"Disturbia" is a song by artist Rihanna, taken from the re-release," Good girl gone bad:Reloaded(2008）”, which changed Rihanna from a cute "girly girly" to a sexy adult, highlighting the fact that she had grown up and was no longer a "good girl". The song is an up tempo dance-pop and electro-pop song and it describes the general experiences of anguish, anxiety and confusion.
At the beginning of the video, there was a wired sound like fingers running along a piano. We can see a hand that had fingers painted black along with long fingernails paly along a piano. Then Rihanna appeared as a powerful woman, with a fan in her hand. She was all in black suit and sitting on a black leather chair appearing in control whilst her chair is spinning. This black suit and chair made her a character like Evil Entity who would control others and make people being possessed. There were also other strange characters surrounding her doing weird things. One example can be a man with one eye patch was spinning two wheels with his arm. Everything seemed in Rihanna’s control and a performance is just beginning.
She took pleasure in tormenting the possessed Rihanna, who was shown in many different ways in the video. On the one hand, the evil entity can be the dark side of the human being that tried to control their spirits and behavior. On the other hand, the evil entity and different characters of Rihanna in the music video represent Rihanna's different images and she want to change the typical image of audience and become a bad girl.
When the music " dum dum di dum " appears, viewers can see Rihanna with short haircut and lens which make her eyes look white. Eyes is the windows to the soul. It means that Rihanna's soul was taken away by evil entity. She was behind the bars, representing the imprisonment of her free will and thoughts. She was depressed and spared no effort to escape from bars but failed eventually.
The later part of video shows that Rihanna was rasied at arms in length above by crowds with hands reached out to touch her, which indicates that she is above everyone else and seemed untouchable like kinds of worship. And them a bunch of people were dancing in a robotic way, just like zombies. It seemed that Rihanna was controlled by evil entity and danced with other monsters and she has gone insane because she wanted to get rid of control but failed. After that Rihanna was attached a post and burnt at a stake, which shows that evil entity tried to torture her and destroyed her body and minds. At the second bridge of the video, Rihanna was wearing a bodysuit that made up of webs and then a spider crawed her body and the lyric " Am I scared you now", indicating that she wanted to show audience that she was not a little girl squeamished by spider and she eager to shock the audience. At the same time, her hands and feeds was trapped inside the walls and ground and she wanted freedom so much.
This video demonstrates the dilemma of evil and possessed. The different Rihanna in the video is different images in different people. She wants to use this music video to breakthrough the preconceived ideas people given to her and creates a totally new Rihanna, who is an elegance, cold-blooded and mature woman. What does the image of Cleopatra represent? Why does the evil entity win at the end?
For more information:
http://aurion-tenosai.deviantart.com/journal/Truth-about-Rihanna-s-quot-Disturbia-quot-Part-232056562
This is most certainly a strange video and it seems to draw heavily on psychotic and masochistic themes. The mind can be easily compromised and this video does a great job of the slipping away into disturbia that Rihanna sings about. The whole presentation is actually quite vague and allows the concept of a dark paranoia to be brought on by a variety of different situations. The video uses evil and wretched imagery as a metaphor that would seem to convey the internal anguish that we can experience inside our heads. At the end it seems to show that since the issues were left to fester she was beyond saving in the end.
ReplyDeleteThis video does have a very dark theme to it. I think that it could represent rihanna being in the dark about certain things in life, or that she is confused. The way the video ends, I think could be saying that she is at the point of now return and that she has accepted her state.
ReplyDeleteThis song is such a throwback! The white eyes may be one of the creepiest things ever. But regardless, I thoroughly enjoyed this analysis. This is one of those videos you look at and just say wtf. Rihanna is most definitely above everyone else; she is even shown with an Egyptian crown like the Egyptian queens would wear. At this point in her career she was indeed on top of all other female singers, but Nicki Minaj basically claimed her domain over the past year. It is interesting to compare Rihanna here to the new Rihanna in "We Found Love" because she still plays into this weird persona as if she doesn't even control herself any way.
