Rihanna- 'Bitch betta have my money'

Today in lesson we got given a sheet which had an article on it about Rihanna's music video to 'Bitch betta have my money'. The article discussed what the music video included such as Rihanna kidnapping someone's an accountant's wife who stole her money, then proceeds to "stuff her into a trunk, strips her half naked, hangs her upside down, gets her drunk, half drowns her and then stabs the accountant. The article then carries on talking about the controversy of the music video by saying that Rihanna "finally has a relaxing smoke in a bath while naked and covered in blood. It states how the internet "unpacked the sexual and racial politics of the video" and the fact that they ignored that the video was what like pop stars will do at some point in their careers. In my opinion, a lot of pop stars do sometimes come out with some quite 'controversial' videos in their career however, I think that Rihanna's video for 'BBHMM' would easily shock any viewer watching due to the extent of the 'explicit' content within the narrative of the music video. An example of another artist's music video that was considered to be 'controversial' at the time of it's release is Miley Cyrus' 'Wrecking ball' which was released in 2013 as part of her album 'Bangers and mash'. This music video contains scenes of Miley swinging about on a wrecking ball whilst only wearing boots, however, it doesn't 'reveal' anything or I believe show anything as 'controversial' as Rihanna's music video for BBHMM.

Here are some screen grabs that portray this music video to be 'controversial' (obviously I can't add a lot of things because they're 'too explicit'):

The article then goes on to talk about viewers expectations and how most music videos will 'ponder' to them, the characteristics being "glamour, success, and fun" which is a completely different case with this music video. It also states how an "event video is designed to project power and money but usually ends up revealing an artists fatal flaw before it swallows them". It states that artists such as Guns N roses, Jackson and Oasis subconsciously telling the audience 'have lost the plot. Please send help', suggesting they are basically saying this if they are "deluded, demented, drug-addicted or just a bit dim'. In my opinion, this is a bit exaggerated and artists that usually use drugs in their music videos are talking about money or just having fun. However, I think that some artists do do it to get more attention and to make people think that they are in a way pretty 'bad-ass'. For example, 'feelin myself' by William featuring other artists talks about drugs and money at the same time, suggesting they are just showing the audience how rich they are and basically that they can do what they want to do. Relating with this, the article then states that "Rihanna wants to be seen as a no-f**k-giving badass but comes off as somewhat desperate", which i think can sometimes apply (it sometimes feels like artists who do this just want attention however, not always).

The article goes on to talk about the artist Taylor Swift, saying that she "wants to cement her status as an A-list celebrity and every famous woman's dream BFF" with reference to her music video for her song 'Bad Blood'. In my opinion, I think that this could definitely be the case as I don't see why else she would have had all of her 'famous friends' involved in a video where she wants to try and put out a message.


The article also states that in 2013, the Billboard hot 100 added YouTube and Vevo news to it's calculations meaning that it makes the songs/music videos go up in the charts the more they are viewed on these platforms. From reading the article I therefore learnt that although the music video for Rihanna's BBHMM was not exactly viewed a lot when there was no video to show for it, however 'Bad blood' was because of the music video contents. The article here states that songs only get listened to and do well in the charts due to their music video views instead of how good the song really is. Quoting the article, It says that "Bad blood, probably the worst song on parent LP 1989, only topped the Billboard charts for a week because of the video views". "A day before Rihanna launched her video, Kendrick Lamar released his clip for 'Alright' (which gives ambitious mini-movies a good name)". The article states that this was "more original, beautiful, moving and thought-provoking than Rihanna's, with a better song boot" however, this received approximately only a quarter of the views and a fraction of the fuss surrounding it. In my opinion, I think that songs will mainly do better and become more successful when there is a music video to it that is either controversial or 'stands out from the crowd' as something that people will look at and remember.

Here's a look at the article that we were given:

As a short conclusion, I really think that this article really points out the importance of music videos in today's generation and about how they can easily make the songs more popular, even if the song itself isn't particularly that good. This therefore also shows the importance of how artists and bands decide to portray themselves in their music videos as how they want people to see them I think is a big part of the music industry (meaning it can effect the success of their songs and them as people).