T2-Rihanna-BBHMM

Rihanna-Bitch Better Have My Money 

The music video "Bitch Better Have My Money" by Rihanna was released in June 2015 and is going to be part of her upcoming eighth album. 

The official trailer for the music video was released on June 28, 2015, the night of the BET Awards. The trailer captured a cryptic storyline...

A rich woman, identity unknown, gets herself ready in her lavish apartment, clothes on and purse gathered in her arms, kisses her partner goodbye, and enters a dimly-lit elevator. As this occurs, Rihanna, simulating a poorer woman and wearing dark makeup, pulls up to the apartment complex at night. She opens up her car's trunk and pulls out a large suitcase. Struggling with the suitcase, she too enters the elevator. In one scene, the elevator doors close on the two standing women. In the next, the doors open and Rihanna struts out, alone, except for her heavy suitcase. The full video, which is 7 minutes long, was released on Thursday, July 2, 2015. The video is rated MA for violence, nudity, and use of adult language.

Here is my analysis for the music video...

At the start of the music video a wide shot is used and within the wide shot the camera is on Rihanna, the main star to the video and she is sitting on a deck chair.

Straight away from this wide shot you can tell that it has been filmed in America and more specifically Hollywood by the view. You can also tell by the palm trees that it has been filmed in America. The way she is seated on the chair with her legs the wrong way also gives the audience a feeling that she is a "bad girl" and is quite mysterious. 

After we go straight to a blond woman applying lipstick. By her appearance and the decor in the house we can tell that she is very wealthy and is a typical american woman. This scene would conuse the audience at the start as nobody knows who the lady is and what role she has to play.

Going back to the first part of the music video with the whole American LA/Hollywood theme, this part also shows a sense of Hollywood with the city lights in the background. 

After the drive up to the house we finally get to see Rihanna who sings the song to the video and she is driving an old American car. By her facial expression we can already tell she is annoyed. We can also tell by her make up and hair style that she will be taking a masculine role in the music video. 

As Rihanna is in the lift with a n uknown box the lady from the start of the video enters the lift too. At this point we see complete oposites in the charecters in both personality and appearance. 

Rihanna is slouched t one side holding her hip looking annoyed which gives us an impression she is not happy with the lady who has just entered and is about to do something. On the other hand the other girl is holding her dog with a luxuary hand bag looking more feminie and relaxed. This gives the audience a sense of tension.

After the elevator door closes the music to the sound starts and the rich woman has disappeared and Rihanna is holding her dog. Automatically the audience have the suspected she is in the box. 

As the song carries on we see Rihanna and two other woman who have a similar appearance driving an old typical American car. As the car is quite a manly and large car we get the impression that Rihanna is supposed to be portrayed as more of a male charecter giving the impression women are more powerful. 

A couple of shots later Rihanna is out the car singing to the song with the two other girls in the background holding on to the rich American woman at the start. This shows the audience that Rihanna is in control as she at the front and that the girl being held onto hasn't paid Rihanna her money back. 

At this point Rihanna is on a ship and is showing control by her holding and firing a gun giving the audience the impression "Don't mess with Rihanna". Whilst she is holding the gun the woman who Rihanna dislikes is laying down in a swimmng pool with a sticker over her mouth showing that she has no say and power. 

This could also be relating to Rihanna's level in the music industry as she is one of the most succesfful and powerful artisits in the world showing that she has the most control.

After the boat scene we have Rihanna, the rich girl and Rihannas two other helps sitting outside as the cops drive past. As you can see the rich girl tries to call for help but the girl behind hits her and knocks her out. This again shows the power they have with the girl not even giving her the chance to call for help.

As the cops drive past all three of the girls change their attidude and go aisnt their real personality by putting on fake smiles and acting like nothing is happening so they don't get caught. 

After the girls have had their fun, we see the camera move to Rihanna's hand where she is holding a chainsaw saying "Cheater". This worries the audience to think what is going to happen next. The word "Cheater" on the chainsaw gives the us an idea that the rich girl was a cheater or cheated with Rihanna's rules. 

After this point we see Rihanna lieing down in the same box she put the rich girl in with blood marks all over her lieing down and sitting in money. This gives the audience an impression that she has finished her work with the rich girl and her accountant and now has her money portraying that she is now happy. 

The video then ends on "BBHMM" in white text on a red backround which is short for the song and this is now what fans and people who have viewed the video are calling the song, also using the hashtag BBHMM on social networks to share their views on the video. 

Views on the video:
As the video was quite a rude and very graphic video there were lots of mixed views on the music video. 

The music video was also shortly blocked on YouTube after release due to the content of the video which would increase the views on the video and fuss on the video as more people would want to watch just to see why it was blocked. 

Here are some views and opinions from sites such as Twitter and Facebook on the video...

Alot of people who viewed the video had a very negative reaction on the video and found it "Disturbing" and "Weird" and here are some opinios people had on twitter...

As you can see from the screenshots above, people were using the hashtag BBHMM when tweeting opinions and describing the video with many different words. Other fans who disliked the video have also called it racist and harsh because of the different charecters and actions in the video too.

On the other hand alot of fans especially Rihanna's large fan base the "Rihanna Navy". The fans and her fan base found it exciting, different and really liked Rihanna's appearance in the video acording to the following tweets... 

 

As you can see from the tweets above, fans loved the video and named it being just like a film and thanking Rihanna for creating the video.