Rihanna - Take a bow

Take a Bow was released in April 2008, taken from the album Good Girls Gone Bad. Personally, I think this video represents what most female RnB artists videos look like and it follows some of the conventions we would expect from a commercial exhibitionist performance.

Typical conventions of an RnB video:

• Normally a narrative
• The women artists normally wear provocative clothing
• Close up shots of their face, emphasising lip syncing
• Sometimes a performance clip (rare)
• The video is located in glamorous locations (lavish houses, areas)
• Money is portrayed to be no object for them

The video has a clear narrative; it shows Rihanna moving on in her life, leaving behind a man that has lied and taken her for granted in the past. The video also shows that the man is begging for her back, reluctantly letting her move on. The end few shots are of Rihanna finally leaving with the lyrics "But it's over now."

This music video identifies with some of Andrew Goodwins analysis. Firstly,there is a blatant relationship between lyrics and visuals. The lyrics suggest that the artist (Rihanna) has been messed around by a man and that she is no longer going to stand for it; we can also come to this conclusion just by watching the video. Some examples of this relationship:



There are other lyrics that are not shown literally on screen but compliment the narrative and help the audience build up an idea of what has happened between the two (Rihanna and her ex) i.e. "You put on quite a show, really had me going, But now it's time to go, curtains finally closing" - although there is no curtain closing or show portrayed visually, we (the audience) understand it is a metaphor for all of the things Rihanna has coped with.

There is also a clear relationship between music and visuals (Goodwins analysis) The music itself is relatively slow and simple with a strong beat (every two seconds) The editing of the video is also in time with this beat. For example, there will be jump cuts between different shots but to the time of the beat. Rihanna also claps her hand (3:02) to the beat.

I would say that this video shows aspects of mainly a commercial exhibitionist performance, however I think it also shows aspects of a televised bard performance. This video focus' alot on Rihanna and selling her image. By using lots of shots, especially close ups, it allows the audience to focus on her face and beauty. The use of long shots allows Rihanna to flaunt her slim figure which is desirable to most females and males. The emphasis of her face,hair, figure and general beauty are all conventions of a commercial exhibitionist performance. When she is against the black backdrop with the spot light, there is not a lot going on, this enhances her good voice and again, this is to sell her voice as well as image. 

The narrative is set in a nice area, Rihanna is driving a lavish convertible car, and the house she appears to live in, isn't exactly average. This is another convention of this type of performance. People want this sort of lifestyle and this video and Rihanna is glamorizing it.

I think the video has aspects of a televised bard because it could possibly reflect Rihannas own feelings and attitudes she dealt with in the past and she is using on screen images to represent this to other people. 

The genre of this song/video is RnB. We can tell this from the video and sound of the song. The video isn't a performance clip which we would genreally associate with rock/metal. The genre is also backed up by the perfomance type.