• The first girl walks out in her robe, tank top, and underwear
• She is in the kitchen making breakfast
o She burns the toast & bacon
o Making coffee and OJ
• Each scene has a different woman in a different role
o Blonde; making breakfast-kitchen
o Brunette; dancing around-living room
o Mixed; working-office
• The things women to do release stress
• Recognition of what women do

This music video starts out with a blonde women walking into the kitchen in her robe and tank top with underwear. She pours herself some oj and starts to make coffee, then proceeds to make breakfast. The scene switches and so does the women, what the women are doing in the video are closely acted along with the words of the song. The brunette girl now has a class with what looks like alcohol on ice, and it shows her dancing around in her socks. The next scene is a mixed woman in an office. The scenes switch to show what each lady is doing when he sings the part “who are you when I’m not looking.” Their acting continues with the words of the song, and the song ends by seeing him sitting on the bed playing his guitar just as it started, and it slowly fades out.


The narrative that I see being portrayed is that women are allowed to have bad days, and that women have their secrets about how they relieve their stress. This video does a very good job of showing that there are different types of women that do different things and not all of them are as perfect as they may seem. The oppositions that are presented are tame/wild, the blonde cooking breakfast, and the brunette dancing around after a drink. Men are left out of the video this song pertains to women and the things that they do. They all look around the same age not old and not super young; they look like they are about in their mid-twenties. There is a working girl, and girl who doesn’t mind being silly, and a girl who seems to enjoy cooking, and it’s ok if she messes up. The houses appear to be nice homes, not much low income is shown, and the lady working, looks as though she has a nice job that probably makes a fair amount of money. That this song is not being derogatory to women, it is showing their beautiful, hidden sides that they most of the time try to maintain and keep to themselves. The cultural assumptions that I feel are shown are that country music tends to be less derogatory towards women and they like to show the ways that they feel about women. The music itself is calmer and not angry. It contributes a lot to the meaning of the text because it just shows more of what he is trying to say through his words of the song, and the video does a very nice job of following what the words are saying and showing the image that Shelton is trying to make. The musical component of the text influences my reading because I try to look more at the picture that the author is trying to get across rather than just reading the words straight from the page. I try to relate better to the text I am reading.