Laura Mulvey Theory - Rihanna Shut up and Drive

Laura Mulvey's theory of male domination and patriarchy within the media can be applied to this Music Video, Rihanna - Shut up and Drive. It is an example of an illustrative music video where the lyrics of the song relate to that of the visuals within the music video.

Sex appeal and subliminal message

It goes without saying that this video has an extremely high sex appeal to the audience witnessing the content of the media. This is based on the women within the music video who are wearing clothes that reveal much of the skin on the body and generally what society would perceive as sexual and attractive. Furthermore, the sexualised women are pretending to be engineers working on cars in a garage when realistically they are not working on the cars at all like a mechanic would. Instead they are merely wiping the cars with a cloth which requires no high intellect level or skill which supports Mulvey's theory where attractive and sexual women do not have agency or know-how within the media. This is appealing to men where they feel that working on cars is a manly thing and by attractive women working on the car, the whole garage image is sexualised for male pleasure and enjoyment.

 

 

Throughout the video the women are positioned in various different positions that have many sexual implications, often bent over the automobiles looking into the bonnet of the car, the waist and behind of the women are revealed. This may evoke sexual images for males watching the video as a woman in a bent over position is considered sexual and therefore the video conforms to Mulvey's theory where the video is effectively placating men and their sexual desires. Also, there are no women in the video who are considered to be overweight which emphasises societies perception of what is sexually appealing and what is not, and women over a certain size are portrayed by the media as sexually unappealing which promotes fixed attitudes of what women should look like and what men expect of them. This can have serious consequences where women, especially adolescents and young adults can feel like they need to look a certain way to be accepted by society or "fit in." This can cause problems such as mental health deficiency and social anxiety.  

 

 



Overall, it is clear that the Rihanna - Shut up and drive video conforms strongly to Laura Mulvey's theory of the male gaze where there are sexualised women who can be classed as what is known as "eye candy" for male viewers who can keenly relate to the erotic imagery within the video.

Laura Mulvey Theory: Patriarchal Society and the Male Gaze

Laura Mulvey Theory Outlined

Laura Mulvey is a British feminist film theorist. She is renowned for her essay entitled Visual Pleasure and Narrative theory published in 1975 which develops logical arguments stemming from two factors which are;

1. How Cinema reflects society

2. Society is Patriarchal

Patriarchy 

Patriarchy is a social outlook where males hold primary power. Factors that relate to this idea of Patriarchy are;

- Political Leadership
- moral authority
- social privilege
- control of property

It is said that males dominate the domain of the family, father figures hold authority over women and children, it represents institutions of male domination and entails female subordination. It is also said that many patriarchal societies are also patrilineal, meaning that property and title are inherited by the male lineage.

In her essay, the way Mulvey addresses the idea of patriarchy is with the approach that society is patriarchal, and this social patriarchy has manifested itself within, film, television and other media forms, sustaining the idea that society is patriarchal. Strong examples of this patriarchy is The Sun newspaper where they have page 3 models with their breasts on show, normally women who society perceive as desirable an erotic and not women who for instance are perceived as "fat." There is no newspaper with male models with their "private" bits on show. This is an example of the representation of women within the newspaper media;

How cinema reflects society

Mulvey develops the theory of the "Male Gaze" where she argues that the gaze and perspective of the camera are from a male point of view. Mulvey continues to argue that the male gaze is active and the female is passive. This means that the man's gaze has meaning and motive behind it whereas the gaze on the female portrays her almost as just an object of erotic desire. She states that within the narrative male characters direct their gaze towards female characters.

The Triple Gaze

The triple gaze ideology developed by Mulvey relates to the optical view of the camera in film and media texts. It suggests that the audience are forced to identify with the male gaze based on the fact that the camera films from the point of view, as well as the libidinal point of view of the male character.

This further means that the cinematic gaze has three levels to it. These are;

- The Camera
- The Character
- The Spectator

These three factors together create the triple gaze and go hand in hand in objectifying the female character in the media text.

