"Whip My Hair" is a song sung by American recording artist Willow Smith. The song was written by Janae Rockwell and Ronald "Jukebox" Jackson, with the latter producing the track.While attending events, Smith received media attention for her extravagant outfits compared to Rihanna, whom she later credited as a musical influence.
Willow then enters the room in colourful attire, including a blue vest, orange pants and a belt with her name on it, while donning rhinestones on her lips and extravagant nail tips. This is a key iconography of an R&B artist. Willow Smith acts as a reality shock to the audience due to her flamboyant, outgoing costume, make-up and hair. It also shows a level of post feminist readings because in this video willow has all the influence and power amongst all the other students including the males. The fact that she has Rhine stones on her lips suggests that she is not the typical innocent girl you would expect a 9-year-old to be, subverting the typical view. This also links with the theme of the song as she says ‘I’m just trying to have fun’ showing that she is rebelling against authority from such a young age, when you would expect a teenager to do this. Her appearance acts as an indexical signifier for what these ‘robots’ need in their life, love, colour and most importantly individualism, this is the videos linear narrative.
As Willow walks into the room, everything is quiet and it’s videoed in slow-motion. With her braids shaped to form a heart, she carries a boombox filled with paint and plays it while undoing her braids and dipping them into paint inside the stereo, using her hair as a paintbrush and enlivening the atmosphere with colours. The fact that Smith has coloured the atmosphere could suggest that the younger generation is what makes the world fun again liking with her going against authority.
When Willow whips her hair and out come different coloured, bright paints; bringing colour and excitement into their lives. This is when the music starts. Everything livens up, leading to an upbeat, fast melody depicting the relationship between the music and visuals. This reinforces why the name of the song is called ‘Whip my hair’, linking to the idiom of letting your hair down, meaning let go and have fun. These paints literally bring colour into their lives, as the white changes to bright colours connoting happiness and individualism.
She alternates between different hairstyles, and then walks down a hallway with her backup dancers, donning a cotton candy hairstyle. She further whips her hair to give colour to the lockers and students' attire, before performing extensive choreography with the hallway students. This refirms that she is the main focus of the video as she is surrounded by people. it also could be referencing to the fact that young girls feel the world revolves around them and so are self centered. This is a stereotypical view of a 9-year-old and is very interesting to see it incorporated into a actual music video.
The last scenes involves Smith with puff braids and in a yellow jumpsuit with her backup dancers in a different classroom trying to get them to dance, which is intercut with previous paint-splashing scenes, as the students, including her brother Jaden, teachers, janitor, elderly lady, and toddler dance. This could show that no matter how old you are or what what occupation you have, you can still have fun.
It is typical of an R&B music videos to have a stage performance and dance routine, which is included in this video, at the point of the lyrics, ‘shake ‘em off…’, where she is referring to haters. These close-ups have proven to be beneficial with feminist, as the camera shots have not been used for the effect of voyeuristic treatment of female bodies; instead they are used to establish how much fun they are all having. They are also in favour how the lyrics and music relates to the visuals, instead of a song solely based on female sexualisation.
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