Rihanna & Eminem - Love the way you lie
Love the way you lie is an hip hop/rap song. This video involes both a narrative story and a performance by the two artists, Rihanna and Eminem. The narrative in this music video is showing a couple in a violent relationship, throughout the video this man and woman are constantly fighting, breaking up, and then making up again. I thought that analysing this particular music video was relevant to the genre of music I am looking at because I would also like to focus on social problems when producing my own music video. Although Rihanna and Eminem are not performing in the 'usual' way, (on a stage in front of an audience) they are performing in front of the house where these two actors in the music video are supposed to be living, throughout the video flames are used, this could be to portray anger and hatred that is involved in this relationship. The way that the artists are performing in front of this makes the video much more dramatic.
The opening scene of this music video is a close up of Rihanna's face, she is looking into the camera whilst singing the opening line of the song. In the background there are quite a few candles burning, as I said before this could be to do with anger that is in this relationship, or also could assosiate with religion or romance, as these are the things that candles are usually known for. The colours throughout the music video are all very deep, and quite dark colours, for example blacks, oranges, reds etc. This also includes Rihanna's hair, which I think gets her more involved in the narrative part of the video, as she may be able to relate to the way that these two people are feeling in their relationship, and this may be more interesting to the audience, to know that celebrities can be in this situation too. Not only the way that the artists are involved in the narrative, but also actress Megan Fox plays the woman in this violent relationship, as she is such a well known actress this would really help to promote the song, and also would be promotoed to males as some would be attracted to her, same with the male actor (Dominic Monaghan) in the music video towards female audiences.
The cinematography in this music video changes constantly throughout, sometimes quicker than others, usually when the fighting is happening on the video the shots move along faster possibly to create more drama. There are also quite a lot of hand held shots, I think that this will be to make the video seem more realistic. When the two different artists are performing seperatly the camera work seems quite different, for example when Rihanna is singing the camera is usually close up to her face, and when Eminem is singing, he is in a field, and the shots used are usually either establlishing shots or medium close-ups. This may be to show that this song is more from a woman's point of view. Another time when the shots move along very quickly is when one time the couple are fighting, and then on the next shot a few seconds later they are kissing. This may show that they are constantly arguing and making up a large number of times everyday.
I would say that the target audience for this music video would be around 20-35, although people of all ages would like this song as it was number 1 in many different contries, not everyone will be able to relate to the video. I would say that it is targeted at people around ages 20-35 as these are the times in life when I would say that you have serious relationships, and also some young couples will argue and fight a lot more than older couples. So I think that this video is more appropriate for this age group as they would be able to relate to it more.
I think that many people who were already fans of Rihanna and Eminem before this music video was released would not be expecting the video to be like this, as most artists in this music genre nowadays base their music videos on opulence and consumerism, for example cars, partys, clothes etc. But throughout this video I wouldn't say that their wealth or high status lifestyles are shown as much as in their other music videos.
Media Representations
In this music video both artists Rihanna and Eminem are being represented,they are being represented through the performance in the video. Rihanna is being represented by Def Jam, and Eminem by himself, as he is his own institution. You could also argue that the actors in this video are also being represented (Megan Fox and Dominic Monaghan) I think that because these well known actors are being represented in this type of narrative, that some people will unfortunatly be able to relate to, will make these fans and viewers feel as if they can relate to these celebrities.
Media Languages and Forms
Narrative
Then narrative is shown around the performance of Rihanna and Eminem, some parts of the narrative fit in with the lyrics for example, 'I laid hands on her, I'll never stoop so low again, I guess I don't know my own strength' and in the narrative actor Dominic Monaghan goes to hit actress Megan Fox but instead hits the wall (1.07). Heroes and villains are created in the narrative of the video by the actor's, I think that both the man and the woman are shown as both heroes and villians at different points in the narrative, I think that this is to show that in this relationship it is not one persons fault why things don't work out in the relationship, but both parts do things to annoy their partners delibrately.
Intercutting is used throughout the music video, sometimes faster than others, this could be to show how quickly these two people fall out and make up again and that it is a non stop routine. The mise en scene of this video is quite dark and gloomy, showing that this is not a happy song and these things do happen in reality. As these artists are very popular, we would expect them to be very glamorous in the music video, as this is usually the case with Rihanna, maybe not so much with Eminem. The video also goes against the stereotype of men being the 'villians' in relationships, this video shows that it can work both ways.
Genre
This text belongs to the hip hop/rap genre. The major generic conventions that are shown in this video are that both of the artists are miming into the camera, and it is not a typcial performance on a stage etc. As candles are used in this music video, the iconography of this could either be romance or religion, we do not quite know which as the song and the video are obviously not very romantic, but we do not really recieve any strong references to religion, apart from the candles. The text features Rihanna, and although it is not really aimed towards her, many of her fans will know that she has been in a violent relationship before, as it came out to the public. So this could make them relate to her feelings.
Media Institutions
The media institution for this text is Eminem's record label Shady. The purpose of this music video was to help promote and sell this record. As Eminem was not only involved in the institution behind this song but also was involved in writing it, this would make a big impact on the song as he controls the institution therefore he would have been able to have his own say in what he thought would help promote the song for both him and Rihanna.
Media Values and Ideology
Media Audiences
The audeience for this text will obviously be Eminem and Rihanna fans, but as this is a duet the target audeience will obviously be of a wider range. I think that the target audience for this text would be people around the ages of 18-35, this is because I think that people much younger than this would not have experienced anything like what the narrative is about. As an audeience member myself, I read the text about people's personal experiences in relationships, and that no relationship will be perfect, but most if not all of the time in a relationship situation it is not all one person's fault. I think that my reading of the text is quite strongly influenced by my age, as I think that 18 is an age where you are beginning to learn about relationships and that they are not perfect. I do not really think that my gender or background have influenced my reading of the text because stereotypically, women usually blame men for all of the bad things in relationships,and I do not read this text in that way.
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