Research and Planning: Andrew Goodwin - Music Video Analysis Research

The audio has not been used to influence the visual in this video, instead it focuses on the narrative. The verses and choruses are shot the same, I cannot see a difference between the two. However in the bridge we see a change in location and the editing does become a faster pace.
The lyrics are about cars but if you look at them carefully then you can see they are actually sexual metaphors.  The narrative video follows the star working on some cars and then conducting a race between two males in their cars. Through out this the shots are sexualised and the male gaze is used. This means the video combines the literal meaning of the narrative and also the hidden meaning, which is very clever. Obviously the hidden meaning of the story is hidden because that would mean the video would be to explicit for her younger fans. It has been in the news recently that Rihanna's newer videos have had some complains for being to sexy and unsuitable for younger viewers. See this MTV news article for the story: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1657250/rihannas-sm-video-director-responds-controversy.jhtml
Andrew Goodwin's theory also looks at star image. Rihanna is the star, who is thought of as a young sexy woman and that is how the video portrays her. Nearly every shot has her in it, including lots of close ups of her face and body parts, such as her legs. Rihanna is also thought as to be a strong female character and I think this is represented by the fact that she is working in an environment that is usually male dominated. Showing that the view of women being strong is emergent.
I think this video is amplifying, the hidden meaning of the song is represented through the shots of Rihanna's legs etc where as the shots of the cars and car garage amplify the obvious meaning of the song.