Rihanna from 2005 has changed her image as a result keeping her audience interested aswell as an event in her personal life that i believed made her a stronger and better star.
This is Rihanna's first music video for her single 'Pon De Replay' which us as fans and her audience can see the change over the years.
Her style image has changed as we can see in her 2007 'shut up and drive' music video
One of her recent image change was in 2010 when she dyed her hair red. One of her music videos in 2010 was 'only girl in the world'.
I am analysing a Swedish artist, Eric Saade. I think the genre of Eric’s overall music is pop as most of his videos involve dancing which is a generic characteristic of pop videos. The beat of the music video is upbeat so it can therefore be seen as a pop song.
The lyrics in this music video are illustrated by the visuals. An example of this is ‘no one else can match those eyes’. This is illustrated by Eric looking in the mirror and we as the audience can see his eyes are focused looking at his reflection suggesting he is thinking about his girl and her eyes. ‘Were both in this masquerade’ also reflects the visuals because Eric sings this line as he walks into the masquerade ball. ‘A girl behind the mask’ is amplified as when this line is sung, the camera cuts to all the girls with the masks and the effects that added when in editing emphasises that there are so many girls in the room and he is trying to find one.
A line that I think shows the narrative of the music video is ‘stop this masquerade’ whish is illustrated by visuals as Eric takes off his mask to show he doesn’t like hiding and doesn’t want their love to be a masquerade. As he is frustrated with the situation, Eric screams ‘No’ which is shown through the visuals by him grabbing onto the walls to show his anger.
Towards the end of the music video the visuals illustrate the lyrics that eric is feeling as the emotion of confusion is shown. ‘I'm confused and I just don't know what to be for you’ is what he sings when in the jail cell and this visual illustrates why he feels confused and how his love for her has led him to a prison cell.
A clip of the music video, when Eric is in the cell, he looks directly towards the camera after he sings ‘need you to confess your love for me’ which can mean two things. One that he is singing it to the audience watching, which can attract more fans as his facial expression can make the audience sympathise and secondly, he is looking at the camera to suggest that we the audience are the princess and need to express our love for him.
Repeated visuals of Eric at the masquerade ball are used to illustrate that his love for the girl is a masquerade, so by repeating the visuals, the audience know the narrative of the music video.
A powerful scene near the end of the music video where there is a split screen of the girl and eric when Eric sings ‘Were both in this masquerade’ illustrates that both of them want to be together, but the situation of status is turning their love into a masquerade. The final scene of the video where Eric is about to get killed he sings ‘
I wanna get to know you,the girl behind the mask,I want a chance to feel you, the girl behind the mask’ shows through the visuals of his facial expression that he is scared of dying as well as upset that he didn’t get to know ‘the girl behind the mask’.
In the first few seconds of the songs, the beat does cut as the camera moves closer in so the audience gets a sense of the beat of the overall song and music video. At 1:19 the video does cut to the beat as in the previous 2/3 seconds the camera is still showing the ball,then when Eric says ‘Oh Oh’ the camera cuts to him on the beat entering the room. After he enters the room the beat of the music to me seems to speed up and the cuts of Eric looking for the girl represents that as he is trying to find the girl as fast as he can. At 1:47 as Eric sings, it cuts so we as the viewers are drawn closer into the scene as he is trying to talk to the girl. From 3:20 to 3:29 clips are cut to the beat as it is the tense part of the music video and so by cutting on the beat it amplifies the tension of the narrative. The clips that are cut to the beat are scenes from earlier on in the music to show the audience the trouble of a servant and royalty being together and how that has led him to being killed. From 3:47 onwards the cuts are quick as it builds the tension of the visual narrative shown in the music video.
There is no instrument performance in this music video as it is more focused on the narrative rather than the performance of the star. As it is a pop music video, the aim is to focus on the star ie their face, which is done in this music video through the close ups.
At the beginning of the music video, where the narrative is key, the instrumental isn’t the instrumental of the actual track but it is included to set the tone of the music video and to suggest what kind of the narrative this music video will become. However the instrumental of the actual track starts at the beginning and we know this because it cuts to the beat so every time it cuts, we the audience know that the song is about to start as we recognise the change in music, from sad classical to pop/dance rhythm.
As stated previously, the video does change to the pace of the music.At 0:32 when the instrumental starts playing, it changes from a calm mood to a upbeat tone which is shown through the cuts made.
I think the record label are looking to sell this track as a typical love story where two people from different ‘worlds’ try to be together but cant because of the status that both of them are; pheasant and a higher class girl. The image that Eric is showing is a loving, brave guy that’s in love because he knows he shouldn’t be going for a girl like that, but does anyway. By representing him this way in his music video, may allow fans to think he is this way in real life, so sympathise for him as they think from watchitng this music video that is a love-stricken bloke.
This music video relates to his previous videos as most of his previous songs are mainly about love such as ‘manboy’ ‘break of dawn’ ‘hearts in the air’ etc.
In ‘Break Of Dawn’ and ‘Maquerade’ the motif is ‘Eric Saade’ but it is displayed completely different. As ‘Masquerade’ is a Victorian themed music video, it seemed logical for the motif to set the tone so by having ‘Eric Saade’ written in fancy writing, it set the tone and story of the video and song right from the start. This is different to ‘Break Of Dawn’ motif which is a simple. plain motif. This can be seen as a change of image as he is more modern compared to his character in ‘Masquerade’.
