Challenging media conventions

R&B As our song is by Beyonce it’s an R&B song, it is typical in R&B videos for there to be a lot of dancing and ‘hypersexualising young girls’ we didn’t want this in our video. Our video is a narrative and has a structure compared to other R&B videos of just people partying.

Screen shot from a Flo-Rida video of the young women in his video wearing a lot of makeup, dressed up and seen drinking alcohol. Compared to our dancer who is well covered up and focuses on her ballet.

ArtistFor most R&B videos they contain the singer to be viewed by Laura Mulvey’s theory of the ‘male gaze’ we did follow this convention in our work. However, we wanted our artist to be seen as inspirational not just an object for men to stare at.

Rihanna is often viewed as a sex symbol in her videos because of her makeup, clothing and the way she dances in provocative ways. In our video the focus on Courtney is on her singing and her facial expressions not the way that she dances.

CD Front CoverThe CD cover and digi-pack which we created could be seen as challenging media conventions. We kept the focus on Courtney’s face as she looks like a strong and independent women. We wanted her makeup to be simple apart from her lips which we wanted to stand out as being red.

The album cover for Nicki Minaj’s album shows her to be pouting, wearing excessive makeup and showing off her body. We didn’t want this for our work so we kept it simple instead focusing on the idea of being powerful.

AdvertOur advert is simple containing minimal text and instead has images so the focus is on them instead. Courtney’s pose shows her to look strong along with her direct address to the audience. This is challenging R&B style products as they normally contain the artist in little clothing.

The Rihanna advert shows her not looking towards the camera compared to Courtney’s direct address showing how Rihanna’s purpose is to look seductive and appealing to her male audience.