Harry Styles as a Cecaelia: Sexuality, Representation and Media-lore in “Music for a Sushi Restaurant”

Liz Giuffre; Philip Hayward

doi:10.18778/2083-2931.13.23

Authors

Liz Giuffre University of Technology Sydney https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9648-4289
Philip Hayward University of Technology Sydney https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0018-0174

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.18778/2083-2931.13.23

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Keywords:

Harry Styles, performer identity, sexuality, cecaelia, mermaids, media-lore

Abstract

The music video for Harry Styles’s 2022 track “Music for a Sushi Restaurant” (directed by Aube Perrie) provides a surprising representation of the pop star (arguably at the peak of his career) appearing as a cecaelia (a monstrous figure with a human head, arms and torso giving way to tentacles around its midriff). The video is notable in two distinct contexts. First, in terms of Styles’s trajectory as a popular music performer who has received intense media attention because of his fan base, artistic persona and ambiguous sexual identity; and second, in terms of the articulation of a relatively minor media-loric (i.e. modern folkloric) entity in a high profile popular cultural context. The article discusses these aspects before moving to an analysis of the music video showing how Styles’s role as a cecaelia serves as a representation of his career position, public profile and desire to assert his creative-industrial agency in the early 2020s. The music video thereby illustrates the potential of media-loric figures to represent complex themes in contemporary cultural discourse.

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Author Biographies

Liz Giuffre, University of Technology Sydney

Dr Liz Giuffre is Senior Lecturer in Communication for the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences at the University of Technology Sydney. Liz teaches into Music and Sound Design and the Communications Core, and her research explores popular music and popular cultures, including audience studies, genre studies and (post)broadcast radio and television. Her work covers media histories (particularly Australian programs and artists in global contexts), as well as contemporary works including podcasts, streaming and online-only content. Recent publications are Kylie Minogue’s Kylie (with Adrian Renzo, Bloomsbury), Popular Music and Parenting (with Shelley Brunt, Routledge) and An Incomplete History of Community Radio: 2SER’s 46 Boxes of Stuff (with Demetrius Romeo, Halsted). She is also an arts journalist and podcaster.

Philip Hayward, University of Technology Sydney

Professor Philip Hayward is editor of the journal Shima and Adjunct Professor at the University of Technology Sydney. He has written widely around popular music, music video and media-lore and is also a member of audiovisual ensemble The Moviolas. He has written a number of books including Making a Splash: Audiovisual Representations of Mermaids (and Mermen) in 20^th and Early 21^st Century Audiovisual Media (John Libbey/Indiana UP, 2017).

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