There are two clips in this music video that gives the sense of sexual display. At 0:50 Eric shows his chest as he changes clothes which can entice the viewers as they like eric as he is attractive and by showing his bare chest, increases his, likability. Another clip that shows the viewers a sense of sexual display is at 2:23 when Eric and the girl are kissing and the camera pans down and shows Eric putting his hand on her leg and revealing it to the audience. This therefore attracts the male audience as they might not be the prime target audience for Eric.
There is a reference of ‘looking’ as in screen within screen. This is shown when Eric is changing and there is a mirror within the camera shot. This can give the audience the sense that they are not only feeling as if they are in the room with Eric, but also the feeling that Eric is looking at them when he is looking at the mirror.
I think that Goodwin and Laura's theory of voyerism can be applied to music videos because it explains the genders pleasure of cinema idea of looking in order to gain sexual pleasure.
This is shown through the music videos of Trey Songz - neighbours know my name, Nicki Minaj - superbass, beyonce and many more. I believe that this theory is popular so the artist and the song can sell and be a talked about subject.
Goodwins theory argues that the female performers will be objectified through the camera shots,costume and editing emphasising a sexualised treatment of the star.I think is a good thing as it attracts the male audience and so they will purchase the song as well as boost the artists popularity with that specific viewer.
Guys will view music videos by artists such as Katy Perry,Rihanna, Nicki Minaj etc as they know that from watching their music videos they will gain a sexual pleasure becasue of how they have been percieved in their previous music videos. Its argued that male viewers will gaze at the screen as it has geared into notions of voyerism as it is a powerful controlling gaze at the objectified female on display.
Goodwins theory applies to Nicki Minaj's music video 'Superbass' as there are establishing shots of Nicki which shows the seductive clothes she is wearing, which shows off her figure and chest. This attracts the male audience because of what they can see within the shot and therefore will gaze. The editing in the music video does objectify Nicki Minaj because it becomes a slo-mo when she pours a drink on her chest to show off her flirtatious side. Girls may also gaze because of the use of shirtless, built up men in the music video.Therefore this music video doesnt suggest it will be males watching because of the sexual pleasure from gazing at Nicki, but also females due to the use of males.
Katy Perry's 'California Girls' video can be applied to the theory of voyerism but is not as obvious as the video by Nicki Minaj.
The costumes that Katy and her extra's/dancers wear apply voyerism because the costumes are short and show off skin and their figure so the men, if they watch this video will like it because they are able to stare and will view the video over again because of the pleasure shown through the costumes.
With Katy licking the ice cream at 0:18 with slow motion and her biting her tongue at 0:34 gives a sense of sexual pleasure for the viewers, mainly the boys. There are other aspects of this video that voyerism applies too. For example the cloud shots where she is nude, also gives the male viewers a sense of sexual pleasure.
The dance routine at the beach suggests voyeurism in terms of objectifying women in how they move to provide sexual pleasure. The shots used in these dance scenes are close ups/mid shots of the girls from the chest up which also shows voyerism as they are focusing on the girls' bodies. The final shots that represent voyerism is shown at 3:18 when Katy and her dancers squirt cream. This represents voyerism through the mid shots because it gives a sense of visual pleasure for the males to gaze because they can only see them from their chest and upwards.
Goodwins theory of voyerism also applies to music videos with male performers as the idea of girls dancing around the male performer showing off his figure to attract the female audience as well as flatter the male star ego.
It can also be seen that female watchers will watch male artist videos because they may gain a sexual pleasure with topless shots. The idea of voyerism becomes far more complex when we see the male body on display and we might raise questions about how the female viewer will respond.
50 Cent:
Trey Songz:
Both these videos above represent voyerism in terms for female dancers attracting the audience as the dance moves and the costumes use can be seen as the seductive way of attracting the gaze from the males. In Trey Songz video, females would also gaze because of him being shirtless which will help promote the video as they will view it mutliple times to gain the sexual pleasure of him being shirtless as well as promote him as an artist and maybe as a 'ladies man'.
The idea of voyeurism is also frequently evident in music videos through a system of screen within screen. Characters shown watching performers or others on TV, via webcams, video cameras etc.
Avril Lavigne's 'Sk&er Boi' videos uses this concept through the use of video camera's when she is performing on the street at the end and someone in the crowd is recording her. We the audience are watching a screen and within that screen there is another screen as well as within the first 28 seconds of the music video.
I learnt many things from our preliminary task that will help us create a more realistic and high standard music video.
One of the things i learnt was that the shots cant be long as they need to be short to grab the audience's attention. This way, they may have to watch the music video a few times to fully understand the video as well as making sure that they didnt miss anything. By doing this, it will promote the artist as well as the song.
I also learnt about how to make lypsyncing look realistic. For our preliminary task our artist mimed the lyrics which we thought would be the best way. However, looking back on it now, i see that its not the best technique. I have now learnt that whispering the lyrics or singing along to the song in a low voice makes it more realistic which is what we want our music to be.
