Why do we Have Music Videos?

Music videos are vital to the music industry as they are a marketing tool to promote and artist/ song. They are a short narrative or representation of and artist and attract particular target audiences. It allows and audience to buy into the artist lifestyle and build a form of relationship. The video gives an audience a further understanding of the song from purely listening to for example, the radio, this as a results makes an audience remember the song with ease. The style of a music video can be categorized into 3 categories;

·        Performance (singing/ dancing)

·        Narrative (Telling the audience a story)

·        Concept (Selling the audience an idea, theme or ideology)

The 3 categories are a way of categorizing the type of genre the song falls into.

Every video has to follow codes and conventions, but are all dependent on the music genre, as they all are different due to having different target audiences.

I have chosen to analyse 'Man Down' by Rihanna, which comes under the genre RnB. When this video was first released it received many positive reviews from music critics, although due to in-depth violent nature seen when Rihanna shoots a man after being attacked which she later comes to regret, the Parent Television Council criticised her work and attempted to ban the video but were unsuccessful. They felt it was inappropriate to view to an audience, due to it being extremely revealing, based around such an emotional, touchy narrative.

Due to the narrative of the story being based around the theme of rape, I feel that the song appeals more to females, as it’s a sensitive topic that attracts emotions due to it being seen to be a violation to a woman’s innocence, especially those of a young age. Rape is sexual assault that can be experienced by both male and females against ones will. The post experience causes the victim to become severely traumatised which may develop into post traumatic stress disorder. It personally touches people as it’s an unfortunate life experience that happens every day, the way it effects the victim mentally it seen as truly unfortunate. 

The video gives an audience a greater understanding of the lyrics that are sung meeting all 3 categories; performance which is shown during the video when Rhianna is seen singing the lyrics, it also offers narrative in between; a story about herself, giving an insight to her home life, knowing everyone in the town giving a sense of safety as everyone has each other’s backs, although slightly contrasting when entering the club, as well as concept; that everyone makes mistakes and regrets the choices they make, showing that events in life cause destruction within a human being, as a result taking actions and behaving in certain ways contrasting from their norm.