Takin' Back My Love- Ciara ft. Enrique Inglesias

The song "Takin' Back My Love" features Ciara and Enrique Iglesias as they create a  narrative based music video to create a clear and substantial relation between the lyrics and the visual imagery. The video is set within a very large house where at first portraits of the artist are seen, suggesting that they are in an intimate relationship with one another. At this point, we assume that the couple is very happy together.

However, this is contradicted when the next scene shows a low angle establishing shot both artists arguing aggressively with one another in the exterior of the house. The body language within the shot suggests that they are very angry with one another. The dark and dullness of the lighting plays a significant role within the video as it shows the negativity within a relationship and how it could end.

A close up of the male throwing his jewelry on the floor resorts into the chorus where the male begins to sing,  " I give it all up". At this point hell breaks loose within the entire house as the couple begin to destroy one each others belongings. At this point dramatic close-ups are used to emphasize things being demolished. The speed of the shots has been decreased to exaggerate the idea that both artists are shattering and damaging things to prove a point as the chorus is being sung, "takin' back my love".

This over the shoulder shot shows the couple arguing with one another showing the expressions on the face of Ciara as she shows a compassionate look towards Enrique. The camera focuses on her face as she sings her verse within the song.


All of a sudden the lights black out and flicker, at this point the couple stop arguing with one another and begin to share a strong chemistry within the room. The lights begin to switch on and off and a severe amount of lust takes over within the video. The couple begin to smile whilst having such intimate body language between one another. The relationship seems as if it consists of a mere love-hate relation.

 The video ends with two loud smashing sounds with intense blackouts creating the immediate end. The imagery flashes from a broken wine glass to a snapshot of a lamp shade against a wall. The video overall, has a very artist feel to it as it keeps within the pop and R&B genre. The video simply consists of many expressive movements and reactions which hold the video together creating a powerful and dramatic video.

The video consists of many crosscuts where the artists express their anger. Ciara stands in front of a plain background with a bright spotlight on her as she vigorously shakes her head towards the camera. The lighting plays a significant role within the video, throughout the entire video the lighting creates different tones where at points the light looks as if it has been reflected and several smears within are used. As the light hits different objects we see different tones being used. Throughout the video there are mixtures of artificial lighting as well as natural. If the video only consisted of natural lighting, the video would not give off the same effect as it does at present. The shadows are exaggerated using all forms of lighting.

• This particular music genre which is a mixture of pop and R&B has its own original music video style and iconography as it usually consists of a narrative that involves a couple and the video setting is very neutral towards the genre as it is set in a house which is the norm for the R&B genre.

• Strangely in this video, there is no evidence of voyeurism towards women as she is not sexually exposed or  treated in a bad way. However, it could be argued that she is being constantly pushed around by the male.

• You can clearly see inter-textual references within the video as this is a basic argument taking place between a couple, so you can clearly see that there is some sort of love story being inspired within.

• The video consists of many close-ups of both artists which meant that the record label wanted to emphasize the artists future iconography.