Task 2:Research into existing products: Music videos (Rihanna)

Rihanna's "B***h Better Have My Money"
 
This is one of Rihanna's latest music video (released July 2015) for her song "B***h Better Have My Money". It lasts for 7 minutes and has had lots of mixed reviews.

 It starts with a warning saying that the video contains nudity and other graphic content and then the next shot is of some woman's legs (unknown to the audience who she is at this point) draped over the side of a large box/trunk. The next few shots are of a beautiful white woman who is seen putting make-up on. Her clothes and home are very luxurious which suggests that she is upper class and wealthy. This is compared to Rihanna's character in the video who is a black female and who is dressed rather rough; almost like a gangster. Rhianna kidnaps the other woman ,and with some help from her friends, then tortures her. She is ridiculed,hung upside down naked and put a trunk. Rihanna and her friends are seen partying on a boat and the audience are shown multiple shots of them drinking,smoking and doing drugs. Nearer the end of the video, Rihanna is shown holding up multiple weapons including knifes and even a chainsaw. She is then shown holding a knife and walking towards a shirtless, tied up man ( an accountant). It is then revealed that the woman she kidnapped was actually the wife of the accountant who was constantly cheating on her. He used Rihanna's credit cards to spend on girls and partying which made her angry so she kidnapped his wife in an act of revenge. The audience are taken back to the first scene once again but are much closer and are able to see that it is Rihanna covered in blood sitting on money inside the trunk. Titles for the song are shown as "BBHMM" and immediately afterwards a close up of Rihanna's bloody face is shown.

The type of reviews this music video have are very mixed. For example The Guardian reported that " A headline on Refinery29 declared the video “Not Safe For Work or Feminists” while Twitter accused Rihanna of glorifying violence against women, and condemned the “kidnapped female” trope".  Where as The RollingStone say that " Her evolving sound has gotten much harder since her dance pop debut, and "BBHMM" may be her hardest yet". By saying that she has an "evolving sound" suggests that this style of music is increasing in popularity and more songs are starting to contain more graphic images which, in return, cause more people to discuss the issues and express their opinions of it via the internet. Online media are useful for branding the artist and in this case, Rihanna is showing that as well as doing more softer, acoustic songs such as "FourFiveSeconds" ( her collaboration with Paul McCartney and Kanye West) she is also able to be more risky and push the boundaries of what is acceptable.  I think that Rihanna's song and music video are just a publicity stunt to get more people talking about her. It could also be a way of her being able to do more songs like that as earlier in her career she was more focused on dance pop. She is trying to brand herself as being more outrageous and so people will like her rebelling against what is normally done/ right.


The music video has representations of gender and ethnicity within it. Rihanna is a black woman who has power over the white woman and man. This shows the audience that women are stronger than men but as she also tortures another woman it causes conflict within the video and suggests that even though they are both female, because Rihanna is black she has more power over the white woman. White people are represented negatively (except for the women Rihanna is shown partying with) within the video. They are seen as victims and are weak. All they care about are money which is a theme within the video, as the man is an accountant for Rihanna. The black characters, although being shown as stronger by kidnapping the white characters, are also victims as Rhianna just wants her money back that the man took from her. Overall the video suggests that women can be stronger than men and at times other women, and that white and black people are both victims of money.