Eminem - Love The Way You Lie ft. Rihanna

Institutional Information

• Name of Artist – Eminem ft. Rihanna• Track – Love The Way You Lie• Released - August 9, 2010• Genre – Hip Hop• Eminem's seventh studio album Recovery in 2010• Eminem wrote the verses and chose Rihanna to sing the chorus and

their past experiences in difficult relationships influenced this collaboration• This track won 6 awards and was nominated for 23 others

Representations In The Hip Hop Genre

• The 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 Goodwin’s 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 Rihanna• Looking at Rihanna in this music video, voyeurism plays a big part in this which is

one of Goodwin’s theories. The use of the lipstick draws your attention to her which makes her seem very feminine which males enjoy looking at. This was also use in a 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 the voyeurism is makes her look like a model and men will be attracted to this.

• 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.

Representation Of Gender• Laura Mulvey’s 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.

Representations In My Production• Eminem’s 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 Eminem’s music video.

• The mise en scene in my production is split between male and female which can relate to Mary Devereaux’s 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.

• There is the use of voyeurism (Goodwin’s theory) in my production where the female dominates the shots and the males will be attracted to this (Laura Mulvey’s male gaze theory applies here).