'It's Raining Men' Music Video by Geri Halliwell

In one of our lessons, our whole class watched the music video of 'It's Raining Men' by Geri Halliwell. After we watched it we all had to write notes on analysing it and explaining why certain things have been put in there. I have included this into my blog as it gives the idea of what sort of things we all should be considering when making a music video and making sure the storyline relates to the song choice. We need to make sure we interpret the music. Below is the actual music video for 'It's Raining Men'.





Below are the notes that we all made in class about the music video:

• Starts off like a FAME audition. FAME top she is wearing --> intertextuality
• Very upbeat song/active
• Contrasts of what she is wearing and the judges
• A lot of focus on her physique
• Almost within the first minute of the song we don't know what she looks like --> builds suspense and curiosity for the viewers
• The song is used in the Bridget Jones film --> Empowerment of women, showing shes in control
• Form of song and dance routine --> borrowed form musicals
• Drawn heavily to flash dance
• She puts on a vinyl --> authenticity, iconographic
• Judges --> formal, suits
• --> they all look down there nose at her
• Diegetic sound of her footsteps at the beginning. All we have are fragmented sots --> creates sense of anticipation enigma (puzzle)
• Judge says to Geri, 'In your own time miss Halliwell' --> formal and patronising
• When the music starts the camera is positioned at the judges --> seeing expression on judges faces. Also, notion of looking throughout, framed by judges
• Over shoulder shots --> we as the viewers are looking at it from the judges point of view
• Notion of looking continues with students watching her dance through door
• When she sings, 'Humidity is rising', she raises her hand which at the same time the camera scrolls up echoing the word rising
• As the verse builds, people flock to see her dance
• By the end of the first chorus, the judges have taken their glasses off and are tapping their feet to the music which we are aware of from having a foot level shot. They have abandoned their stern looks and appear to be enjoying the performance
• As the chorus begins, the other students burst into the room and dance carnival style, jumping around wearing colourful outfits
• Geri is always framed in the centre
• In the second the phase of the video, Geri breaks down patriarchal barriers by crawling across the table and kisses the head judge
• She has also had an outfit change into yellow hotpants
• She is seen above the other dancers by a low angled shot making her visually dominant
• Her third outfit is a red top which we see the top half of it as she is given a close up shot of her face and she is singing to the camera, which personalises the video and engages the viewer
• When she sings "berometers getting low" the cameras scrolls down revealing her 4th outfit which is a blue top and jogging bottoms
• There are emphasise of the other dancers as they come in front of the camera doing splits etc however we don’t see their faces
• In the third phase of the video we see Geri doing aerobics/ crunches portraying how she got her physique that has been emphasised throughout
• This video is a typical American teen film - rushing to lesson
• There is a contrast between the two dances seen in the video. She is no good at ballet however she leads the flash dance
• Towards the end she bursts through the front doors wearing a leather jacket, portraying rebellion
• The filming is taken outside to what becomes a street party tightly framed to make it appear busier
• On the words "stormy weather" there is chromakey present. The shot is low angle and the movements are slow motion. the lighting gets darker which we are lead to believe is to do with the storm