Contemporary Video:Jennifer Lopez – I Ain’t Your Momma

Genre of the Video

The song itself is a pop video and this is embodied within the video through the dancing and the backup dancers/vocals. It is very upbeat and dance-invoking, as seen by the extras who dance alongside Jennifer Lopez.The video, when the music begins, is also well-lit and rather upbeat; with empowerment throughout the episodic clips. In addition to this, the scenes are rather comedic as opposed to upsetting or sexualized.

Images relation with the Lyrics

The episodic scenes relate in a great way in regards to the lyrics as it talks about the women being belittled and degraded by men, with them abusing their gender privileges. This is shown throughout the clip through the different scenes, with Jennifer Lopez dressed up originally as a housewife who cooks and cleans for her husband before eventually stating she ‘aint your momma’ and subsequently shown throwing a meal over her husband. This is repeated in more than one scenario, as a factory worker, an assistant and a woman on a date.

Images relation with the Music

When the music picks up, there are clips of Jennifer Lopez and her backup dancers picking up their pace and dancing in rhythm with the music.In addition to this, when it slows down there are slow motion clips that indicate that the music has slowed down- with the beginning shown as each foot step being taken by Jennifer Lopez click on time with the beat of the music.Furthermore, the transitions all take place at appropriate times, switching to the scenes that relate to the lyrics being heard.

Looking/Voyeurism

Within the music video we embody two different stances, the first being voyeurism as we watch the events unfold as a bystander but as the song progresses, the artist (Jennifer Lopez) breaks the fourth wall by looking at the camera, thus forcing us to be more than just onlookers and instead immerses us. This continues to alternate throughout the entire clip, switching perspectives.

Intertextual References

Camera Work, Editing, Mise-en-Scene

Narrative?

There is no complete narrative within the video but rather a series of episodic narratives. The music video itself begins with a short pre-music video of a woman in trouble and contacting a talk-show/news show which is attempting to empower women. With each episodic scene showing a woman being empowered and standing up against the male patriarchy which happens to be dominating society.