Music Video Survey

RnB genre research

Ballad genre research

Analysing our artist - Rihanna

Rihanna, a worldwide artist with, 6 Grammy Awards, 5 American Music Awards, 22 Billboard Music Awards and 2 BRIT Awards, is one of the best-selling artists of all time. Born and Bred in Barbados, Rihanna had a tough childhood with a drug addict as a father, and her parents marriage ending when she was 14. Rihanna grew up around music and started singing around the age of 7 with her biggest influences being Madonna and Bob Marley. At an older age she caught the attention of Evan Rogers, through mutual friends, and he took her to New York where she was then signed to their production company. In late 2004 her demo tape was distributed, capturing the attention of Def Jam Recording which is where her career really took off. 

 

 Since 2004, with music styles of all different genres, Rihanna has been reaching out to many different target audiences, beginning with her first biggest single ‘Pon de Replay.’ Right from the beginning Rihanna’s music videos contains sexual appeal as she was quite revealing in this video. During the video, Rihanna stands on a block and everyone else is around her suggesting she wants everyone focused on her. However she was not submissive, she was quite independent and courageous however there were hints of the male gaze being put into practise as the women were dancing separately to the men. In quite a simple video Rihanna had already established her style as being outgoing and someone who is looking to attract a wide target audience.

 

As her videos continued to progress she began to target different audience, singing all sorts of songs stretching from ballads to songs with a reggae vibe and romantic videos. In the video ‘Rude Boy’, Rihanna uses a lot of sex appeal to attract viewers however she also has an interesting cover on the video as there are bright colours and patterns and scopes where there are 3 copies of the same person. I thought this was an extremely interesting thing to do as it didn’t conform to her usual style of videos which may not have been simple but didn’t have this strength in difference.

 

With backgrounds of a fantasy world where she seems to be submissive to the males and there is a lot imagery of the mouth and lips. Also I thought use of words on screen was effective as she had never done this before and is made the reader wonder why the words were actually there. Also the use of her body blending into the black and white back ground was effective as it showed her face to stand out and made her the centre of attention.

 

 Also videos such as ‘Stay’ are quite affective as this video is quite simple and revealing at the same time and it shows her letting the audience into her privacy as just being in a bath is not something which is usually shown in a music video, but its something which is done on a daily basis. This video is also an example of the ballads that she does and with the entrance of Mikky Ekko in this song the video shows the romantic story of two who are no longer together, symbolised by them both being around the same bath but with the absence of one another.

 

Beyonce's different types of music videos

Beyoncé Knowles began in a well-known Hip-hop band called Destiny’s child. In their past videos the genres were in the hip hop style and had many conventions such as black and white videos in videos such as 'Soldier' or connotations of having a lot of money because of shots focusing on cars, submissivness or jewellery. Many of their videos did show women to be submissive in videos such as ‘Cater 2U’, the three women allow the men to dominate them however in videos such as ‘Bootylicious’ and ‘Bills, Bills, Bills’, the women are shown as strong independent women breaking the boundaries and not conforming to society’s view of women.This is effective because of their versatility but also because it shows their viewers that they are able to sell their tracks without using sexual appeal and just with the use of their voices. Also by doing these different types of the videos are inspiring to some women and so they reach out to a wide target audience.

When Beyoncé branched out to make her own songs, she made music videos in a variety of different genres. She has worked with many directors and her music videos are not always in the same genres. For example some of her songs are ballads with videos that are mainly narrative based such as ‘If I were a boy’ however there are some songs which show off the artist such as ‘Single Ladies’ and ‘Ego’. It is effective that Beyoncé uses many different types of music genres for her video as it attracts many different target audiences. For example in my previous breakdown of ‘If I were a boy’, the video used different methods to communicate a storyline to the viewer and to help the viewer understand the  words that the artist was saying. During the video, the actions of the people show what is said to make it clearer and to emphasis meaning.



Although Beyoncé had broken away from her group she still had similarities in her videos such as the highly performance based parts in ‘Single Ladies’ as the whole video is filled with dance just as Destiny’s Child used to be. This shows the director promoting the actress and at times showing off what the artist has in terms of wealth and possessions. Also Beyoncé has different themes for her videos for songs in different albums. This is effective as it shows that Beyoncé isn’t predictable, labelling her as versatile and shows that she is able to cater for different audiences.

