Music Video Research 4 - Pretty Hurts

Artist: Beyonce

Track: Pretty Hurts

Director: Melina Matsoukaz

Camera/Editing/Visual Style/Mise-en-scene

The music video is set in the style of a beauty pageant. Most of the camera shots of the video consist of girls getting ready for a beauty pageant. The iconography of the video also shows that it is a beauty pageant by the sashes worn by the contestants, the crowns, the awards and the sparkled curtain which reveals the contestants. You see various over the shoulder shots of the young women in the mirror performing their beauty rituals before the pageant, in particular Beyonce. The different shots of the routine are to show the hard process of what it takes to be apart of a beauty pageant. The music video shows close ups of Beyonce to show how girls really feel when trying to look beautiful, the close ups make them look sad and as if they are in pain. Close ups are used throughout the music video, we see close ups of the girls getting weighed, pulling at the skin and Beyonce undergoing plastic surgery shown by the markings on her face and the surgeon pulling her mouth up to force a smile. A shot also shows Beyoncé smashing up her awards in slow motion to emphasise the pain she has felt through trying to live up to societies expectations. A high angle shot shows the girls vomiting in the toilet to try and make them look skinnier. The pace of the music video is slow through out so an audience can pick up on the message of the video. An effective way the camera is used in this video is when Beyonce is shot under water in slow motion and then it reverses in a faster pace. Near the end a shot shows a big close up of Beyonce happy and content rather than sad in the previous shots of the music video, this is then followed by the ending of a home video tape of Beyonce in a beauty pageant at a young age.

Narrative
Beyoncé acts as a woman who is struggling with her body image and pressure to look a certain way. This shows that people who are suffering like this are not suffering alone, even Beyoncé has the same feelings. It gives the message to the audience that we need to realise what expectations of society is doing to us mentally and physically. Too many women are put under too much pressure to look beautiful. Beyoncé shows you will never be happy if you struggle with your body image by smashing up her awards to let out the pain and sadness which then results in an ending of a Big Close Up of a smile to show being happy is what will make you beautiful.

Conventional/Unconventional
The genre of the song is pop, yet the music video breaks the conventions by tackling an issue rather than typical pop songs being revolved around the artist and has no significant narrative to them.

What works?
The mise-en-scene of the music video definitely works with the lyrics. The title of the song 'pretty hurts' suggests beauty is pain and this is what the music video is trying to show using a beauty pageant as a way of getting it across. Another example is the surgery scene when Beyoncé is undergoing plastic surgery whilst the lyrics sing 'It's the soul that needs the surgery' denoting that it's what is inside that counts, your mentality comes first before the beauty.