Similar text analysis - Leona Lewis and Shakira

I have chosen Shakira - She Wolf and Leona Lewis - Bleeding Love. The contrast between the two artists is clear as one is renowned for her ‘sexiness’ and not her voice and the other has become England’s latest musical sensation and is generally seen as one of the best ‘singers’ around.
In the two videos the mise-en-scene makes their talents clear, Shakira spends more time dancing seductively then actually singing, whereas Leona Lewis is singing her heart out and does not dance at all. Shakira’s dancing display is clearly meant to entice the male audience as half of her body is nude and half is not. Most of the shots in She Wolf are long shots so the audience can see Shakira’s ‘sexy’ movements. At the beginning we have a close up of Shakira’s nails, which are a very feminine feature and thought to be sexy, thus further highlighting the intentions of this video. There is a stage in the song, which keeps getting repeated in that Shakira is locked up in a cage making inferences to strip clubs, which tend to be a common male fantasy. The use of camera shots in She Wolf is interesting as there are plenty of close-ups in the video mostly of Shakira’s lips or eyes trying to furthermore highlight the sex appeal of this video.
Leona Lewis in Bleeding Love is more serious and less sex appealing, the message of this video is the problems of relationships, this concurrently co notates to the subliminal message that women are emotion in terms of relationships as it is the girl/s in all of the mini-stories in the video which are upset with their boyfriend or have caused a problem. Whereas Shakira is going for the sex appeal, Leona is trying to reach her audience emotionally and hoping that many people can connect with the lyrics and the message that they send. Along with what is happening with the couples in the video.
The Story of Shakira’s video is plain and simple – she is sneaking out to unleash her inner self while her other half sleeps – hence why the end of the video she sneaks back into bed and smiles as though she has gotten away with murder. Through the duration of the video Shakira is using her sexiness in front of the camera. Shakira dancing in the way she does is clear to entice (other than her other half) men, again relating to maybe why she snuck out earlier.
The Story of Leona Lewis’s video is that she is hurt and is on the same level as her audience, the emotionally hurt people in the video represent Leona’s audience and represent that Leona is not so different from her audience and allows a deep connection between Leona and her audience, unlike Shakira is not just sexual.
The underlying themes in each video do not have much relevance as I feel that these two songs are marketed completely differently to gain a huge audience. Shakira has gone for total sex appeal, which will entice many males as well as gaining support from women who aspire to be ‘that sexy’. On the other hand Leona Lewis has gone for emotional appeal and this will encourage support from both men and women who have emotional problems with their other half.
The representation of women in these two videos is the same as they have always been in music. Women are Emotional. Women are sexual objects to their audience. Although saying that because of the sheer talent that Leona Lewis has in terms of her voice and performances she is more of an independent woman and is one of very few women performers that do not have to go down the route of using their body and ‘sexiness’ to get viewers and listeners to their music.