Music genre research

JESSIE J- Who's laughing now

In 'Who's laughing now' we see Jessie confront her past with a powerful video to relate to her dynamic vocals in the lyrics. The scene is admediatly set in a school, which helps to set the scene as we take a journey of what Jessie is explaining of her cruel torments she experienced in school. Throughout we see the bitterness of the 'popular girls' attitude towards her and this creates empathy for the viewer as some of her demographic can relate to her and recognize what she is going through. In the video we see jessie poke fun at what the girls at her school were like, but through the brutality of the lyrics and harsh hair pulling and bitchiness from her pupils we witness the inner struggle that she was really going through and how she has overcome her past.

Keeping to the theme of Pop genre we see a wide variety of close ups to engage the artist with the demographic but also and exaggerated narrative to the video makes it clear that we are watching a Pop music video. However it is clear that the narrative of the story is to compensate for the lack of dance moves that would usually consist in a conventional Pop video, as the star feels it is important that the visuals and lyrics connect and show how serious she wants the video to look.

However, we see Jessie being confident and showing her rebellious streak to the girls who used to humiliate her and how she relates the title of the song 'Who's laughing now' to them as she has achieved her dreams and they want to be her friend. Her retaliation is humiliating them back as she expresses her frustration of their new positive behavior of her new found fame and how she finds it hilarious.

In one scene we see the artist stick her middle finger up to the audience which shows how she is now careless of their opinion; on the other hand we feel her desperation of how she wants the girls to feel her pain of what they made her go through so clearly she still has issues with her past which consequently ends with her lashing out with a fire estinquisher and drenching everyone who picked on her, which gives the star a sigh of relief as she has turned over a new leaf and got her revenge.

This video shows another side to Jessie as in her previous videos we witness a more ego centric woman who comes across as someone who is in control; this contrasts to this video and proves of what she has overcome and her fans can justify and learn from their idol that if they want to achieve something they can and stands a firm message that bullies will get no where.

Throughout the video Jessie makes various facial expressions and represents a cool R&B/Pop image which I feel in my music video if we interpreted would really show the kind of artist we are trying to perceive. In both mine and jessie J's video the lyrics both show a narrative and highs and lows which has encouraged me to follow a narrative based video also.

This video puts a positive outlook on how people who are or have been bullied can overcome and not to let anyone try and ruin their dreams and reassures her fans or critics that she has had to work intesively to get to the top of the game and had her fair share of blows.



RIHANNA-S&M

In this controversial video, we see the star Rihanna playing up to her sexy star persona as she expresses her love for S&M through the use of raunchy visuals to match the lyrics. The star received both praise for her fun and cheeky video, but with that critics demanded the video was banned and restricted to watershed times as the video was far to suggestive and has an overall message of pro sex; However this just brought more attention to the video as fans wanted to know what the fuss was about.

Not one to be intimidated by the media, Rihanna does what she does best and that is to show off her kinky and toungue and cheek side of her wild personality. We see her throughout wearing very suggestive clothes, but mainly underwear which leads to the theme of the song of being sexy and showing off her envious body to her edoring fans. As the star is a fashion icon, her audience will be counting on what she will be wearing and this will also capture more attention from the press as she is yet again wearing very little and also capture the attention of young men as she is seen tied up which for some will be their ultimate fantasy.

The video also shows a more innocent and fragile Rihanna as she is taped to a wall by the press, this shows her desire to break free and how she wants to do what she wants without being under the scrutiny of the media. This makes us as the demographic sympathizes with her as she cannot lead a normal life without everyone everyone speculating or judging her every move. We found this scene very influential in my group as this gave us the idea of not only showing the highs of the glamourous but also show the lows which shows can also show mixture of emotions for the life of being a star, which really helps engage the audience with our narrative based video as the footage may be less entertaining without a positive and negative input.

Also her revealing clothing, shows off some of her many tattoo's which her fan base will appreciate but also will grasp a closer connection to the star as they will feel as though they know her more intimately and this helps to develop a relationship between the artist and fans which is crucial.

A lot of props are used in S&M such as whips and chains which really exaggerated fetish designs of making the video appear the best of the fetish potential which clearly for Rihanna's young demographic may be unsuitable for them to watch; which some parents may be annoyed about as their children may look up to the star as a role model and some may say she is setting a bad example.

A variety of extreme close ups are used to familiarize the artist to the audience which is very typical in a conventional Pop music video, especially with an artist like Rihanna. Also this creates an intense atmosphere especially when she is seen sucking on a banana which is extremely raunchy and this will make her demographic feel wrapped up in this dominatrix world.

By researching into this video we do not want to conform to the sexy side of an R&B video, instead we have decide to follow her ideas on the highs and lows of fame as it will help us for a narrative based video and will help to engage our audience.