Introduction
Eleven years ago, Rihanna introduced the single “Man Down”; the Caribbean-inspired reggae song was included on the singer’s fifth studio album, Loud. Overall, the song was a moderate success worldwide but became a hit in Europe, topping the charts in France and Switzerland. “Man Down” received mostly good reviews from critics, who called the song a real highlight of the album. The message of the song is to draw attention to the social vulnerability of women, especially in Latin American countries.
The General Message
In fact, the metaphor of murder is used in the video to show that such topics should not be hidden from the public, especially from children. Otherwise, according to Rihanna, they will not learn to adapt to society, and if they do, they will be embarrassed to talk about rape (Ferreday, 2017). Indeed, the singer and her team used many visual, musical, and stylistic devices to show the world the scale of the problem of the infringement of women’s rights and the widespread victim-blaming.
Stylistic Analysis
Murder in the context of this song is a gesture of desperation in a woman who has no other way to defend herself. This is evident in the pathos of the song, in which the story begins with a pleasantly relaxing Caribbean story with colorful shots and ends with a story of cruelty and social injustice (Jansen & Westphal, 2017). “He could have been someone’s son” – this line reflects appeals to humanistic sentiment (Rihanna, 2011). Logos manifests itself in various flashbacks, reflected both visually, through the transitions of the frames, and verbally in the lyrics of the song. Rhetorical questions as a means of expression reveal the ethos and allow the listeners to feel the humanity of the lyrical heroine and her sacrificial position: “Why did I pull the trigger? (Rihanna, 2011)” The Latin American motifs and rhythmic insertions create a special effect, giving the story a special dramatic quality.
Conclusion
Thus, this song is an independent statement and is not attached to a thematic album or a series of musical videos. The message that Rihanna wanted to convey was clear and unambiguous for the audience, thanks to the variety of correctly chosen means of artistic expression. The song and the video create a romantic atmosphere that contrasts with the content of the song. Visual, linguistic, and acoustic effects helped make this statement vivid and memorable.
References
Ferreday, D. (2017). ‘Only the Bad Gyal could do this’: Rihanna, rape-revenge narratives and the cultural politics of white feminism. Feminist Theory, 18(3), 263–280. Web.
Jansen, L., & Westphal, M. (2017). Rihanna works her multivocal pop persona: A morpho-syntactic and accent analysis of Rihanna’s singing style.English Today, 33(2), 46–55. Web.
Rihanna. (2011).Man down [Video]. YouTube. Web.