Music Video Analysis 5

Music video analysis for Love the way you lie; this is a song by Eminem and features Rihanna. The song is enlisted as the second single to Eminem’s seventh studio album, Recovery and was released worldwide on August 9th 2010. Music video director/film director Joseph Kahn directed the music video that accompanied the song. The video is about a couple that shares a love hate relationship; in a sense the girl (played by, Megan Fox) is ‘falling apart’ and is hurt from what they do to each other, apart of her doesn’t care because she has ways of getting revenge. In the middle section of the music video, it’s said that he used to feel a certain way when he was with her, and her with him; but now they’re verbally abusive, ‘spewin’ venom’ in a way. Throughout the video we see that they love each other for different reasons, also she feels like leaving, but the guy (played by, Dominic Monaghan) is jealous, due to the fact that he is faced with the possibility that she will see other men. The relationship goes from bad to worst near the end of the video, he becomes more violent and abusive, and it eventually boils over into something more sinister.

The general plot of this music video is that the couple has a love-hate relationship, at times their relationship can be worth having, but is mostly out wade by the ugly side of their relationship (fighting, arguing, intimidating). The music video itself is a combination of a lyrical and narrative theme. For example, the music video conveys the lyrics of the song very literally; ‘set this house fire’ is rapped while a house is burning. The music video is given support, for the fact that it is a narrative music video, because when Eminem raps a set of lyrics a visual interpretation is given, this is clear evidence that he is telling a story. The video falls closely under illustration, but the music video suggests that Joseph Kahn has become an auteur in a way that he uses general codes and conventions to amplify the music video, to identify his creative visions, this may also in a sense relate to the star theory of the Artists (mainly Eminem).

This music video has a very wide target audience, however the main target audience consists of young people aged 15 – 30 who enjoy R&B and Hip Hop music, also the video targets people who experience abuse and domestic violence. The arguable point that can be made is that the video is, in a way, raising awareness of abuse and violence in relationships; and is targeting people who are capable of committing these crimes. One way that they try to make contact with the audience is by the use of star theory; keeping the trends of today’s R&B/Hip/Hop artists, they dress Eminem and Rihanna in an updated fashion sense which people who see fit to idolize them can be given interest and motive to watch the video. Also they take the video to another level and cross paths with the film industry, making use of top name actors and actresses to portray a storyline in the music video. Again this makes use of star theory and ideology, by using Megan Fox and Dominic Monaghan two different audiences come together as one big audience, which the artist could benefit from in terms of profit.

As mentioned the video is trying to make people aware of domestic violence and love/hate relationships. The way in which the director uses mise-en-scene, editing and camera movement can all support this fact? In the music video the couple that portrays the main protagonists are both dressed in simple, casual looking clothing; at times it is also very scruffy and ragged. This shows that both of them are not the richest of couples and they appear to both come from rough backgrounds. The music video has some smooth continuity, montage and fast cut editing; throughout the video we see a lot of this, this is basically telling us that a relationship can change so fast and that this relationship goes from good to bad, bad to worse.Kahn has made the primary focus in the music video the couple rather than the actual artist, this shows that he wanted the story to tell itself to show how domestic violence and abuse are major issues in today’s society. A third of the screen time is probably given to the actual artist, I think Kahn might think that the video would be more powerful if the artist would be better telling the story through the lyrics but he does give both artist time to perform, hence he has created a very illustrative music video. The video’s atmosphere can put the audience in a certain mood through its very strong, in depth use of visuals (which have bin given a lot of thought) and it creates an impact on the audience making them feel sorry for the girl; the video doesn’t fray away from the use of violent scenes, this, at times, makes the girl very vulnerable and innocent. The audience will be very concerned but also judgmental.

Throughout the music video we see that a few generic conventions are being put into effect, one of which is the way Eminem tends to act in the video, given the video the sense that it is indeed a hip-hop music video, he illustrates this through his gestures, body language and movements. For instance, when we see Eminem he tends to throw his weight around, and comes off very aggressive, when he’s moving he looks like he’s bobbing up and down and throwing his hands about; he even tends be right in front of the camera as if he is trying to get into the audiences’ face, very typical because this can be seen in many other of his hip-hop videos, such as ‘Stan’, ‘The Way I am’, ‘Cleaning out my Closet’, ‘Lose yourself’. Other artists in the hip-hop genre also support these codes such as 50 Cent’s, ‘Candy Shop’, and ‘In da Club’. Or even Lil Wayne with ‘Drop the World’. Many generic codes used in these music videos can be seen in ‘Love the way you lie’.