There are many examples found within the film industry of the Male Gaze where the female character is viewed as passive and an object of desire for the male antagonist.

James Bond

James Bond is a great example to show how the male gaze and the triple gaze work, it has a clear portrayal of women as objects of erotic desire thus supporting Mulvey's theory that within cinema, the camera is dominated by the male gaze. However, James Bond is also a prime example to show how attitudes have subtly began to change towards women in film and the media. Here are two examples of James Bond films with roughly 40 year difference which both support and subtly contradict Mulvey's theories.

This iconic scene from the James Bond film Dr No starring Sean Connery is a classic example of the Male Gaze theory of Mulvey where it presents Bond leaning on a tree staring dreamily and desirably at Ursula Andreas coming out the sea with two thirds of her body on show, dripping wet whilst holding two mangos in her hand. This suggests that Bond is in awe by what he sees and the audience can infer that he is most likely having sexual thoughts towards Andreas and thus are forced to identify with what we know as the male gaze. This also represents the Triple Gaze where the audience view the screen which has the camera portraying the libidinal view of Connery, displaying the desirable expression on his face and then we see Ursula emerging from the sea in a sexual bikini which then reinforces the entire idea of the male gaze and women as an object of erotic desire within film.



This is another iconic moment within the James Bond film Casino Royale starring Daniel Craigg where in contrary to Dr No the audience witness Bond emerging from the sea in his swimming shorts with ripped muscles dripping wet, which contradicts Mulvey's theory of the Male Gaze where in cinemas this would most likely be more enticing for the female audience. This further shows ideas in relation to women and how they have progressed over the period of time between the two films, and how society is entertaining a less prejudice approach to women in film. On the other hand, we see the desirable female actress guiding a horse and the two of them lock eyes for a moment, and for better words "check each other out." This would then support Mulvey's theory of the male gaze as the female is shown as desirable, although it is not as strong as in previous examples where it is many times more evident that the women is being portrayed as an object of erotic desire.

Key features, concept and narrative of a music video: Blog 6PW

There are key concepts and features found within every different music video. These are the principles that music videos commonly follow in order to maintain strong structure and direction. Andrew Goodwin's theories can be used to analyse various different music videos and to identify whether the music video is performance based, have narrative as its prominence or is strongly based on concept. 

Relation of visuals to the song

In all music videos, there are relations between the song lyrics and the visuals of the music video. There can either be positive correlation between the aspects of the music video and the song lyrics or the two factors are inversely related. The breakdown of music videos can be found with three different styles, these are;

- Illustrative

- Amplified

- Disjuncture

Illustrative 

Music videos can utilize a concoction of images and pictures to portray the meaning behind the lyrics of the song and also help identify with the genre of music. It is often found that this is the most commonly used style within music videos where there are scenarios repeated accompanied with subtle meanings and then bold and outstanding images; when these three match up together in the video, it provides the audience with a sense of the story line in the video, however, leaves space for the audience to fill in the gaps and have their own interpretation of the music.

Amplified

Amplified narrative places emphasis on repeatability. The narrative of a music video should not conform to normal narrative of the film and it should often be left to the audience to finalise a judgement to what happens within the video after the end and they have the ability to finalise the story. This form of narrative within a music video engages the audience and keeps them riveted with the content of the music video where they are keenly interested in find out what is going to happen next or arriving at their own conclusions.

Disjuncture

This is when the lyrics to the song have no relation to the content of the music video and the relationship between the two are inversely proportionate. This contrast of song and video engages the audience in a different way than illustrative or disjuncture where they are engaged by the content  of the video as much as the lyrics of the song and see these two diametrically opposed factors cultivate a sense of randomness and uniqueness. This furthermore means that the music video becomes memorable and the audience are captured by the video.

