Rihanna - We Found Love Analysis - Def Jam Recordings

Click here for music video

Context:

"We Found Love" is a song recorded by Barbadian singer Rihanna from her sixth studio album, Talk That Talk. it was written and produced by DJ Calvin Harris; the song was also featured on his third album 18 Months. The song premiered on September 22 2011 on the Capital FM radio station in the UK, and was made available to download on the same day as the lead single from Talk That Talk. While the song follows most of the criteria of your standard uptempo house track, the song sneaks in more subversive topics of drugs and the addictive side effects of relationships, as tackled in the music video. To say it connected with the public is an understatement; the song sold 20 million copies worldwide, becoming one of the best-selling singles by anyone, and earning its place among the best Def Jam songs in the process.

Analysis:

The genre of this song is dance pop and electro house. The video is focused more on a story than a dance routine which is incorporated in with the track. It closeuly focuses on Rihanna and her boyfriend (in the video) and shows their love story over a period of time. It is clear that drug use is a main element of their relationship and they appear to be more on drugs than in a normal state. The video is aimed at teenagers of around 16+, as people this age tend to get in relationships and may get involved with drug use.

They appear to live in an urban area that is built up and not necessarily a nice place to live in. Also living in a flat togetger which appears to be one main room which is messy, dirty and the wallpaper is clouds suggesting the state of mind they're in when in the room due to their drug use.

As the beat builds up in the song, the images shown during the video are of drugs, a dilated pupil and their messy room - this all associates the consequences of them doing drugs and when the beat drops they appear to be dancing and raving to the beat, this could symbolise the state they're in after taking these drugs.

There are many close up shots focusing on the two main characters within the whole video. Firstly there are individual shots of them both which suggests what they have ended up like after the relationship with all the drugs and then close ups of them together to show what they were like at the start and how close their relationship was, implying they felt together and united as one rather than seperate and distant. There are also Mid-shots which are used to show Rihanna's location at the time which is then followed by many close ups emphasising her body and facial expressions. Camera shots are also used to show the couple together touching each other and kissing each other implying to the audience that they are in a relationship. 

Cuts are used in the editing to show a change in time and location many times during the video. Rapid editing is used to also fit the track and the electro genre of the song. Depth of field is also used briefly to focus on the person and make the background blurred. This could've been used to connect the audience to the characters more deeply and clearly show the audience what is happening and what the characters are feeling.