Video analysis Geri Halliwell - It's Raining Men

In the opening scene you don't see the artist's face and all you can hear is diegetic sound - the footsteps, traffic outside and the record. It creates suspense using fragmented body shots and an enigma to her identity. The record signifies a before cd era with two lots of two shots of the judges in their suits. His mode of address is well spoken and of a higher class to Geri who seems common. It is 51 seconds into the video before you see her face.

A quote from Andrew Goodwin's Dancing in the distraction factory states that there is a number of key features in a music video;

There is a relationship between the lyrics and visuals with the visuals either illustrating, amplifying and contradicting. - Stormy weather rolling in. Geri Halliwell is dancing in-front of a screen showing storm clouds, this is known as chromakey footage. As she sings 'its raining men' outside it begins to rain. When the song slows down the visuals mirror this by over-cranking the artists dance moves.

As she sings the 'melody's rising' the camera pans up her body.

Particular music genres have their own music video style and iconography. -Iconography is symbolic an example of this is tumbleweed relates to Western themes. The tumbleweed symbolises a western era. The music video style of this video is dance, the iconography of this is the dance school and the backing dancers.

Demand on the part of the record company for lots of close ups on the main artist. - At the beginning of the sequence it is 51 seconds in before we see her face creating suspense and showing off her body with fragmented body shots. Geri is very much foregrounded in centre frame when the dancers are behind her. She changes outfit several times. In one scene she is above the rest of the dancers to stand out and there are a number of close ups of her singing into the camera. We see cuts of her training and in different classes to give the impression she is in a school of arts and to show hard work which gives the video authenticity. When she dances in-front of a picture of stormy weather singing 'I feel stormyweather moving in' she is dancing seductively. 'It's raining men' and it literally rains. This shows the visuals mirroring the lyrics and she dances seductively in-front of the camera and walks towards the camera until it fades out. Throughout the video the camera pans up and down her body several times which shows the male gaze.

Often there is likely to be reference to the voyeurism - watching people in a sexual situation or notion of looking. - There is a reaction shot of somebody looking through the door as Geri begins to dance. The movement of the camera is to the music and we see an over the shoulder shot of the judges to show what they can see. More students are watching through the door giving her star status.

Often there is likely to be intertextual references either to films, other music videos or tv. - An example of intertextual references in this video is from the film 'Flashdance'. This is seen at the very beginning of the sequence when she auditions, falls over and then starts again.

Another intertextual reference is to the film 'Fame'. She wears a top towards the end of the video in the colours and font of fame logo but the top says 'famous' instead. The whole video is also filmed in an American style dance school like 'Fame'.