What Is A Music Video ?

I have analysed the music video of Rihanna- Man down the storyline (narrative) of this music video is when the artist Rihanna gets raped we know that she gets raped because after the first 30 seconds of the video the narrative starts to make sense so when she shots the man that raped her she has a flashback of the night that she got raped and how it happened so she decides to get revenge and kills him. The Genre of the music video is RNB we know this because of the beat of the song which follows throughout the video and also a man and women which helps us to show us the narrative.

The style and purpose of this music video of Rihanna man down is to entertain and build relationship with the audience we know that she is trying to build a relationship with the audience by using eye level shots which is more effective and more easier to build a relationship with the audience. The video also makes the song more understandable for some people that would of just listen to the lyrics this is because in the video we see a flash back whereas in the lyrics many people woudnlt be able to understand the song. A music video alos makes the song more popular much quicker as it is remembered as visual aswel, this is because of all the effective camera shots and editing techniques used. The first paragraph of lyrics said:

"I didn't mean to end his life I know it wasn't right I can't even sleep at night Can't get it off my mind I need to get out of sight Before I end up behind bars" before the music video was released of this song the audience would definatly not know what Rihanna is trying to means as she don't make it clear enough but with the video when we get the flashback of her getting raped with these lyrics we know what she is meaning with them words and it makes it easier for the audience to understand what is going on.

The relationship between the lyrics and the visual is violence, gun and the artist Rihanna shooting a gun all of the visual shown in the video went along with the lyrics and the song to show the narrative and the reactions of the artist. The relationship between the music and visual is that the camera and editing style of the video went along with the song. This allows the audience to understand the narrative of the song. There where also a lot of close ups used of the artist we see it generally when Rihanna is singing and we get a close up of her face. This helps to show the artist and her emotions of the narrative to the audience which was about rape.


There is reference when Rihanna was wearing tiny bit of clothing this help to promote the artist and allow the audience to buy into her lifestyle. There wasn’t any intersexual references use throughout the video. The videos performance is narrative and very small amount of narrative base this helps the narrative to be clear and show us the audience what it is about which is the artist Rihanna got raped and her wanting to get revenge by shooting the guy who raped her. We know this because as it shows flashbacks of the night she got raped.