The Guardian say
"Created specifically to drum up controversy, engage a debate and represent the now, Hard Out Here is exactly what we wanted from a Lily Allen comeback – sorry, John Lewis."
The Mirror
"Lily Allen on her controversial video, working with Miley Cyrus and life as a mum"
Some people hate it and other respect her decision of her choice of comeback. Lily Allen has the most triumphant return to the music industry with her single "Hard out Here" she is the most talked about artist everyone is playing her song and music video and talking about it whether its bad or good she seems to be the topic in today's media. She has taken time off to be a mum of two but she has still been able to keep up to date with the media and has chosen to pull off a video that consist ideas from Blurred Lines by Robin Thick and We Cant Stop by Miley Cyrus by many different shot in her video. She mainly looks at the three issue like body image, gender inequality and most of all objectification.
The whole music video is at the same time sarcastic and making a point you can tell when she says "you not a size six and your not good looking, you better be rich or be real good at cooking, you should probably lose some weight cause we can't see your bones" clearly she is attacking the way woman are being represented in the media to be as skinny as they can be which is why she is "getting" liposuction. Look at the fact that at the beginning of the video she is on a surgery table and she says "Are we nearly done?" and her male manager says "No... honey be here for a while" then later say how "does someone let themselves get like this" when she has had two kids. Just the very introduction before any of the actual lyrics she is already showing that the media world is looked at through a male gaze as if all audience were males and any woman in the media is for pure entertainment.
The music video itself is showing how woman are being represented in the media and is a pro feminist video despite critics who say that the music video is wrong and racist because of the "all" black female dancers even though they are not all black female dancers and say that is wrong because they are wearing little clothing is not just in her video where this is happening and Lily is just picking up something that is happening in all music videos not just dancer but artist as well. When really if you think about it the critics valued the ethnicity not because of the dancing but because of the colour of the skin which I think makes the critics more racist then the video. She has the dancers dancing in black swimsuit bodies with leather coats whilst she is in fully clothed, I personally think that she is trying to be the woman who has chosen to say that she does not have to degrade her self by dancing in little clothing but has dancers in her video do so which help make a stronger impact that not all woman need to do this. If you look at Rihanna "Pour it up" music video she is also black and is representing herself as a stripper and as a male because of the way she is dressed and the way she acts. Lily Allen is not pointing out the representation of black woman but of all women, its almost the same with the fact that all black male can rap but only a few white male can she is pointing out how woman are shown in the media.
Lily Allen is taken everything she has watched in the media recently specifically in music videos like Miley Cyrus "We Can't Stop" Robin Thick "Blurred Lines" the twerking the way woman are being represented and making a truthful but sarcastic point and she even says in the song"and if you can't detect the sarcasm you've misunderstood"
Lily is contradicting at times in her video but because it is sarcastic isn't taken seriously the video really just show how woman are shown in the media at one point it has Lily is in the kitchen washing tyre cover of a car which cars are a manly objects to be associated with but still the male manager comes out and tells her how she should look whilst she is washing the tyre covers, she is conforming with Laura Mulvey's theory that woman are know to be the tradition in the kitchen raising kids and cleaning but also her male gaze theory in the way that this video is about how the media is showing women through the eyes of a male for entertainment purposes only.
Whilst the music video along with the song lyrics has a serious message the music video shouldn't be taken so serious because she is on purpose trying to show how the music industry are showing woman to the world. She is also making a point to say that the music industry has become about sponsorship and she gives and example with the car and the beat speaker and she is making a point that the music industry should be about music and its messages and that the message has become distorted by media. This can then be back up with the auto tune used in her video because it is used so much that we think that again she is contradicting but in her recent "Somewhere only we go" song which has no auto tune its show the audience to hear that she can sing and that she is basically saying that everyone who has the right look and figure can be on music videos.
Finally the chorus "its hard out here for a bitch" when finishing the video the song title speaks for itself because the whole video and song is showing how hard it is for woman to get ahead in the music industry and what the have to do to reach that peak is degrading and only want a man wants to see which is why she calls all woman bitches because it is known as what men call woman who do wan they want.
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