Textual Analysis

Artist : Justin Timberlake

Song : Cry Me A River

Record Label : Jived Records

Justin Timberlake's " Cry me a river" has a very distinctive narrative which can be drawn upon from the video itself and the image which it is showing the audience. The narrative in the song is about Justin talking about his public relationship with female pop star Britney Spears. He finally talks about the break up which was scrutinised in the media in 2001. He talks about how she was unfaithful to him and how she broke his heart and he feels that he should get revenge on her which we see in the video. The genre for this song is Pop and RnB.The music video, directed by Francis Lawrence and was released in 2002 as the second single from Justin's solo debut album.

At the beginning of the music video we get a shot of Britney's house and it's pouring down with rain which relates with the song title "Cry me a river". As the song plays we hear and opera voice in the beginning suggesting that this song is telling a story. As the video continues we get a close up of a mirror from a car waiting outside the house of Britney, suggesting that Justin is preparing to break into her house, the use of a close up of his face suggest the anger he has towards her. Throughout the video we see Justin bending down low and doing flips which are impossible but the director's use of the matrix effect shows us that he is sort of immune to the world; it suggest that he can break the rules and get away with it which is reinforced by the fact that he is breaking into some one's house and isn't worried about getting caught. As the video continues we see why he came to her house, he wants to get revenge on her cheating on him so he gets the camera out and records himself kissing another girl on Britney's bed. We get a point of view shot of the camera screen he is using to record the kiss which allows us to imagine were actually there. Later on in the video we see him walking down the corridor saying " Damage is done so i guess I'll be leaving". The use of a mid - close up shot allows us to see the emotions on his face and he is very happy to get revenge. As this is happening we get a quick shot of Britney entering her house while he is still in it, which creates suspense for the audience as they don't know what he will do next; as she walks into the house pass him, we see a grin on his face as if to say he is up to something this is done by a close up shot. Finally the video ends with Britney walking out of the shower and seeing Justin kissing the girl on her TV. The techniques used in the video adhere to other music videos from the same genre, as other RnB videos talk about heart break and getting revenge and a lot of these videos have camera shots of the artist's face to show his or hers emotion in the song. In addition to this other songs usually have the artist getting revenge at the end of the video an example of this is another Justin Timberlake video " What goes around".

Justin is represented as someone with a lot of emotion. This is portrayed through the lyrics and through the chorus mainly " Cry me a river", suggest his heartbreak about his ex girlfriend cheating on him. The camera shots and editing portray Justin as a revengeful person as in the video he is constantly smiling while he is planning his revenge.

Justin Timberlake is signed to Jive Records along with other famous artist such as Usher and Chris Brown. This suggest how big the record label is and suggest that the budget for the music video would have been a lot. The video was distributed and consumed through music channels in the US and Europe such as MTV and Kiss. In addition to this the music video was distributed through the Internet on sites such as YouTube and was also distributed and consumed through I tunes.

The target audience for the video is males as well as females who are aged 16 - 24 as they can mostly relate to the artist as well as the issue. Audiences would watch the music video because they feel that the music video relates to a personal experience they might have had. Another reason why people might watch this music video is because the song had a lot of controversy around it as it was exposing famous Pop star Britney Spears. In addition to this the male gaze is one reason why women may watch the video.