Rihanna 'What Now' treatment and Mood Board

Our chosen song is What Now by Rihanna

 

The general outline of the music video is about a woman who has broken up with her partner and is feeling lost without him. It shows her going through the day awaiting a text or waiting some sort of sign that he is there. Also this music video will be part narrative and part performance based as it goes through the day there will we shots of the actress singing the lyrics of the songs. In the opening there is going to there be a shot of a piano being played, as in the music at the beginning of the song. Then we will see her go through the day starting from when she wakes, and sees that she’s alone and sits up and puts her head in her hands as she remembers that her partner is no longer there on the line ‘tears were for the weaker days, I’m stronger now, or so I say but something’s missing.’ We then see her getting ready, possibly just putting in some earrings while looking in a mirror. Then we will use cuts between performance and contemporary dance for the chorus to signify her feelings and emotions being let out. As her day goes on the use of a fast cutting rate will show the different things which happen to her throughout the day. There will be some scenes of her in work being agitated and some of her alone on the tube, and by the end she is left without anyone to comfort her and she is lost looking for ‘where to go’, ‘what to feel’ and ‘how to cry’ as said near the end of the song. However the song ends with a performance based ‘So, what now.’

This is our mood board with all the ideas for the music video, we have out pictures of key scenes which we think will be used in our music video and we have also put some pictures of the artist as the video will be partly performance based and so it is to see the manner we would like our actress to be. We also have the words what now repeated around the page which is the idea of possibly using the modern style of putting words over the video to express what it being said in the video, and to emphasis what the song is about. 

Laura Mulvey's 'Male Gaze' theory essay

Laura Mulvey theory of the ‘male gaze’

Laura Mulvey’s feminist theory of the ‘male gaze’ has a variety of pro’s and con’s. Mulvey says that women are made to look desirable as they are seen as passive objects and as submissive to the more dominant male in media texts today. However it isn’t only the males who have this viewpoint but everyone whether you are homosexual or heterosexual male or female, you are still looking at the females as desiring heterosexual pleasures. This theory was first proposed in 1975 and so some people would argue that this theory is out of date as it can’t strictly be true in today’s media. However women are still portrayed sexually to catch the attention of and appeal to a wider target audience because the media industry believes that the women cannot spread a message without the use of their feminine features. It is said that the males go through the notions of scopophilia and project their fantasy onto the female figure, whilst the females imagine these characters as superior reflections of themselves.

 

There are some videos which do actually show Laura Mulvey’s theory being acted out For example in this music video of Lady Gaga’s ‘Bad Romance’ we see the men gazing at the women who are acting submissive. The girls at the front are very provocative and revealing as they are using sexual appeal by wearing these white leotards while in the mise-en-scene the men are standing whilst the women are entertaining giving the message that women are merely objects. The women are wearing white and the men are wearing black which shows the innocence of the women and that they are being submissive whilst the black clothes show the dominance of the males.

This is effective because it shows Mulvey’s gaze theory to be correct. Also there are still many icons in industry’s such as music videos, who are looked at as sexual objects. Rihanna and Nicki Minaj are not only just two women who have a big impact on the music industry but they are two women who have done so using sexual appeal and the males do ‘gaze’ at them, making their intention successful in building a larger fan base. The male gaze theory is true for both artists as they both have videos which are revealing and activate the notion of the three types of looking; looking as the camera, as the audience and also as the actual character in the video. In Nicki Minaj’s song High School, right from the beginning we get an image of her standing next to a swimming pool with the camera looking up at Nicki Minaj showing her assets. Also we see provocative images of Nicki in the pool which suggests the women being submissive to men and allowing the men gaze at her through the screen. Also in Rihanna’s videos, e.g. Rude Boy where she wear shorts, low cut tops and also  the massive connotations of lips and the mouth are effective as they are also used in attracting people using sexual nature and it as if she is trying to coax the men in with her mouth. The was also many colours of red which suggests immense passion and the men which stand around are all watching her as she dances In these two prime

However, as said previously, the ‘gaze’ theory isn’t actually practical for the media of today as there are changes to society and not everything is the same as what it was before. There are now female gazes as men are made to look desirable for women to gaze and there are also gay gazes. There are boy bands such as JLS who dress provocatively to reach a wide target audience. As we can see in the image the males are wearing vests and are standing out from the crowd. The low shot is very effective as it looks as though they are looking down at their audience and it encourages the audience to actually look at the four figures standing before them. This is effective as it gives the group a bigger fan base as people are made to look at them as fanatical sexual objects and not as normal human beings

Also there are some criticisms against the theory. According to research, some people enjoy being looked at and so they’re not being submissive but are merely showing the world themselves because that’s what they enjoy doing. Also the ‘gaze’ can be directed at members of the same gender but not as a sexual reference but in comparison of body image, clothing etc. Also in the theory it is stated that the gaze is for use of viewpoint from dominant males however now there are also many dominant females in the world.

In my opinion Laura Mulvey’s theory is true and there are many icons whom use the ‘male gaze’ in their favour, however for it to fully apply to today’s society there would be some changes needed to be made to the definition of the ‘male gaze.’