Music Video analysis

Madonna - Vogue/Drake ft. Rihanna - Take Care

The two music videos that I am analysing are 'Vogue' by Madonna, which is directed by David Fincher. And the other directed by Yoann Lemoine, 'Take Care' by Drake ft Rihanna. Both songs are part of different music genres including disco - 'Vogue' and hip hop - 'Take Care'. Within the music video 'Vogue' there are obvious visible aspects that are influenced by this genre. An example of this is the shots where Madonna and dancers are on a dance floor dancing in sync, also the upbeat disco/dance music shows this genre. The 'Take Care' music video shows the hip hop genre through the two artists that perform in the video, both Drake and Rihanna have African roots. Drake from an African-American background and Rihanna from Afro-Guyanese and Barbadian. These backgrounds from the artists show the hip hop genre because this form of music expression orginated from the African-American and African-Hipanic community.

There is a strong relationship between the lyrics and visuals in the 'Take Care' video. The lyrics from Drake 'dealing with a heart that I didn't break' hints at the situation with Rihanna and Chris Brown. Not only do the lyrics show that Rihanna has had her heart broken before, the visuals also show that she is still vulnerable. This is shown particularly by her holding her head down for the majority of the video suggesting she is keeping herself to herself and she is scared of letting anybody in, because of what she has experienced with love previoulsy. Her posture shows that she has been hurt before. Her clothing in the video also shows Rihanna's vulnerability because her shoulders and back are exposed, the way in which her jumper is hanging off of her shows how she is weak. The way the Drake cuddles and kisses Rihanna shows that he is taking care of her and 'dealing' with this heart that he didn't break, hence the lyrics and the title of the song 'Take Care'.

Although the relationship in the 'Vogue' video between the visuals and the lyrics is reasonably strong, they are no where near as effective as the 'Take Care' video because of the emotion involved. The relationship between the visuals and lyrics are extremely obvious, a few examples of this relationship are: 'strike a pose' where Madonna poses and acts as if she is taking a picture and also poses, this relates to the title of the song 'Vogue' suggesting fashionability, also associated with one of the biggest fashion and lifestyle magazines across the world. Also the lyrics include words of movement like 'grooves' and 'flow' these hint at the genre of the music - disco - because they explain the dance moves in which Madonna is performing within the music video.

Moving on to the relationship between the music and visuals... In the 'Vogue' video the movement is more active when the music is upbeat, faster and more 'dancy', particularly during the chorus. Whereas, when the music is more subtle, the majority of the time the shots are just of Madonna posing and in a still postion, not moving. I think that the relationship between the music and visuals in the 'Take Care' video is contrapuntal because of the hip hop genre which suggests that the music is rhythmic and the tone is very upbeat, which it is exactly. This contrasts with the visuals because of the plain and empty studio with the two artists suggests and also highlights the loneliness, and the emotional, hurt, heartbroken and vulnerable vibe.

Both of the videos show similar conventions, both the 'Vogue' and 'Take Care' video have neutral, black and white themes. The 'Vogue' video's black and white theme was influenced by the 1920/30's art deco period. Whereas, I think that the 'Take Care' video has used this simple look to emphasise the emotion in the lyrics and also make the artists both stand out, not to detract attention. Also both Madonna, being such a well known and popular face in the music industry and Drake and Rihanna being extremely popular for the generation of today shows that even though using simple setups and keeping it to the bare minimum in the music video's, they are still able to make it effective because of their status and popularity in society.

To an extent, there are aspects in both videos that imply a sexualised display. In 'Take Care', Drake and Rihanna's movement, showing affection towards eachother comes across romantic. Also Rihanna's costume, revealing her shoulders and back could link to sexual display. In comparasion, the 'Vogue' video is focused on Madonna, in which she is displayed in a sexual way, mainly because of her costumes, in a few shots during the video she was shown in a black lace top with no under-clothing, therefore being very revealing, also the material, lace, is extremely feminine and sexual. Another shot she was wearing her famous 'cone bra' which most obviously highlights female body parts, her breasts. Not only having sexual reference because it is a piece of underwear but also men would find her attractive. Other ways in which Madonna is displayed that implies sexual reference are: her posture and the way in which she poses, shows a form of seduction. Also the fact that she is wearing red lipstick, the connotations of red lipstick are: sensual, sexy, bolder, passon, kissing, love and also grabs men's attention.

This links to the intertexual references within the music videos. In 'Vogue' as said in the last paragraph about the red lipstick, her entire appearance was influenced by Marilyn Monroe, who became a major sex symbol (linking with the sexualised display during the 1950/60's). Madonna had her hair and makeup done similar to Monroe's, with the red lips, beauty spot and her hairstyle; neatly curled and classy. I could not find any intertexual reference in the 'Take Care' music video, except from Drake and Rihanna's relationship and background.

The 'Take Care' music video is majorly narrative-based: because it has a story attached relating to the lyrics of the song. I think this because it speaks about Drakes emotions towards Rihanna and the video matches the feel of the lyrics, although the music is 'beaty', the visuals - stillness - tells the story. There is a slight performance-based aspect to the video because it focus' on the two artists. Whereas, 'Vogue' is mainly performance-based - Madonna being a focus (easily grabbing the audiences attention because of the close-up shots and her being an attractive blonde) also, there is a huge amount of the video filled up with Madonna and her dancers, dancing. The music video is also partly narrative-based because it revolves around 'Vogue' the magazine, about camera shots and posing. This also refers gives off a serious and classy vibe in comparsion to the actual 'discoy' music and rhythm. It also shows the representation of women and beauty particularly around the 1950/60's. Neither the 'Vogue' or 'Take Care' music videos show conventions of being concept-based in my opinion because there was little that was obsure or surreal. The only thing that came to mind was the minimum special affects that was used in the 'Take Care' video when the bull and bird appeared in the video and also the fire dancer.

In conclusion, although I think that the two music videos that I have analysed are very different, and fall into different genres in the music world. There has been quite alot of similar conventions used which make the videos appear plain and simple, as mentioned before, it has been done because they already had their fan-base, therefore everyone enjoyed the videos even though they wasn't challenging and would of been low-budget. I think that 'Take Care' used the simple conventions well, convaying emotions that the viewer's instantly feel, and 'Vogue' displayed the 'disco' genre well with energetic vibe.