Eminem and Rihanna's "Love the Way You Lie" music video uses conventions from both film and music videos to tell a story about domestic violence. It features Eminem and Rihanna as well as film stars Megan Fox and Dominic Monaghan portraying characters in a relationship plagued by abuse. Through its narrative structure, characters, settings, and technical elements like lighting and camerawork, the video successfully applies various analysis theories while presenting a serious theme in an engaging way. Overall, the video combines conventions of both the music video and film genres to raise awareness of domestic abuse.

1. Dom Hayes
Music Video Analysis 3
Eminem feat Rihanna – Love the Way You Lie
Target Audience: 15-25 both male + females
Genre: Rap/RnB
Nick Lacey’s repertoire of elements can be applied to find out the genre of music videos, films and
any other media texts. It is seen in this music video and can be applied by consisting of characters,
narrative, iconography, setting and style.
In this music video the analysis of characters when applying Lacey’s theory helps to identify the style
of a video; the characters are the stars, the performers. This is generally conventional of music
videos as they usually contain the actual performer in it, this actually consists of starring Rihanna
and Eminem along with the videos narrative being played out by two contemporary film stars;
Megan Fox and Dominic Monaghan. This is very unusual for a music video as they would not usually
contain film stars to play the roles into the narrative. The way that the characters come across in
the narrative also fits into the theory of Propp as they have designated character roles. Megan Fox in
the video comes across as the princess, Dominic Monaghan as the villain and the man in the bar as
the false hero as he looks to be saving her from him but he arrives and beats him up to get her back.
The use of applying Propps theory is able to make the music video very conventional as most
modern made videos contain narrative and defined character roles in them.
The narrative style in the text is very conventional of mainstream music videos in the modern day. It
portrays a narrative about love and domestic violence which is unusual in some cases, it follows a
very linear narrative so that the spectator can keep up with it and know what is happening

2. Dom Hayes
Music Video Analysis 3
throughout the narrative of the video. This is typically conventional of music videos now as it keeps
the audience entertained and in own opinion if a music video didn’t have an interesting narrative or
follow on, then the video would put me off the song a bit. The theme of the narrative is violence in
relationships as the man in the video is nearly hitting the woman throughout it and creating scenes
of violence with other men, stealing from a shop and at the end sets the house on fire (suggestively
its him). The way that the video is with the narrative follows Todorovs theory of equilibrium. Firstly
everything starts fine the relationship seems fairly happy, the disruption is where he punches the
wall and we start to see the man’s anger, the recognition and attempt to resolve this are as she tries
to get away and meet someone else but he finds her and beats the man up. Then the whole return
to equilibrium is at the end the house is set on fire and the two are shown setting on fire. The
narrative of this video also creates binary opposites between women and men it shows that there is
a fight in this relationship and it is between the two, in ways it is a very strong way to show a battle
of the sexes. This is all conventional of music videos in the modern era as they have started to show
much stronger serious problems that happen in real life as well. This is conventional as it in many
aspects raises awareness despite it only being a music video. Parts of the love story that are shown
fit in well to apply Lacey’s theory as they are constantly being portrayed as this couple in crisis which
is usually seen in pop music videos whereas this is rap, but mainstream music, so the representation
suits the video well.
In terms of iconography this music video is very conventional in the ways it presents its
representations and through it successfully applies itself to Lacey’s theory. As such there is the
iconic item of the teddy bear, this is given to her by the man, this shows the fact that it is an item of
love and conventionally it is shown in romantic comedy films where the man wins his girlfriend a
teddy bear at the fair. This item portrays the love and she holds it tight when it is given to her, also
there is the iconic showing of alcohol to show the way they met and suggesting that their
relationship wasn’t all about fun, there is also the portrayal of her when she gets the bag to leave
and he won’t let her suggesting there is no escape. The iconography that is used in this music video
is conventional as it fits in with the narrative and gives off clues, this can relate to Barthes theory of

3. Dom Hayes
Music Video Analysis 3
the hermeneutic code and from my studies it appears that this is a conventional theory to apply to
rap genre music videos.
The setting is very conventional of a rap music videos love story; it appears that the setting is
generally in an urban low class area of America. This is through the fact that the house seems very
run down and dirty, and the bar seems like a very classic style bar you would find in an area like
Florida or Texas, this therefore is able to apply with Steve Neale’s theory of repetition and
differences as it is usually seen and is conventional of rap music videos to be in a very urban styled
setting. This therefore goes along with a stereotypical and conventional style that rap music videos
have.
Through the technical and audio codes of the music video, we get a very useful image of the
narrative and it helps the audience put the pieces together to get the idea of what is happening
throughout which is very conventional of music videos. There are lots of close ups and medium shots
of the four stars, the performers and the film stars; Megan Fox and Dominic Monaghan. This is
typically conventional of music videos to do as it helps the spectator relate to them and see them a
lot more. The lighting of the music video is very useful in providing evidence for Levi Strauss’ theory
of binary opposites, this is evident through there being high key lighting when the couple are happy
and shown in love whereas there is low key lighting when there is conflict between them, more
often shown in the bar and the house. This is conventional of music videos and in fact films to do
which the stars relate to both. The video is very useful in the way it uses the camera as it uses it
much like a film, such as when it uses a tracking shot to follow Megan Fox through the house
sideways to show the abusive boyfriend following her smashing open the doors she closes behind
her as she is attempting to escape, this is very unusual as it presents it as if it is a horror film or a
thriller. This is able to go along with Steve Neale’s theory as it is representing a difference between
this and other music videos,as it is typically using a much more film technique.
To conclude this whole music video applies very successfully towards Steve Neale’s theory and Nick
Lacey’s as the video is in aspects very different and unconventional but on the same wave length is
very conventional of a music video, especially within the rap genre. The video sets itself to a very
relationship themed narrative where it explores the seriousness of domestic abuse and present it in
a very film themed way, it uses the techniques successfully and very usefully as it is able to apply to
most theories and creates a very narrative set music video.