Textual analysis – Beyonce,
Pretty Hurts
The video
that I am analyzing is Beyonce, Pretty hurts which was directed by Melina Matsoukas. This video is about the representation
of women and how they can be pressured into looking ‘’perfect’’ in today's society. Beyonce shows this by acting as a women taking part in a beauty pageant.
We see the character on stage pretending to be happy with herself but also when
she is alone and feeling like she is under pressure.
The genre of the song is pop,
the music video follows a lot of the typical conventions of pop music videos. Pop
music videos usually have a link between the lyrics and visuals which this
video does do. The editing usually matches the pace of the of song which this
video does although this video does go against some of the conventions such as
pop videos usually having bright lighting and being really positive, this video
is portraying quite a negative message and the overall tone is not very happy
so the lighting throughout is quite dull.
The lyrics
and the video match this in this video. Beyonce is singing about how being
pretty in today's society ‘’Hurts’’ which obviously links to the title of the
song to. We see shots of Beyonce being measured and weighed in a studio along
with many other girls, we then see her making herself sick, the lyrics also say
‘’ when your alone all by yourself, while your lying in your bed, reflection
stares right into you, are you happy with yourself?’’ whilst she is singing
these lyrics we see her alone in a hotel room wearing her pageant clothes and
crown, the lyrics link to the visuals and we understand the message that she is
trying to portray about girls not being happy with the way they are forced to
look and that they are pretending and putting on a show, the lyrics ‘’you
stripped away the masquerade, the illusion has been shed, are you happy with
yourself’’ also show this.
The music
has a mix of slow and fast pace, when the pace changes the video matches this.
In the beginning of the video there is a beat in the music, the video has been
edited so that when you hear the beat, there is a cut and we quickly switch to
another shot. Also when Beyonce starts to sing faster the videos pace also gets
faster. For example when Beyonce is getting to the end of the song and the song
becomes much faster we see shots of her smashing up lots of trophies along with
other shots which are also fast paced.
Beyonce is a
very popular pop artist, she is an artist which many women look up to and see
as an inspiration. The video for this song is very inspiring and portrays an
extremely important message. Beyonce singing this song and making such an intense
video will help to make it sell. She is being very brave and singing about an
issue that many people go through and don’t talk about, this will intrigue the
audience in to watching it. Beyonce does usually make good videos but this one
is talking about a real issue which is going against what she usually does.
There is many
parts of the video where the character is on sexual display and usually this
would be done to attract the audience, both men and women because of how good
the artist looks. In this case however when the artist is on sexual display it
does relate to the lyrics and message of the song. The song as aforementioned is
about girls feeling pressured in to looking good, so when Beyonce is wearing
not many clothes, in this case she is highlighting how girls are ‘’meant’’ to
look.
This video
is performance and narrative based. We follow the ‘’narrative’’ of the artist
taking part in beauty pageants and how she feels going through all of the
preparation and how people expect her to look. We also have performance incorporated
in to it, we see many different shots of Beyonce performing the song, for
example on stage at the pagaent, when she is along in a hotel room and when she
is looking in the mirror are just a few examples. The narrative and performance
are equal so we see the artist singing and acting throughout the video.
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