ReplyDeleteThis video is very creepy. The white eyes and sporadic movement just creeps me out. I think this was definitely supposed to seem scary to the viewer. Rihanna seems like her mind and body was taken over by some evil force and is causing her "disturbia". I'm not sure why she wants this view.
ReplyDeleteThis video freaked me out. I understand that Rihanna is trying to prove that she is over little girl type fears but I just feel like this video is awkward. She is tied at the stake, spiders crawl on her, she is chained to the ground. I get that the song is called disturbia so it is supposed to be disturbing but I feel like this Rihanna is scary. All of the zombie like dancers show her in control. If she does anything, they do it. This video has always freaked me out and thats definitely still true.
ReplyDeleteI think video is awesome because this was unlike any other Rihanna videos when it first came out. I do believe since this was on her good girl gone bad album, like you said she was trying to break her good girl image with something so dark and weird. She defintely shows a different side to her that i feel could represent all the anger in her life and not being in control, because we see one Rihanna persona as being in charge yet there are many other persona's of hers in this video that are locked up in a cage acting crazy, and also chained to the floor.
ReplyDeleteI never have seen this video until now but I agree with everyone who said it was disturbing. In a way, I can see how Rihanna is using this video to break out of her old good girl music and into a new darker side. The white eyes and all the creatures and zombies are perfect for the "Disturbia" world. With this video, she definitely exemplifies the "good girl gone bad" image just as her new album suggests.
ReplyDeleteIt is interesting how she plays into the mentally insane "look" by being tied to a chair and restrained. I'm not completely sure her reasoning for the spider look, I think there could be more meaning behind it. I wonder what her reason is for creating this part of her persona? She is using the dark side to seem older but it isn't a normal way to appear older.
ReplyDeleteI agree with everyone else, this is scary. Maybe the "disturbia" she is referring to is something dark that has happened in her life, or she was in a bad situation that made her feel "like a monster". She seems to be taken over by something evil which could be her going bad.
ReplyDeleteBefore I say anything regarding the video, I just want to add that I WILL MISS THIS CLASS... Ok, now concerning the video, I agree that in conjunction with other videos on the "Good Girl Gone Bad" album, she was supposed to break into the pop scene as an enigmatic artist and not just a singer. I thought the creepiest things were the tarantulas on her body.
ReplyDeleteDefinitely a strange video by Riannna, but she definitely made it more interesting with some of her outfits, or less there of. I was really unsure of the dance moves, it almost looked as if they were all in the middle of a standing seizure and I wasn't too sure about why she was dressed like cleopatra.
ReplyDeleteI felt like I just watched a horror movie. Too many questions in my mind on why things happened in this video. Definitely a weird one. The spiders makes the point that she isn't afraid anymore and she is her own woman now. I have no idea why she was dressed like Cleopatra. That didn't make any sense. But like I said, a lot of stuff in this video didn't make sense.
ReplyDeleteThe video definitely has the feeling of a horror movie and I agree with Eric about the psychotic theme. If the video is taken as the battle within herself it makes more sense. Everyone has some level of craziness but by letting those personalities control us we become disturbed. Someone who is disturbed is not in there right mind and may not fear anything. They would certainly act in unpredictable ways as demonstrated in the video. As Ryan said lots of references going on here, maybe to appear more "out-there".
ReplyDeleteI am pretty sure this has something to do with the persona that she was trying to pursue...something about girl gone bad or something? I don't know...I agree with clayton on the comment made about everyone has some level of craziness by letting those personalities control us we become disturbed...because we aren't ourselves or we can't control who we truly are...and that in itself freaks out some people because they have no control over anything...
ReplyDeleteThis is one of the freakiest videos I've seen in a while especially with the white eye balls. I think that Rihanna uses evilness to prove to the world that she's a self-proclaimed "bad girl", instead of the once innocent girl we knew from "Pon de Replay". Its interesting that in this video she lets this darkness control herself, where its unclear who Rihanna even is on the inside. The creepiness overcomes her and the entire video.
ReplyDeleteI think Rihanna might have been referring to a life event that she went through. The event made her not want to be good anymore. She probably thought since she was good all the time and bad things kept happening to her than she would just try to be bad instead. This could be the new free person she wants to be.
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