Lyrics Analysis

LYRIC ANALYSIS

Lyric Analysis 

I did a lyric analysis to work out what I thought the lyrics mean, which will help me think of ideas for my music video and know what the lyrics are about. Since I hadn't watched the music video for this song it allowed me to picture what I wanted to include in my own video without having the influence from the one this one.  

Lyric Timings

Lyric Timings

I worked out the Lyric timings of my chosen song 'Stay'- by Rihanna, to help me when I come to make a story board and when I am making my music video to make sure the timings are right and match my video. It will also help when/if the people are lip singing in my video, to match the lyrics to their mouths with the right times.

Theorists

Levi Strauss

'Binary Opposites' 
We understand contrasts, against other things that they are compared to.

Good-Bad- is a binary opposite

Having binary opposites help us to understand narrative in music videos. For example having a falling out with the boyfriend and they are usually portrayed to be seen as bad or in the wrong and the girlfriend (main singer) is seen as good. However this has recently being challenged as the person singing is usually the good person singing about the bad person, when the good person can be just as bad. Another example is in Rihanna 'Unfaithful' she is the singer, yet she knows that she is the bad person and is singing about her being unfaithful to her boyfriend, which is slightly different and another way that the binary opposite is challenged. 

We instantly perceive our own ideas of ideology e.g. Mother- Caring, Kind, Loving, Supportive. These ideas just spring to mind when asked to think about something/someone as we have our own ideology thoughts.

Without these binary opposites we wouldn't be able to understand videos and texts etc today.

They also keep us excited an intrigued in different ways. For example with narrative as it is more of a story you wonder what is going to happen. 


Laura Mulvey 1975

The 'Male Gaze'
Mulvey's theory is on the 'male gaze' and how they look at Women. For example:

How men view women in music videos:
Sexy, Hot, Seductive, An Item, Easy, Objects

How women look at themselves (music videos):
Compare themselves to the women in that video, might want to look like the women in the music video

How women look at other women in music videos:
Compare themselves or might not want to look like how some women do in music videos e.g. Miley Cyrus- 'Wrecking Ball'

However some music videos do not help the 'male gaze', but actually influence it even more by the way the camera focuses on the women's body and curves. This ends up making females watch the content through a males eyes thinking that they should be like that themselves. Furthermore in music videos the men in the videos usually end up being perceived as the more dominant person.


John Berger 1972

'Ways of seeing'
John Berger says we entice different gazes and says 'Men act women appear. Men look at women. Women watch themselves been looked at'

This again makes men sound more dominant. It's as if women are view for people to view and enjoy, however these women are conscious of what they are doing and what they are doing in these music videos. John also makes you realise that women have always been viewed in this way, but people might just have different opinions now then what they did back then.

Mulvey and Berger both include voyeurism, that the women know what they are doing.


Tessa Perkins 1979

'Stereotyping'
Stereotypes are not always negative or wrong and are not always about the minority groups or the less powerful, they can be about people of higher class or more powerful people too. They are also not rigid or unchanging as they do change and they are not always false. Furthermore as our society changes it's hard for stereotypes to change as they stick in society.


Richard Dyer 1983

'Representations'
Dyer says 'How we are seen determines how we are treated'. The media can play a big part in this too as they can make people be seen in many different ways when it is not always the truth.

For example: Miley Cyrus 'Wrecking Ball'- She knows what she is doing which links back to Mulvey and Berger and is doing it on purpose because she no longer wants to be seen as this nice, sensible girl anymore, but as more of a rebel showing she is not afraid to do what she wants. Yet people have their own thoughts and opinions on her and will take what she has done in this video in a bad way or won't be to bothered by it. Therefore people will see and treat her in a different way, but she has done this herself, so she wanted to be seen in this way.


Karl Marx 1818-1883

'Class' 
Higher class power, known as the Elite or Bourgeoisie
Lower class which is the majority of the population, is known as the Mass or Proletariat
- The Mass are dependent on the Elite people.
- The Elite are also rely on the Mass to make money for them and the people who are rich hold ideological power.
- In society people are never satisfied and always want more

Dominant classes create a dominant ideology. For example the media are dominant and they give us news and there own thoughts and opinions on things, which we then believe so we don't really have any choice.

M.I.A Paper Planes (screen shots)