The Hills

On May 27th, Abel Tesfaye (famously known as The Weeknd) released the 5th track of his highly anticpated album Beauty Behind the Madness.  Alongside his other great songs, The Hills has received much praise due to not only its apparent likability but also for its air of sexuality and risque lyrics.  The storyline of this song revolves around Abel and an affair he is having with a woman.  Throughout the song, he sets the record straight by revealing to her what she truly means to him (basically nothing) and that their affair is equally her fault.  As a popular music artist, what influence does The Weeknd have on his listeners regarding sexual intercourse, relationships, and gender roles?  Is this influence stronger for adolescents, which are his target audience?

After carefully listeningto the lyrics of The Hills, I noticed that many of the lyrics I heard directly apply to a multidtude of Kim et al.'s complementary codes regarding sexual scripts.  First, Abel sings in the first stanza,

I'm just tryna get you out the friend zone 
Cause you look even better than the photos
I can't find your house, send me the info
Drivin through the gates residential

Abel is undoubtedly exempliying the specific code of sex as masculinity through sexual objectification of women and male sexual initiative.  Based on the theory that men sexually objectify women and only value them because of their attractiveness, Abel is saying that he wants to take their affair to the next level solely based on the way she looks in pictures (Kim et al., pg. 147).  In the last two lines, he epitmozies the idea that "men are sexual initiators who are preoccupied by sex and who will go to great lengths to have intercourse" (Kim et al., pg. 147).  When adolescents hear these lyrics, they begin to familiarize and embed these sexual scripts and gender roles into their daily lives.

Next the chorus of the song illustrates the code of masculine committment, or their lack of.

I only call you when it's half past five
The only time that I'll be by your side
I only love it when you touch me, not feel me
When I'm fucked up, thats the real me

According to Kim et al., the basis of masculine commitemnt revolves around "men actively avoiding committment, marriage, monogamy... [and] trying to evage becoming emotionally inolved with their female partners" (pg. 148).  The fact that Abel is even having this affair demonstrates his belief in polygamy and, furthermore, his willingness to only call when its in the middle of the night signifies his "masculine" position in not wanting any sort of serious relationship with this girl.  Adolescents hearing these lyrics may internalize the idea that cheating on partners is acceptable and that relationships are common and better when little emotion is involved.

Lastly moving from the lyrics to the music video, the narrative is Abel getting in a car crash with two women.  He emerges from the wreck and starts walking away without helping the two women he was with.  After ignoring the shoves from the two women, he enters an abandoned mansion and walks into a room illuminated by a red light.  The red light, a man holding an apple, and the two women from the crash symbolize Abel entering hell for the way he treats women.  The music video is a very strong piece of media in that it first teaches the wrongdoings of heterosexual relationships (as detailed above), but then finishes with what can be seen as a postive message about the disgraces of polygamy, sexual objectification, and emotionless relatinships.  By showing Abel walking into hell, adolescents can take away that treating women the way he did only leads to negative consequences.  This music video postively correlates with Ward's theory that "sexually oriented genres such as soap operas and music videos [are] associated with greater acceptance of stereotypical and casual attitudes about sex..." (Ward, pg. 370).  Lets all hope that adolescents catch the ending postive message of the music video instead of the former negative ones.

Kim, J. L., Sorsoli, C. L., Collins, K., Zylbergold, B. A., Schooler, D., & Tolman, D. L. (2007). From sex to sexuality: Exposing the heterosexual script on primetime network television. Journal of Sex Research, 44(2), 145-157. doi: 10.1080/00224490701263660

Ward, L. M. (2003). Understanding the role of entertainment media in the sexual socialization of American youth: A review of empirical research. Developmental Review, 23(3), 347-388. doi: 10.1016/s0273-2297(03)00013-3