This thesis explores images of the Japanese schoolgirl as accessory to the Occidental Self in contemporary Orientalist pop culture in the US. In an analysis of a series of images by four different Western pop culture artists, each artist expresses an appreciation for Japan that is based primarily on their encounter with Japanese pop culture. Furthermore, they express identification with the Japanese Other and a desire to introject into Japanese subjectivities. However, lacking the material body needed for full immersion or identification with the Other, they produce the Japanese schoolgirl as an accessory to the Self. The accessory provides false immersion or identification with the Japanese Other. In this way, the Japanese schoolgirl becomes the embodiment of Japanese pop culture and an object for Western fetishization. / text

Since YouTube was founded in 2005, prosumers have been uploading karaoke-style “lyric videos” of their favourite songs in order to creatively and visually accompany the song, while making it available online to other listeners. In the last few years, more and more artists have adopted this trend and are releasing official lyric videos that follow and expand on this tradition, thus commanding immediate visual attention to new singles. Additionally, these videos control the images and sounds associated with the song and artist, while profiting from advertising revenue tied to online video content. Though scholarship on music video is increasing, there is no evidence of scholarly research on lyric videos. Seemingly simple, these videos create meanings that impact artistic personae, song and album reception, and genre identity formation. They are not merely promotional devices, or placeholders for “official” music videos. Grounding my analysis in genre theory (Frow 2015, Brackett 2015 & 2016, Fabbri, 1982, Holt, 2007), I claim that lyric videos comprise a new visual genre of music video, following their own parameters, connections, and histories, while simultaneously participating in the ideologies and tropes of their musical genre. In order to illustrate the framework, I offer a history of the genre by focusing my analysis on the lyric videos released by Katy Perry over the course of seven years, from 2010 to 2017, from the promotion for four of her most recent albums. By offering a historical analysis, I show how the lyric video has emerged, evolved and become established as a distinct visual genre. I include brief interludes in my analysis to highlight other important moments in the development of the genre, and to discuss how the lyrics, sound, and images are diversely represented in lyric videos depending upon musical genre. Drawing from feminist theory (Gledhill 2000), as well as persona theory (Auslander 2004, Moore 2005), I conclude that lyric videos offer unique possibilities for artists to amplify the meaning of their song and the spectator’s understanding of the lyrics, while portraying information about the artist’s subjectivities, and as such, deserves more scholarly attention as a distinct visual genre.

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Through an intersectional feminist lens using Critical Discourse Analysis, this thesis investigates the representations of four prominent women, their embodiments and their sexualities in the lyrics of their songs.