Music videos: Similar Text Analysis

Title /artist: Pink – Perfect

Genre: rock, rock pop

Target audience: teenagers/young adults 11- 25

Lyrics: Made a wrong turn, Once or twice Dug my way out, Blood and fire Bad decisions, That's alright Welcome to my silly life

Mistreated, misplaced, misunderstood Miss "no way, it's all good", It didn't slow me down Mistaken, Always second guessing Under estimated, Look, I'm still around

Pretty, pretty please Don't you ever, ever feel Like your less than less than perfect. Pretty, pretty please If you ever, ever feel Like your nothing You are perfect to me…

Music: key board, drums, guitar and bass

Narrative: The narrative is non-linear as it begins with the main character (female, early 20’s) laying in her bed with her partner. She stares into the distance and spots a teddy bear from her childhood which then triggers flashbacks from her past. These flashbacks make up most of the video consisting of scenes. Where she is a child and being told off by her teacher for fighting a boy who stole her teddy, arguing with her mum about the outfit she wanted to wear, getting caught stealing a dress after watching a group of skinny girls try it on, weighing herself then slitting her wrists and spelling the words ‘’perfect’’ on her arm In the bath tub. She gets up from the bath tub and cuts her hair this symbolises her new life. There then is a flashback of her in an art gallery standing next to her work smiling for the first time in her life. The last shot of that flashback is of a man walking into the gallery which we realise is later to become her partner who is at the beginning of the video. It then goes back to her in her bed which was the beginning of the scene. She picks up the teddy and takes it to her daughter in the other room she then mouths the words “you are perfect”.

The video is mainly narrative driven which I think works particularly well as the lyrics and the music relate to the story line which is being performed. However Pink (the artist) is

shown in many scenes singing whilst a faint image of the narrative is being shown in the background. She also features as one of the characters in the scene in the art gallery. Showing Pink in the video lets the audience know who the song is by.

The mode of address in this song is mainly third person as the audience is put in the main characters point of view as she shows us different moments of her life which got her to where she is now. This is effective as it makes us empathise with her as if we actually got to live the moments with her. An indirect address was used for the narrative part of this video as the characters in the video act as if they are not being watched by an audience whereas a direct address is used when Pink sings as she looks directly towards the camera as if she is singing to us.

There are no obvious uses of intertexuality in the video but if you are a fan of Pink you would realise that ‘’Perfect ‘’ is linked to her song ‘Raise your glass ‘’ which has a similar narrative and message to the song. In one of the flashbacks Pink see the main character in the art gallery and raises her glass to her.

Themes: There are many themes that are being addressed. The main one which was recurring through the whole video was ‘’ self-hatred’’. Through her flashbacks from all the different ages the main character was not happy with her life or better to say herself. In one of the flashbacks she watches a group of girls in the changing rooms. She sees there slim bodies and becomes jealous she results to vandalising the toilets and writing ‘’skinny bitches’’ on the toilet walls.

Although on the surface it may seem that she does not like the girl which is the reason for her actions the real reason is that she is not feeling happy with her body and wished she looked like those girls. There is a scene where she is in her bathroom whilst she steps on the weighing scale you see her sickly tiny frame and her spine sticking out of her back this shows that she has been starving herself to get to the size that the other girls are at. She then carves the words ‘’perfect ‘’ into her skin whilst laying in the bath this image is very alarming. It represents self-hatred, how everyone is trying to be perfect and how no one is ever happy with themselves. Other themes in the video are bullying, peer pressure, freedom and being trapped.

Ideology: The ideology in this music video centres on the concept of beauty, How beauty and is seen as only tall girls with size 0 frames and long hair. This video shows the struggle a woman goes through to find herself while nearly giving in to the idea of beauty and forgetting herself. The main message in this video is that everybody is perfect no matter what shape or size or colour or height.

Representations:

The social issues that occurred in this video were mainly focused on the main character’s teenage life. The flashbacks show scenes of how she was teased as a young kid through to her teenage life. She never seemed to fit in. In all of her flashbacks she was either arguing or being shouted at by various people in her life. Until her big transformation she finally felt like she fitted in.

The difference in social class was very apparent. This was shown in the flashback were she stole the dress. She was wearing a name tag clearly showing that she worked for the store placing her in the working class category, whereas the girls in the store were trying on clothes in a high end store which clearly shows that they are of a middle class background. The middle class girls were represented as stuck up, mean and spiteful. This was shown by the girls looking appalled and taking photos of the working class girl as she was being kicked out of the shop after attempting to steal a dress.

