Beyonce Pretty Hurts Music Video Media Analysis

1. Music Video Analysis
Andrew Goodwin’s Conventions

2. INFORMATION
 Pretty hurts’ lyrical content deals with subjects of feminism, self
empowerment and body image.
 The song's lyrics deal with the consequences of society's high standards of beauty,
and in "Pretty Hurts" eating disorders are depicted as one of the subjected results.
 "Pretty Hurts" won in the category for Best Song with a Social Message at
the 2014 MTV music awards and was named the best track of 2014 by
the associated press.

3.  The seven-minute long video to Pretty Hurts shows Beyoncé competing
in a beauty pageant contest representing Third Ward; It opens with the
sound of a piano and shots of Beyoncé sporting short hair, looking at
herself in the mirror. It transitions to a segment of her fellow
contestants preparing for the pageant backstage, combing their hair,
fitting their dresses and analysing their bodies; one scene during the
preparations of the shows is Beyoncé arguing with another contestant
over a hair dryer.
 Multiple shots of the singer follow her sitting on a floor and leaving a
bathroom after vomiting, showing the contestants looking tired and
distressed backstage and there are clips of Beyoncé consuming diet
pills, exercising at her home and measuring her weight to her own
dissatisfaction and wrecking a shelf containing her personal trophies
when she doesn’t win.
 Beyoncé makes a message throughout the video and this could really
influence teen girls to make the right decisions when they think they
are not ‘perfect’.

4.  The location is shown to be a beauty pageant event (at a
theatre).
 The location is made clear due to the scenes showed of the
stage, the audience, the dressing rooms and also the
bathroom.
 All of these locations are used to tell the story.

5. MISE EN SCENE
 The mise-en-scene of the video is geared towards the stereotypical features of
pageants, beauty and women. Their clothes are mainly dresses or some sort of
underwear to showcase themselves to the audience and draw attention to their body,
which is what they are being judged on.
 Colours like pink, yellow and white are used a lot within the video, which represent
happiness, delicacy and femininity, all conventional to female pop artists. All the
women have make up on to enhance their femininity, it is not subtle or ‘natural’
because they are on stage and feel like they have to put on a different face.
 Tracking shots are used to show the similarities between the women and how they are
‘all the same’ through the eyes of men and judges. The use of yellow and how they are
all dressed in it reinforces this idea that they are all the same. The colours and the
costume enhance the importance of the storyline for this video because they all relate
to how these women are viewed which is the message portrayed by this music video.

6.  Conform to the stereotypical representation of beauty
pageants.
 In addition a key part that emphasises these social
standards is the lack of costume that is present behind the
scenes- this particularly shows that not only do the judges
scrutinize their bodies they do this to themselves, by
measuring their waists and cosmetic procedures to create
‘the perfect shaped face’.
 Props - Her sash is a key item of iconography as it
represents the title that she has achieved as a result of all
the pain she has endured. The card with a number on also
reinforces this idea of being hidden within this industry as
she is not represented by a name and as a human being,
rather by a number that symbolises the number competitor
she is.
 During the video beauty products/accessories are used in
order to portray what they have to do to themselves to
make them standout and look ‘pretty’.

7.  The lighting throughout the video is natural and ambient with shots of high and
low key lighting. This is conventional to pop music video to show the audience the
difference between each setting and their feelings within each shot. The lighting in
these specific shots are low key to connote the anger and sadness between them.
 To contradict that, when the girls are on stage the lighting is high key as it shows
close ups of their faces to show that they are happy. However, this has a negotiated
reading due to the fact the women could be putting on this fake smile, which would
make the shots more dull and sad. But then on the other hand, they could
genuinely be happy, which I do not believe to be the preferred reading. This
particular shot has filler lights to draw attention to Beyoncé and her anger, but
also the other woman who is not interested because that is seen as normal in their
situation.
 Within the video different colours are also used to set the mood of what is seen.
 The lighting is dark when Beyoncé is making herself sick in the toilet to show her
struggling and not coping well with the stress of the beauty pageant and the
darkness portrays the emptiness she is feeling inside and reveals her maybe
feeling down and distressed.

8. CAMERA WORK
 The video begins with establishing shots of Beyoncé in different settings, the camera is handheld
and shaky to appear naturalistic and this is to show the location and storyline.
 Beyoncé is the main attraction and this is revealed as the camera consistently follows her
movements in the video, therefore she gains the prevalence in comparison to the other
characters and this is typical as the artist is usually the main performer.
 In the video they use a lot of different camera techniques whether its close-ups to show the
emotion on their faces or long shots to show Beyoncé crying lying on the floor after not winning
with her trophies broken all over the floor and this is to make her look small within the shot to
show how she may see herself.
 The long shot showing her whole body is used to portray pain and to show the audience that they
have to be the perfect size and revealing her mirror image to us and how she sees herself.
 When Beyoncé is making herself sick in the toilet it is filmed as a bird’s eye view, this shows how
people would look down on her if they were to find out.

9.  The title and the main lyrics ‘pretty hurts’
represent societies expectations of women, and
essentially Beyoncé as an artist, is trying to
challenge the constraints of being perceived as
‘beautiful’.
 She does this by saying ’My aspiration in life…
would be.. To be happy’ as it is clear the
character needs to be happy in herself in terms
of beauty. The lyrics tell us a story of her
emotions as she states that ‘perfection is a
disease of a nation’ these unrealistic assumptions
are what have the potential to damage girls and
young women as a whole.
 The lyrics connect with the visuals shown the
whole way through the video.

10.  The music matches the visuals in
many ways as when there is
action on screen (like when she is
seen as smearing her makeup off
from her face) the music is an
added aggression as it begins to
increase in terms of pitch, pace
and volume.
 The music doing this emphasises
the action happening in the
visuals.

11. GENRE
 The genre of the music video is Pop. This is obvious because the video portrays a
strong and emotive message which is very effective and has powerful lyrics.
 This song does contrast to Beyoncé's normal upbeat pop tracks. This video follows
the conventions of a pop video, for example fashionable, meaningful lyrics etc.
however it also breaks them. This is due there being no dominant nale character.

12.  In the media today and modern society as record
labels are aware that essentially ‘sex sells.’
 It is clear within the music video ‘pretty hurts’
that there is elements of voyeurism especially in
regards to the lack of costume.
 Often female artists have to fit to the perfect
idealised women in order to sell their new track
or music as females tend to idolise women that
they strive to achieve. This is something
Beyoncé has since used to her advantage as she
is known with worldwide recognition as ‘The
Queen’. In addition the lack of clothing and
’skimpy’ outfit are also used as a tactic by record
companies as stereotypically men want to view
females in this way, although not always the
case, it is a technique used in order to increase
record sells as it aims at both genders.

13.  The variety of close up and extreme
close ups fit in with the message of
having your beauty judged and how
it can affect you, the camera works
fits with the story line.
 The close ups in this particular video
are more used to highlight pain and
struggle and show how much the
lifestyle is affecting her.

14.  The star image and brand is associated with
Beyoncé, who is the main star in this video,
she takes lead. The reason behind this could
be that she wants to express her feeling
through the narrative in the video, this
making her fans feel closer as its personal
matter to her.
 The use of Beyoncé's costumes, narrative,
lighting etc created an image she envisioned
sticking to the pop genre but showing a
different side, more negative. The way
Beyoncé looks in this video is key, everything
within this video is related back to the
narrative the whole point of the song and
video.

15. TARGET AUDIENCE
 Most Beyoncé fans are usually females or homosexual males at the age range of
teens and older. Beyoncé is a role model to many girls because a lot of her songs
have a meaning and can be related to.