Rhianna - Umbrella
Released: April 2007
Directed By Chris Applebaum
Mtv Views:8,000
Genre : R&B/Rap
· This music video is a stereotypical R&B music video which was released in 2007 in the early years of Rihanna’s career, so to help boost her image and help the sales of the song the appearance of Jay Z is used, a well-known artist who was signed to the same label that Rihanna was signed to, the use of Jay Z would be to attract hip hop and rap genres to the song. The video is performance based with Rihanna using the dancing technique of en pointe ballet, this technique conveys to us as the audience that the artist Rihanna is a skilled performer, there is also choreographed dancers who are dressed sexually provocative along with Rihanna who is wearing black tight clothing which mainly attracts male audiences which they may receive visual pleasure which is known as the male gaze. Throughout the music video we see close ups, full body shots which are all used to show her dancing technique and her body which is visually pleasing to a male audience. Rihanna’s image gives off negative connotations as women are perceived as sex objects. There are a variety of camera techniques used which include wide shots and medium shots to sustain audience interest, some of the close shots include Rihanna wearing jewellery which connotes wealth and high status. We see a clear relationship between lyrics and images which coincides with Andrew Goodwin theory that there is a clear relationship between both-The chorus of consists on the word “umbrella” and we see Rihanna with an umbrella and that it’s raining. The gender representation is stereotypical as women are most likely to dance than to males and also that women have more of a sex role stereotyping negative attitudes towards females. But post-feminist readings would say that Rihanna is not on show for the male audience but is enjoying herself experiencing different identities which shows she is successful, independent and in control which connotes messages of empowerment and independence to the female audiences. The Editing we see the video is at a fast pace along with the song with match on action editing and the use of jump cuts. Her image as a mainstream artist who is destined for success in the music industry is strengthened by the appearance of Jay Z who is a very successful rapper, we see the high production values of CGI used in the video to consolidate with her identity, the cutting edge technology reflects her as an up to date contemporary artist.
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