Rihanna - Man Down

I wanted to look at a video by Rihanna, as she is a current and young musician who has already had some very controversial hits. The video I chose was her hit, Man Down, which was released on the 3rd of May 2011. and is owned by the Record Label - Def Jam.

Concept

Rihanna’s video for Man Down was controversial. It is like a mini- film, as it is 5 minutes and 40 seconds long, in which we see Rihanna commit a murder and then regret it. The video begins with her in a station watching a man, and then firing a gun at him and killing him. The song then begins which tells the story of what had happen previously. The video was shot in the Caribbean, and it begins with Rihanna skipping through the town laughing and joking with everyone she meets. She then goes to a club with her friends, and it is suggested that the man she killed raped her outside the club.  

Context

The video was branded ‘sick’ and most people complaining that it was too violent to show on TV. Many people were shocked by the graphic details, and were unhappy that such a sensitive event was put into a song.

Rihanna defended the video through the social networking site Twitter. One tweet she wrote “Young girls/women all over the world...we are a lot of things!  We're strong innocent fun flirtatious vulnerable, and sometimes our innocence can cause us to be naïve! We always think it could NEVER be us, but in reality, it can happen to ANY of us! So ladies be careful." She also carried on to say that she is just a 23 year old pop star just making music, and that this is the real world, you can’t protect children from what happens in reality.

Artist

This isn’t the first video from Rihanna that has received controversy. In fact most of her songs are criticized for being to sexual and being a bad influence on young children. The most famous was her song ‘S&M’. The video was banned in 11 countries, and cannot be played on YouTube unless the user has an account stating they are over 18.

Post production/ special effects

Text is used in the video to separate the murder and then what had happened previously. The screen turns black and the text ‘Yesterday Morning’ appears. This makes the video see more like a story.

Art direction/styling

When the song begins we see Rihanna in the Caribbean laughing with everyone she meets. The lighting used has a yellow effect, which makes the atmosphere seem happy and gives the impression that it is hot and sunny. Rihanna is very white, which gives the impression of innocence, and is wearing bright green socks and colourful red shoes which show that she is in happy place. However after the first chorus, the location changes to see Rihanna dancing in a rough sea. She is also now wearing all black and the lighting has now changed to much darker, which shows that she is no longer innocent.
Representation
One of the stereotypes of a black man in reinforced in the video, as he raped Rihanna. Black men are associated with gangs, drugs and rape.