S & M Video Analysis

Now with her song “S&M,” she felt the need to have a little fun and make the music video colorful and crazy unlike the gloomy “Russian Roulette.” “S&M” has a music style of pop which also borrows both a hint of punk and rock. “S&M” has a theme of having fun and being strong even when tough comes to shove. The music video is intended to express strong feminism. The lead is a sexually dominant woman who is often oppressed by her critics. The use of newspaper reporters throughout the video is reminiscent of her connection to the media. Essentially, she is suggesting that she is now in control of how she is represented. She has been liberated from the fear that the chains of fame have brought her and she is now able to enjoy her life. At the same time, Rihanna is taking risks of exploiting her music in such a style that she doesn’t normally do. It’s as if she’s doing “...an experimental setup that helps disentangling the preference-based explanation from the alternative explanation of a psychological bias” Liisa-Marja Halko Paragraph 2).

The overly sexualized nature of the video stands in contrast to the message of empowerment and freedom. While the artist is attempting to promote control over life choices, she is adhering to the stereotypical standards that women must present themselves in a sexual manner in order to be successful. The pop rock in the song/music video brings out an indication of dramatic isomorphism. Motti Regev elaborates on the term isomorphism by mentioning, “Expressive isomorphism is characterized as the process through which national uniqueness is standardized so that expressive culture of various nations, or of social sectors within them, comes to consist of similar expressive forms and stylistic elements” (Regev