A Video That Has Inspired Me Christina Aguliera- Candy Man

HOW does the music video you have chosen sell its artist to the audience and what image is being presented?

The music video to Man Down by Rihanna, shows Rihanna as a very popular stylish young girl, there are close ups on certain parts of her body to create a sexual character making Rihanna appeal to a male audience. She is wearing outfits that show off a lot of her legs, short shorts that only just cover her bottom once again enhancing sexuality and making her look fashionable for young teenage girls to see her as a role model. She had a lot of shots that are close up to her cleavage and of her seductively biting her lip making her more attractive to male teenagers and also male men. She is given the persona of someone who is popular fun loving caring and cool as she walks around the streets being friendly too the local less fortunate people in the village however prior to this we are shown her shooting a man who seems to us to be very innocent and harmless. These two ideas contrast one another leaving the audience in a debate and questioning themselves meaning that the audience is in the hands on the producer. The character that is shown is far from the character that is Rihanna’s true persona, this is more interesting for an audience to watch as they are creating a different, new and inventive side to the star, this stops the audience form becoming bored by the star and keeps them interested in what she is going to do next, it keeps her audience on a thread as just as they think they know all there is to know about her she/the producers changes her image keeping her audience entertained and potentially creating a new target marketed audience, these elements emphasize Richard dyers theory of stars being simply and image that is constricted by the record companies and they are commodities consumed by an audience. Dyer also said that stars are incoherent, they are incomplete and open for change.

Rihanna is shown as both rebellious and caring, which juxtapose one another making people talk creating a public view on the artist. Rihanna sings r ‘n’ b and soul music to create a mainstream audience having her songs released in ‘the UK top 40’. The story created in ‘Man Down’ is a story of crime which is a story created by the producers which is probably contrasting to Rihanna’s true personality. The lyrics of the song support the actions that are happening with in the song ‘I didn’t mean to hurt him could have been somebodies son’ these lyrics support that she has committed a crime showing that in this video she is shown to be caring but it is never actually shown why she did shoot the man leaving audience second guessing the star in real life and wondering what she is like in real life and whether this video is anything like her real persona. The producers have made the video work and she is seen to be different and unique which gets people talking, she is also fashionable so she is easy on the eye and a role model and keeps her mainstream audience guessing and talking to create a profile for herself. This also keeps the producers with profits so all the need to do is bring unique elements into every new album to keep the artist fresh and audiences wont get bored and she may also appeal to an audience of a wider scale.

A2 - Music Industry: Advanced Production Brief

In this second year of Media Studies, I will create a promotion package for the release of an album of a new artist, including...

•  a music video to his or hers first single
• the cover for its release as part of a digipak (CD package)
• a magazine advertisement for the digipak (CD package).