Eminem - Love The Way You Lie ft. Rihanna

Eminem - Love The Way You Lie ft. Rihanna

Institutional InformationName of Artist Eminem ft. RihannaTrack Love The Way You LieReleased - August 9, 2010Genre Hip HopEminem's seventh studio album Recovery in 2010Eminem wrote the verses and chose Rihanna to sing the chorus and their past experiences in difficult relationships influenced this collaborationThis track won 6 awards and was nominated for 23 others

Representations In The Hip Hop GenreThe representation of women shows how they are portrayed in the music videos. There have been many interpretations and on this, good and bad, which is one of Goodwins theories about the use of voyeurism in music.Hip Hop is a genre which is criticised for many reasons such as foul language. In recent years, there has been an increase in the use of women in this genre with the use of misogyny. Artists such as Rihanna, who appears in the music video I will be talking about, collaborate with Hip Hop artists to show a different die to them and express the real time issues they have faced such as poor relationships. However, in doing so, these pop artists have explicitly exposed themselves in voyeuristic ways which young audiences are viewing.

Representation Of RihannaLooking at Rihanna in this music video, voyeurism plays a big part in this which is one of Goodwins theories. Love The Way You Lie is a promotional music video by Eminem which is an example of the male gaze. This was also used in the music video Come Together by Echosmith where the bright red lipstick is the main focus of the shot.The majority of the shots Rihanna is in are close ups so the focus is all on her and she is completely dominating the shot so the audience is focusing on her. She also has plenty of make up on and red hair so voyeurism is again reinforced.The mise en scene behind Rihanna shows fire surrounding her which later on is revealed to be a house on fire which would generally catch anyone attention to be the main focus. However, here the mise en scene is blurred so the only focus can be on Rihanna, again reinforcing the use of voyeurism in the music video.This is constant until 3 minutes in, then Eminem enters the shots with her and dominates the mise en scene with her in the background showing male dominance which Laura Mulvey would say this is portraying male patriarchy and the males are the dominant type in the music video. Also, Rihanna is seen to not be weary much clothing and showing off her cleavage which again Mulvey would describe as the male gaze upon women.Rihannas low cut costume, exaggerated lip stick and images which associate her with the night. Mulvey claims the camera dwells on physical aspects of a woman for so long that the image becomes almost iconic for male viewers. The interests and fantasies seen on screen are tailor-made to comply with those of the dominant males that more or less run the industry. This is referred to as the male gaze which combines the theories of voyeurism, narcissism and fetishism.

Representation Of GenderLaura Mulveys theory on the male gaze is a developed idea about living in patriarchy where the men are the dominant gender. This is immediately reinforced in the music video as the initial shot of the man and the woman in bed shows him with his arms around her, suggesting she is his item. There is a lot of fighting that goes on between the male and the female but whenever the female fights back towards the male, he asserts his dominance straight back. Half way through the fighting, they begin to kiss which again links back the to theory of the male gaze as the images being sold is that of an attractive women who is model-like.During the kissing scenes, both genders are seen to dominate the kiss which could link to Mary Devereaux who says that the male gaze is not always male, but always male dominated which is a good example here.Another example of the male gaze is in the music video Tessellate by alt-J where the shots are male dominated with the women wearing short dresses, with the men surrounding the females. Also Leave before the lights come on by Arctic Monkeys shows this as well as it is about the male being in control, his rejection of the girl who seems to define herself in her relationship with a man. Thus in her depression she stands on the top of a building about to leap. This interpretation shows strong female emotions which could be defined as females being drama queens. This references the traditional representation of the female as needy, hysterical and dependent on males, thus the world is seen through the male lens. This idea is also used in our music video with the female accusing the male but ultimately being his victim.

Representations In My ProductionEminems music video is very explicit compared to by production although there are aspects of both which relate to each other but are expressed in alternative ways.In my production, the female is seen as a victim and there is a tradition representation of male guilt. The difference between Love the way you lie and my production is that the female in mine is not abused physically and made to feel frightened but is instead the victim of a hit and run situation which is short term, whereas abuse can be long term, as seen in Eminems music video.The mise en scene in my production is split between male and female which can relate to Mary Devereauxs masculinisation theory. However the female is in the perspective of being accusatory rather than proactive which shows the mind games which are being played in my music video.Another representation of my production could be the theme of guilt, self-loathing and loneliness. The film Another Earth is about a very bright physics student who 4 years earlier got drunk and collided with another car, killing a mother and her child. The accident is shown in flash back. Our music video develops the theme of living with oneself after killing somebody in a road accident.

Another Earth car crash