Gerri Halliwell – It’s Raining Men

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qqXUpe3jlkA

Genre: mainstream pop, performance in a location, dance routine, and some narrative.

• From the beginning of the video, the audience is immediately aware that the genre is mainstream pop because of specific camera angles, costume and how the artist is presented. Close-ups are typical for this genre as the audience can see emotion from the artist as well as revealing outfits. The start of the music video when Geri is in an audition room automatically gives a sense of Laura Mulvey’s male gaze as the older man is watching the audition gazing at Geri, giving a sense of the prospect ‘all eyes on her’. Performance in location changes to excite the audience and the movements fit well with the beat of the music along with the editing and transitions.

Visuals and Lyrics: mostly amplifies, not literally illustrative – rain but not ‘raining men’.

• The visuals in the music video such as the rain relate to the lyrics as well as the males which suggest the idea in the lyrics of raining men. It doesn’t literally mean that men will be raining! The performance and dance works well in the video as it is an upbeat pop song and it needs to be energetic and exciting in order to promote the artist and the song. The video also highlights Geri Halliwell as the main artist.

Visuals and Music: changes in pace of song visible in editing, change of location with change of music, cutting

on the beat at times.

• The visuals changed regularly with changes of setting and costume as well as camera angles to fit to the music. There are a range of different shots showing Geri in different angles to the music. Changes in setting make the video more exciting and enjoyable to watch for the viewer of the video as the visuals should be unique and original in order to be remembered.

Selling the Artist: changes in costume, use of close-ups, showing off ‘talent’, selling Geri’s new image.

• In this particular music video of Geri Halliwell, selling the artist is extremely important because she’s trying to make a comeback in the music industry after her Spice Girls days. The directors have managed to do this well in the video as a range of different shots are used to show personality and her figure, and also close-ups on Geri which is a convention in music videos. By putting Geri in revealing clothing, it also sells her as a confident woman. By using shots of her toned figure also sells her as a person. There is also a shot of Geri and her dog which shows that she is in fact a normal and down to earth woman.

Intertextuality: references to ‘Flash Dance’ and ’Fame’, and similar pattern to J-Lo video ‘I’m Glad’.

• There is an extremely close pattern to J-Lo’s video ‘I’m Glad’ which shows that she is trying to do a better version of the video, however it is up to the viewer to decide which is better in their opinion. There are also references to ‘Flash Dance’ which is very well known.

Voyeurism: Geri’s new body image, fragmentation in early sequence, structure of characters looking at her, echoes gaze of viewer.

• There are references to Laura Mulvey’s male gaze as in the audition room the older man is looking at Geri’s nicely tones figure. This slightly objectifies her as a female. However, she is confident and selling her new figure in her video. The characters in the sequence who are constantly looking at her also relate to the ides of the male gaze which is a key element in music videos.