Narrative and performance

Goodwin identifies that in music videos we do not tend to get the whole narrative but are subject to make our own interpretation of the content within the media texts. Goodwin stresses how important it is for music videos to avoid common narrative as it works for them in the advertising of the music video. Music videos should have coherent repeatability, this is where the narrative and the performance within the video interlink and therefore the audience are open to keep watching the video and not lose interest. Where the artist acts as both a narrator and participant helps create to cultivate the authenticity of the music video however the lip synch and other mimed actions remain at the heart of the music video. It is mandatory for the audience to believe that this is real to determine the success and popularity of the music video.

What makes a memorable music video

Both videos are memorable and show that the artist has made a statement and created a unique selling point. The artists and record labels that create these unique selling points within their videos often become subject to parodies or intertextuality in music videos and media sources to follow on from that. This means that the theme of the video is repeated throughout the music video and is recognised by the consumers and audience as stemming from the original source.


The process of making a music video

The process of making a music video consists of different contributing factors;

- A commissioner from a record label sends a track to 5 or 10 directors
- Each director sends back a treatment
- At this stage, the director is not paid for submitting their treatment.
- The director who has submitted the best treatment then gets employed to make a video for the song

A historical outlook

Queen - Bohemian Rhapsody - 1975 - Dir Bruce Gower



Really have an impact on sales - after the video release the song it soon catapulted to number 1. It is regarded as a work of art in its own right. It is an archetypal type of music video that is soon to be followed by many parodies and pastiche works.

Goodwin - Theories of the music video: Blog 5PW

Andrew Goodwin is known for his theory of the content in and how to analyse an R&B and grime music video. He developed 6 main points within his theory that helped him outline the different features within a music video. These are;

1. Music Videos demonstrate genre characteristics e.g. stage performance for a metal band, or a dance routine for a girl/boy band.

2. There is a relationship between lyrics and visuals (either illustrative, amplifying or contradicting)

3. The demands of the record label will include the needs of lots of close ups on the artist and artists may develop motifs that occur across their work (a visual style)

4. There is frequently reference to the notion of looking (screens within screens and telescopes etc.) and there is often a voyeuristic representation of the female body

5. There is often intertextual references (films, television, other music videos etc.)


1. Music Videos demonstrate genre characteristics





When placing these two tracks from different genres of music next to each other, there are distinct differences seen within their music videos. Nirvana - Smells like Teen Spirit has a clear contrast in its Music video characteristics to JLS - Beat Again, this ultimately comes down to difference in genre of the two tracks, but the content of the music video shows what is common in each style of music and what one can normally expect to see in a metal band video and what you would expect from a pop music boy band video.

Assessing the lighting, set up and location of each music video, it is clear to see that Nirvana as the metal band has a dark and promiscuous/abstract setting with low level lighting which provides a dirty and an uninviting vibe. This corresponds with the sound and harshness of the music and the image of the group itself. In contrary, JLS uses studio based lighting which is bright and creates an open vibe to the video which is accompanied by a dance routine from the group throughout the video. This supports Goodman's idea of genre characteristics where these two tracks from different genres have conformed to features that would normally be seen within a music video of that genre.

2. Relationship between lyrics and visuals

This is mostly met within a narrative based music video. It shows that the music videos' themes are relevant to the lyrics of the song and this allows the music video to take you on a journey. A good example of this is Justin Timberlake - "What goes around comes back around."



3. The needs of the record label will require lots of close ups on the artists face

This is a tool to show off the artist to the audience and depict the beauty and elegance of all of the artists. This can also be useful for the artist and record label to create motifs within their work that will help them create a performance persona and allow the audience to identify them from this feature.



4. Frequent reference to the notion of looking

This relates to both the audience and artist where in the music video the audience are forced to identify with different images and depictions of the artists. Essentially they can see screens within screens such as a phone or a television. A good example of this is Eminem without me;





5. There is often intertextual references

When the music industry joins with the film industry to cultivate synergy there are often intertextual references. The music video includes segments from the film and in kind, offers an intertextual reference to the whole film. This is effective as it allows the audience to identify and understand the intertextual reference and enjoy the music and pattern match the music with the song.