The main character was shown as a Goth in one of the flashbacks. The video stereotypes her by making her result to slitting her wrists. The video also stereotypes middle class people as mean and snobby as all the middle class girls where bitchy and stuck up.

In the beginning of the video you see the couple being intimate with each other but there was no use of exhibitionism. However the audience can clearly tell what they are doing by the bare skin and the position of the characters. Some may say that the flashback of the girl watching the other girls in the changing room can be seen as voyeurism as she is spying through the door watching them. However I believe that this is a very effective way of showing how insecure she is of her body as she wants to be like them.

Pink was the only well-known star in this video, she also starred in one of the flashbacks and used a motif from one of her previous songs ‘’raise your glass’’ by raising her glass to the main character.

Technical codes:

The first shot was from behind the wall. The camera tracks round into the bedroom this looks as though the audience is spying on the couple being intimate which is a sense of voyeurism. It then cuts to a medium close up (MCU) of the main girls face staring into space. The camera cuts to a close up (CU) of a teddy bear which triggers her flashbacks. During some of her flashbacks pink is superimposed in the shot while she sings and the action is going on behind her.

The camera does a pull focus and blurs out the scenes behind her and Pink sings for a while until the camera pans diagonally into the action and while cutting Pink out of the shot. While the girl is slitting her wrists the use of a CU of the sharp razor blades and her delicate skin are effective as they emphasise the awfulness of the situation. CU of her facial expressions while she is slitting her wrists are used to show the audience how much pain she’s going through and to make us sympathise with her. The use of extreme close ups (ECU) of the blood in the water is very shocking as the two colours juxtapose well together.

A CU of her hand full of blood dropping the razor on the floor was used to symbolise the end of her old life. A MCU of the words perfect carved into her hand while the bath is now full of blood shows the struggle she has been through to try to be perfect. This also ties all the flashbacks together and gives the audience a better understanding of the plot. There then is a CU shot of the teddy bear that she saw in the beginning of the video seeing this makes her realise that she needs to stop. She gets out of the bath and there are CU’s of scissors, cutting her hair and her eyes damp and red from crying. This symbolises the start of her new life.

The scene where she is slitting her wrists there is a moment of silence where she is laying in the bath. All you can hear is the ambient sound of the tap dripping. This is very effective as the silence is juxtaposed with the music from the rest of the song. It also gives the audience a chance to digest what is going on. When the girl gets up from the bath the music then starts again.

The main use of editing was the superimposition of Pink singing while the flashbacks were occurring. At some points the flashbacks were shown behind pink as if they were being projected to a screen behind her. The clever use of the camera cuts matching the speed and mood of the music e.g. as she was cutting her hair the cuts were very fast as was the music being a changing point in her life.

Symbolic codes:

(Mise –en- scene)

In nearly every shot the main character is by herself this shows her attitude towards the rest of the world. The video is set in the suburb in America. The flashbacks take place in school, in her house and in her workplace. These locations immediately give the audience an image of a normal life. Which we then find out is clearly not the case. The girl’s costume is ordinary girly fashion. We see in one flashback she tries to go to school with heavy make up on and gothic clothing but gets stopped by her mum and gets made to change. The only time she is dressed in her own style is towards the end of the film where she finally broke past the peer pressure. During the bath scenes the girl is dressed in Barbie pyjama’s symbolising who she wants to be like. This is an enigma code.

Cultural codes:

There are not many indications of iconography in this video to show particular culture codes but little subtle things can help us guess. I believe this video is based in modern times as the way the characters dress is contemporary. I also predict that this video was based in America as the girl scores an ‘’F ‘’ on her test whereas in England we do not have those grade boundaries. The houses indicate it was set in the suburbs of America making the main character an average working class girl.

Audience Readings:

The preferred reading of this video was for the audience to understand the message that it’s okay to be different and that there are other people like you in the world. The oppositional reading of this video would be people thinking that this video is promoting and supporting self-harming and bullying.

Overall I think this video is excellent. It has both narrative and performance and portrays a very strong message that seems to be forgotten in this day and age. That the image the media portrays is not the right image for everyone. Everyone is beautiful in their own way and though it may not seem at the time someone out there thinks you are perfect just the way you are!

Link :http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U5BpS44bzA0

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