Textual Analysis: Only Girl (In the World) - Rihanna

Rihanna is a Barbadian R&B artist who started her singing career since she was sixteen, and soon after signed on to ‘Def Jam Recordings’. Throughout her successful singing career she has gone through different images from innocent and young in 2005-2006 with her songs ‘Pon de Reply’ and ‘If it’s loving that you want’, to a extremely new different look  to ‘Good Girl one Bad’ in 2007-2008 where she was more rebellious and hardcore, her songs were more about sex and domination songs shown through ‘Disturbia’ in 2009-2010 her album ‘Rated R’ and her hit song ‘S&M’ at the same time being abused by ex boyfriend Chris Brown. The pop music video ‘Only Girl in the World’ by Rihanna, was directed by Anthony Mandler in October 2010, the change of looks has helped her with her fan base, making her more popular.

The music video starts off with a montage of different camera angles; flashes of close ups of her face and her long shots of her in the field, this makes it more interesting to look at and it shows the diversity of different editing techniques. I have a creative element that is different to other music videos, for instance; the jaw dropping scenery/ location and the range of camera angles showing off and enhance Rihanna’s star image. There is a deeper meaning to ‘Only girl in the world’, basically her saying that “Make me believe something that is false so you could make me feel good”.

The lighting of the music video is in the sunset, and the pink/red lighting and shades denotes passion, love and happiness, this gives off a positive and dramatic effect making the music video fun and enjoyable for the audience to watch. The flowers in the music video symbolises love and relationships as roses would be something that men would give to women in a positive relationship. In most shots, she is in the fields on her own and this is mostly portrayed in long shots which link in with the lyrics ‘Only Girl in the World’, she is in her own world which sends a strong and powerful message, the long shots to extreme long shots accentuates she is the “Only girl” . She is dancing with a white outfit which is being blown by the gentle wind, this symbolises purity and freedom like a dove. This could also link in with her relationship with her former ex boyfriend and singer Chris Brown who abused her while they were together from 2008 to 2009. This could link in with her hard times she had to go through in her past, she could be free from the abuse, she is now in a healthy relationship and he cannot harm her again, hence the atmosphere of the music of freedom and happiness.

Applying Goodwins theory, although Rihanna is the artist, she is still being objectified having to wear revealing clothes that show her assets like her chest and her long legs. Having long shots of her body, and mid shots of her upper half enhancing her asset, this makes it eye catching for men or a males perspective as men are a dominant group; it is what men would like to see emphasising sexuality. This makes the audience predominately men as well as women, this can also be aspiring for women who want to be or look like her. Her sexual dancing, also objectifies her especially when she puts her finger on her lips which is a sexual innuendo making her seductive, which is geared on notions of voyeurism.

This also sells the artist because not only are they selling the song but they are also selling the artists image otherwise, if she looked boring, there would be nothing to aspire to. This also goes for Laura Mulvey’s; a British feminist film theorist, who came up with the theory of the ‘Male Gaze’ which was influence by the works of Freud. The music video gives off a sexual pleasure when she dances and takes of her jumper during the first few scenes, she becomes more revealing, more or less like a strip tease, to make the music video eye catching, it would be something that men would like to see the indulgence of looking.  She is merely represented to provide visual pleasure to men because of the concept “to be looked at”.

The song can also be understood through synaesthesia because in this song, the beats are strong and they are emphasised through the images by visualising them, this is so that the audience can connect with the audience and can provide some sort of pleasure.

In most of her shot she is in the centre of the shot, making her the main attracting and the main focus, nothing else is going on around her, this illustrates that she is mostly in the centre of every shot, which could mean that she should be the centre of his world and when she looks at the camera you can tell that she is singing to the person that she loves. In the next scene she is seen with colourful balloons in the air behind her which means that she feels on top of the world like she is flying, kind of like being blinded by love. There a links to the lyrics when she sings: “Baby take me high, high”, there is a long shot of her on top of a stack of ladders in the middle calm waters, which denotes that her relationship is untouchable and nothing can destroy that.

While she is on the ladders there Anthony Mandler uses editing techniques  where the video cuts to the beat; the shots go in time with the beat, flashing from close ups of her face to where she is on the Ladder making it interesting to watch. Also near the end of the song when she sings “Take me for a ride” she is on an enormous swing from the sky. In the music video she is portrayed at adventurous, there are scene showering her on unstable ladders, on a large swing in the sky and jumping in front of fireworks portrays her as being invincible because she is in love the fireworks could mean that chemistry they have between her and her lover in their own world and celebrating her love.

There are less editing done in this music video rather than her old music videos where as her old music videos ‘Umbrella’ and ‘Who’s that Chick’ where there was a lot of background drops and editing and dancers where as in ‘Only Girl’ she is filmed in those surreal landscapes. Her motifs that have been used previously would be more seductive as her album before was called: “Good Girl gone Bad” so there were more panning, tilts and close ups of her body than there is now in this music video. Making her image a little more sophisticated but still having that rebellious feel to her. This links into amplification, because although most of the lyrics links to the music videos, some of the lyrics has no relevance to the actual song, for instance, the exaggerated scenery makes it look surreal, it looks like something that would be on the front of a post card. This also shows authenticity of the music video, very rarely music videos are like this and shows the realness of the performance which goes to achieving star quality  and there is no CGI inserted in this music video which also makes it authentic.