a2 music video analysis of Pretty Hurts

1. Music Video Analysis 2
Sophie Boston G325

2. Chosen Music Video
• I have decided to analyse Beyoncé’s ‘Pretty Hurts’ in terms
of Narrative, Audience, Media Language, Genre and
Representation. Composed by Australian singer and
songwriter Sia, the song was originally offered to pop
artists Katy Perry and Rihanna, both who declined to take
the offer. Beyonce then heard it and wanted it instantly.
The song gained much attention, reaching 1st place in the
US Hot Dance Club Songs Billboard and 8th in the UK R&B
Offical Charts.
• "Pretty Hurts" is a self-empowerment pop song discussing
society beauty standards and analyzing female body image.
Beyoncé decided to record it to show the negative effect of
beauty pageants and expectations on how women should
look.”- Wikipedia

3. Pretty Hurts :Narrative
• Pretty Hurts is all about the narrative, the story behind the video. It tells the
story of how much pain women have to go through in order to be classed
“beautiful” in today’s society – even to the point of risking their lives. It also
follow Goodwin’s theory of relating the lyrics to the visual.
• The music video has 3 main structural narratives to it: 1) Equilibrium – Beyonce
appears happy and beautiful and composed on stage, smiling as though she
loves the life she is living. 2) Disequilibrium – The audience sees what is going
on behind doors, the pain the pageant women have to suffer in order to be
‘beautiful’ and in this section Beyonce continues to smile at the camera though
it falters a lot and we see her beginning to regret her decision to become
involved in the pageants 3) New Equilibrium – At the end of the video, Beyonce
is seen smashing her pageant trophies and her pageant sash left on a chair,
which indicates she has left the pageant life and started a new life for herself,
one which doesn’t include needles or cotton wool balls. This narrative
structure ties in with Todorov’s theory about simple narratives.

4. Pretty Hurts :Narrative

5. Pretty Hurts :Audience
• Beyonce’s video is very eye catching and will appeal to many audiences, especially her
young female teenage fans, who might feel this way about themselves and who maybe
wanted to become a pageant contestant. The lyrics, and the video may encourage them
to view themselves differently and realise that they are beautiful. This video may also
appeal to fellow pageant contestants who may also feel like Beyonce and needing a way
out and this song may just give them the boost to do it. The song and video may also
appeal to male viewers, in that whilst capturing the male gaze (Laura Mulvey) in skimpy
outfits, Beyonce is also trying to give the impression that society (male and female)
should stop objectifying each other so much and that beauty shouldn’t be a
competition -"Blonder hair, flat chest/ TV says bigger is better/ South Beach, sugar
free/ Vogue says thinner is better.“
• Because Beyonce is singing about such a highly popular subject, this video and the lyrics
apply to any of the demographic classes and though maybe Beyonce is considered a
mainstream pop artist, her singing subject is one that is a problem worldwide, so even
the individualists will listen and watch her video.
• Beyonce has also in the past classed herself as a feminist and this song and the lyrics
strongly highlight her passions here. Pretty Hurts has been linked to feminism - it is
intended as a self-empowerment anthem for women as Beyoncé sings negatively of
beauty stereotypes and expectations on how women should look which are often
"impossible" and created mostly by the society.

6. Pretty Hurts :Audience

7. Pretty Hurts :Genre
• The Genre of Pretty Hurts is pop with R&B undertones
and has especially strong, soulful vocals from Beyonce,
which give the song a sense of power that other pop
songs may not have. The dark soulful tones in this song
contrast again Beyonce’s normal upbeat pop tracks.
• Because this is a pop song, conventions are typically
loud female vocals, sometimes high pitched, rhyming
lyrics, bright costumes and lots of outfit changes, and
colourful and obscure props and settings. Whilst Pretty
Hurts does cover these conventions, it follows a more
dark colour scheme to fit in with the controversial
theme.

8. Pretty Hurts :Genre

9. Pretty Hurts :Media Language and
Representation
• Though ‘Pretty Hurts’ is quite a straight forward linear
music video but there are moments in the video that
are significant, because it is a signifier or symbol that
represents a deeper meaning. For instance:
• - The yellow outfits the contestants all wear, yellow is
meant to connote happiness, yet really it’s just masking
what they truly feel. All the outfits in fact, the glitz and
the glam plus the smiles just hide the horrible truth of
what these women go through in order to appear on
the stage.

10. Pretty Hurts :Media Language and
Representation
• Beyonce appearing as Miss Third Ward – this is actually a
reference to her hometown of Houston, which she also
mentions at the end of the video in a video footage of her
younger self. This is going to appeal to her fans who may
already know this and also to the people that shared
memories of her when she was younger.
• The difference in hair length – Beyonce’s hair changes
from short to long at various times during the video. Long
hair is meant to be a sign of femininity, and none of the
contestants have short hair, which highlights this
stereotypical feature. It seems that Beyonce has to hide
who she truly is to become something deemed as
beautiful and feminine.

11. Pretty Hurts :Media Language and
Representation
• The trophies – shows that through all her pain, Beyonce has
managed to win all these trophies, and before they gave her
joy to look at, but now, they remind her of what she has had
to go through in order to achieve them.
"I had this image of these trophies
and me accepting these awards and
kind of training myself to be this
champion. And at the end of the day
when you go through all of these
things, is it worth it? I mean, you get
this trophy and you're like, 'I basically
starved. I have neglected all of the
people that I love. I've conformed to
what everybody else thinks I should
be and I have this trophy. What does
that mean?' The trophy represents
all of the sacrifice I have made as a
kid, all of the time that I lost.“ –
Beyonce Knowles

12. Pretty Hurts : Postmodernism
• ‘Pretty Hurts’ is an excellent case study of Post
Modernism as it follows the aspect of
Postmodernism that says that reality and media have
blurred together and we live in a unrealistic world
that is defined by what the media presents to us i.e.
Hyper-reality. Even within the lyrics, Beyonce
displays the conflict in the media of what makes a
woman ‘perfect’:
“Blonder hair, flat chest
TV says bigger is better
South beach, sugar free
Vogue says
Thinner is better”