JEVAN’S MUSIC VIDEO

ANALYSISRIHANNA - WE FOUND LOVE

INTRODUCTIONIn Rihanna’s ‘We Found Love’ music video the main theme revolves around two lovers who are in an unsustainable relationship based on passion and drugs.

And the music video utilizes many varied representations and institutions very effectively throughout the video to promote, publicize and fund her and her new single.

The location for the video is a rough, gritty Britain, shown immediately in the music video’s establishing shot of a set of council estates. Also throughout the course of the video there is further usage of council estates along with small shops, pubs and one room flats for many of the locations throughout the video to help sustain the deprived and poor setting. There is also a use of camera filter which seems to enhance the greys making for a much duller image to bolster the mood and atmosphere.

In the video Rihanna plays a young British girl in love with her boyfriend, played by Dudley O’Shaugnessey – a Chris Brown look-a-like and so the narrative could also link to Rihanna’s past relationship with Brown that resulted in many arguments and a case of physical assault. This is also supported by the scenes of mild violence displayed in the video, and could possibly feature to link to these physical assault cases.

The entire video shows Rihanna in love – representing the ‘We found love’ aspect. And the video also presents the dysfunctional, alcohol and drug-ridden, out of control lives that are typically related to the British teenager stereotype today, and this section represents ‘The hopeless place’.

The British teenage stereotype is highlighted throughout the video with, as I have already said, the locations; and it is further conveyed by the male gaze with the use of sex, and evocative scenes, also with the alcohol and drug abuse which many of us relate with the British teen culture today, and all of this also has intertextual references to the many British teen dramas now broadcasted all over the globe, for instance the ‘Skins’ series usually uses the same sorts of themes to the video, and also the ‘This is England’ programs use very similar settings.

The music video begins with an establishing shot of a typical British council estate, already implying the elements of declaration and poverty, and also uses some cross media promotion showing a shot of Rihanna as a silhouette linking to the images used throughout her digital marketing campaign.

The beginning part of the video is at the end of the narrative, and starts with a small section of dialogue introducing the narrative and re-telling and reflecting on the story. The voiceover is read by Agyness Deyn, whose strong Northern accent further represents the British element of the video. During this dialogue the viewer is shown a variety of shots showing the two main characters both alone and together to highlight their importance, and all of these shots throughout the video are at an eye angle recorded with a handheld camera with a lot of camera shake to help construct realism and to make the viewer feel attached and involved in the narrative.

After the dialogue the piano playing stops and the viewers are then shown a lightning strike that represents the flashback to the beginning of the story, using pathetic fallacy to reflect the mood, and is also used to start the beat and so links the visuals to the music using Goodwin’s theory.

Throughout the rest of the video the audiences are shown various scenes in which Rihanna and her partner are partaking in drug/alcohol fuelled activities, breaking the law, or arguing with one another. Throughout this piece there are a lot of clips showing metaphorical destruction to highlight all of the negative events that occur in the video.

There is also a huge amount of camera techniques used to further bolster the out of control atmosphere. The build up to the chorus alone uses a huge number of cuts making for fast paced and disjointed montages, which continually cut back to the two shot with the couple spinning around with the camera with the shot time becoming increasingly shorter as the song prepares to go into the chorus to make for a very disoriented effect.

During these scenes there is also a vast array of product placement this is monetisation aspect used to help fund the video and also to promote other products, for instance in this video Doc Martins shoes, Sanex cleaning products, and Carlsberg beer are all shown/promoted.

There are also the demands of the record label which means that there usually needs to be close ups of the artist during the video to increase the artist visibility, these are clearly shown in the video in the more performance oriented sections of the video. The other artist featuring in the song, electro star Calvin Harris, for producing ‘We Found Love’ is also displayed in the video to meet his record label demands, as shown in an earlier outdoor party scene where he is the DJ. The whole piece is also recorded with what seems like a handheld camera at eye angles to construct realism and then help the viewers feel more attached and involved, increasing the connection aspect between the artist and the viewers, and to also make the whole video more believable and realistic.

The video finishes with the whole story coming back to the present showing highlighting a circular narrative, showing Rihanna back in her flat alone after leaving her boyfriend.

Despite all of the rebellious and wayward behaviour performed by Rihanna she still succeeds in setting a good example by finishing with a close up of herself looking a lot more presentable that basically highlights the fact that the girl in the video is not the real her and that she is still a role model for her fans.