My artifact to be analyzed is the song and music video, Russian Roulette, by the Carribean pop artist, Rihanna. This song is featured on her most recent CD entitled, “Rated R.” This song has went gold in the United States and is her most recent single. To begin, this song is called Russian Roulette. Russian Roulette, is a type of suicide game that people play. It involves putting a single bullet in the chamber of a gun or pistol. This barrel is spun, pointed at the player’s head and the trigger is pulled. The object of the game is simply to not die.
This song and video has been confidential because the fact that Rihanna is a teen idol. In her video she is in a asylum where she pleads to the guard and observers singing ,”And you can see my heart beating, you can see it beating, im terrified….so to past the test…just pull the trigger” Throughout this video, there are sign the can give the viewer a reason to believe she is talking about killing herself over life. Another part of the video is where the outline of her heart shows through her skin in a outline of blood. Also, there is a scene where she sits across from the man she is in love with and on the table there is a gun. During the whole video they pass the gun back and forth, playing “Russian Roulette”.
Another section of the video is when, Rihanna is swimming and a stream of bullets fly through the water and some of the bullets miss her but a few pierce her helpless body. This video tries to explain how love can be so hard. I think she is trying to explain a relationship that had problems and is now on the verge of ending. She wants the relationship to end but she is not sure and does not want to “pull the trigger.” At the end of the video, a single gun shot is heard and the camera is not on Rihanna. This shows that it was not Rihanna who “pulled the trigger” but the young man sitting across from her.
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Out of all the artifacts you have analyzed so far, i believe you should write your essay on this one. You seem to have very good insight on what the video is trying to portray and I believe there is a lot more you can talk about with this video than you have in your blog post. I think you should continue with the ideological criticism in analyzing this artifact. There are no real steps i have to share with you for hte writing process because it seems as if you have it undercontrol. Maybe just take each point, analyze it more, and create a paragraph that way. This was a really good analysis of the video and i hope you use it for your paper
ReplyDeleteI agree with Caitlin this was a GREAT artifact for you. You have a strong grasp on the message of the video and the meaning behind the images. It just needs to be developed more and have more depth. You are on the right track to a great paper if you use this for your essay. Each point could be a new paragraph. Good job.
ReplyDeleteI would definitely pick Russian Roulette for your essay. That one seems to interest you the most, and yes, it does have a lot of different angles available to analyze, so you won’t have any shortage of material. It would be very interesting to look at the lyrics by themselves, and then the music video; you can see if the words present a different image when they aren’t combined with the video.
ReplyDeleteI would probably use ideological criticism, so you can find out what Rihanna is trying to say. The other option is neo-Aristotelian criticism; there are probably a lot of responses to her song on the internet, and by taking a look at them you can see what kind of effect the song is having on listeners. Take whichever view interests you more; they’ve both got potential.
As for steps, first pick which approach you want to take. Then I really would consider looking at the lyrics and video separately, to see if there is any difference of message that comes through. After that just follow the book.
This is a great artifact to analyze because it truly looks closely at the song; and Rihanna's intentions on making the song. Maybe you can include a little background info on Rihanna and her situation and how that has impacted her song and her situation.
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