Essay - Representation in Can't Remember To Forget You

The music video is called Can't Remember To Forget You sung by Shakira and Rihanna. There is a very strong male gaze in this video as it is mainly the two girls walking around in very little or no clothes looking sexy. The song was released on the 13th of January 2014.

The first shot shows a cliff face with very blue water. This represents the picture of hot weather and a perfect holiday to most people. The shot then cuts to Shakira looking seductively towards the camera and stroking her hand down the wall. She is also wearing a very revealing top which strongly attracts a male audience. This is done to sell the video to the male population. There was a lot of controversy over the music video to this song as it was very seductive and sexualities Shakira and Rihanna. Videos are moving towards this type as it boosts sales as people enjoy watching it. Videos like Blurred Lines also show off women in a sexual way.
The video only shows clips of Shakira and Rihanna. This is known as star power. Star power is when the artist is shown throughout the video. Although the two artists appear throughout, they are in different outfits at different times. All of these outfits are very sexy and are all very revealing. Sometimes the artists are not wearing any clothes. This represents women as sexual objects and gives a false statement that many women do not agree with.

Most of the shots used in the video are close ups of faces. This is to show the expressions of the face of the two singers. They are mostly looking seductively down the camera lens. There are close ups of Shakira's legs when she is on the bed. This carrys across a sexual message to the viewer.

Editing is used to link the shots together. It normally does this by straight cuts. Also some parts of the video are put into slow motion to focus on facial expressions and to let the audience take in what is happening in the music video.

To conclude i think that videos like these portray a negative image of women. It is a strong selling point to the male population but it then makes them believe that at all women are like the ones screen in the music videos.