Ameera's Similar Text Analysis

Rihanna – Take a bow

Rihannas’ Take a bow video was released in April 2008. It is a mix of pop and R&B style genre, and is from here album Good Girl Gone Bad.

The song is about a girl breaking up with a boy because he has cheated on her, and not wanting to take him back even though he is consistently trying to make amends’. The lyrics in the song make her look very independent and in control and the video just helps promote this image. A key theme of the video is girl power.

The video begins with a close up of Rihannas’ crossed arms, we are focused on her left hand, were the audience can see she is wearing a ring on her ring finger, suggesting she is married. The camera then tilts up to see her looking at her hand then the camera, whilst she sings sarcastically “How about a round of applause, A standing ovation”. Sarcasm is s form of mockery; we can tell she is being sarcastic by her facial exprerssion while singing suggesting she is not happy. By responding like this it shows she doesn’t feel belittled by the situation but she is confident.

The video shows Rihanna in two situations. In one she is wearing all black and is standing behind a black back-drop, this is very simply and focuses all our attention on the artist. This is a performance, because she is singing to the audience. There is a lot of close ups of her face in these scenes to show her annoyance and anger, to link her to the second narrative situation. A lot of the time in these scenes, her arms are crossed. By keeping her arms crossed, it suggests she is using it as a defence mechanism and is therefore not allowing the man in her life to affect her, or some close to her emotionally.
As she closes a door behind her she sings the lyrics “don’t tell me your sorry ‘cos your not, baby when I know you’re only sorry you got caught”, whilst doing this she points directly at the camera, connecting her confidence and assurance.

In the second situation, she is shown wearing a red jacket with bold red lipstick and sunglasses in a expensive car. This shot alone provides a lot of representation issues. Red represents sexiness and the red lipstick emphasises this because lips are a very sexual body feature. By wearing sunglasses, she is covering her eyes, this suggests she doesn’t want to show any emotion because eyes are key to seeing how someone is feeling, for example the saying goes “eyes are the window to the soul” suggesting eyes can show how you’re truly feeling. By Rihanna covering her eyes she is trying to suggest she isn’t feeling any emotion, and she is a strong woman. Finally by driving a expensive car it suggests she is economically independent, as in she can finically look after herself and she doesn’t need a man, to promote hegemonic gender roles.
As she is driving down the road, the man in her life is following her by foot. The fact she is in a car and he is walking shows that she has the upper hand.
When she gets back to the house she sends a text to the man that reads - Come to my house at 6 45, I have something for you. There is then a shot of the man receiving the text. Again this shows that Rhianna is in charge of the situation at hand.

At the beginning of the next scene there is an establishing shot of the room, it is a large room connoting again that Rhianna is well off. There is a close up of her picking up matches and then a point of view shot to look at her watch that reads 6 45. The man walks into the room and Rhianna stands up in slow motion, highlighting her curves connoting a “body beautiful” theme. She then lights his clothes on fire and walks away leaving him to put out the fire. As she walks out the room she sings “but it’s over now” – the last lyrics of the song and finally suggesting she has got her revenge so her relationship with the man is over too.

Rhiannas’ star image is adapted in this video. An artists’ star image is basically how the artist is perceived by the audience. This video shows her as a fierce, independent woman, which corresponds with her album title “good girl gone bad”, suggesting she isn’t the little girl she was portrayed as before.
Her haircut in this video has influenced modern hairstyles showing her star power, in terms of ideological power – that suggests she can influence a majority with her unique style.