Narrative Theory applied to Anaconda

Nicki Minaj- Anaconda

Using Tim O’Sullivan’s narrative theory; which states that every media text tells the audience some kind of story. The lyrics in the song tell a story throughout. In the first verse it is noticed that anaconda is referring to the buttocks. Whereas in the second verse, more of the narrative is established. Throughout the verse Nicki sings about a boy from Detroit buys her designer clothing from money he earned selling drugs; this suggests that Nicki has a pimp.

Within media, it is argued that there are 3 different aspects of music videos. These are performance, narrative and abstract. This video is only performance based as it just features the artist dancing/twerking and showing her behind to the audience. Nicki Minaj is known for her sex appeal and flaunts her behind often as it is globally recognisable.

This video lacks any kind of verisimilitude within the diegesis. It is extremely rare that you would find a large number of scantily clad women dancing in a sexual manner in the middle of a jungle. Additionally, as a person, Nicki Minaj is viewed as a fantasy figure. This links to Laura Mulvey’s male gaze theory. This theory suggests that women within the media are represented sexually and that the media is viewed from a straight male’s perspective. The theory certainly applies when watching this video as women are viewed as sexual objects from start to finish in the media text. Women would argue that this video gives them a bad name as they are just viewed as sexual objects, they would suggest that they should be able to have control and success throughout dressing and performing whilst scantily clad.

In narrative theory it is said that there are three types of relationship between song content and narrative content; these are illustration, amplification and disjuncture. When applying this to the anaconda video the relationship type is amplification. This is because the narrative whilst inspired by the song adds a narrative element to complement the themes. For example, the song is about how women’s sexuality is powerful over men. This is injected into the narrative through the vast use of close ups on women’s sexually prominent body parts such as their legs, bums and breast. It can be argued that the video is used for the purpose of gaining male attention; rather than the genre’s intended audience of young females.

Levi-Strauss’ binary oppositions are implemented in the video; the key oppositions put across are men vs women and rich vs poor. The men vs women opposition is the one shown more often as women are not only represented as objects, which in some cases people would suggest this is a weakness, however in the lyrics Nicki is singing about how her sexuality can influence and control a man. She even suggests that control over men gained her wealth. At one stage of the song, Nicki sings “Real country ass nigga, let me play with his rifle, Pussy put his ass to sleep, now he calling my NyQuil”. Vicks Nyquil is a medication that will help you sleep through the night. Therefore Nicki is suggesting that after engaging in sexual activity, the male just goes to sleep; this implies that men only want women for sexual reasons and after they have been used they just let them go.