Rihanna's "S&M" music video contains several motifs. It shows Rihanna recognizing herself as a famous musician through scenes of her dancing on newspapers about her and being surrounded by paparazzi. It also features close-ups of Rihanna's body parts to sexually objectify and fragment her body. Additionally, there are scenes of ritual celebration showing Rihanna partying with others. The video causes some controversy through hints that Rihanna looks like a child with her hair, clothes, and movements, pushing boundaries. The lyrics tell a story of Rihanna breaking social norms and pushing taboos through her sexuality, which is portrayed throughout the video.

1. ANALYSIS OF CHOSEN
MUSIC VIDEO
Rihanna S&M

2. MOTIFS- INTERTEXUALITY
• In both of these scenes Rihanna recognises
herself as a music artist.
• Rihanna is standing in front of a green screen
and there are projected news paper articles
about her. This shows that she understands that
she is a hot topic in the media.
• Asshe is dancing on these news papers it shows
us that she does not care about what people
may think of her. Also she is wearing what looks
like underwear which makes her a sexual object
to the public eye.
• In the next scene she is surrounded by paparazzi
who have pinned her against the wall, this also
shows she recognises she is famous and people
want to know about her personal life and why
she is becoming a bad reckless girl.

3. MOTIFS- FRAGMENTATION OF THE
BODY
• There are many close ups of the body which are very
sexual. The fragmentation of her lower back area makes
her a sexual object and these scenes happen a lot to fill
up the gaps in the video.
• The next screen shot is of her hands on the floor, they are
also tied up this also hints at types of intercourse.
• Lastly the close up of her face. She is also eating a
banana in a sexual way . This makes her a sexual object
and people will want to keep watching this. However
some people think she is pushing taboos.

4. MOTIFS- RITUAL CELEBRATION
This music video also has various scenes of ritual celebration, most music videos do this to
make the music video fun and party like. From the pictures we can see Rihanna partying
on two separate occasions. One in a room full of people and the next on a table where
people are dancing around her.

5. CONTROVERSY
Most music videos have some sort of controversy to keep people watching and push
taboos to be better than other music videos so that people watch the music videos and
it makes more sales for the singer.
In the music video Rihanna is hinting towards looking like a child as her hair is in „Pig Tails‟
and her clothes and makeup is childlike. Also the way she moves is also childlike. This is
reinforced by the close-ups which shows you her facial expressions which are also
childlike.

6. NARRATIVE- LYRICS

7. NARRATIVE- LYRICS
• The lyrics of the song does tell a story. I interpret it as she is breaking out of
the social „norms‟ and being „bad‟ what women do not tend to do as most
woman are conservative. She knows that what she is doing and that it is
pushing taboos however she does not care as she says in the lyrics and will
carry on because she's “perfectly good at it”.
• The central theme of the song is love/sexuality which she portrays through
her lyrics. And her video
• The lyrics do act as some dialogue for example in the scene where she is
having a press conference she says “its so good being bad, there's no way
I'm turning back” after this she talks the paparazzi immediately write down
her words.
• I think that the music video, without words, would be interpreted the same as
with the lyrics as some scenes show Rihanna doing thing which would push
taboos and these themes are sexual. However different people would have
different opinions about this.