The music video tells the narrative of a woman mistreated by her partner who dies, leaving her alone in the jungle. She finds her strength and becomes queen by befriending the animals. Scenes use high and low camera angles to show her transformation from insignificant to powerful. Editing depicts her growth from weak to dominant through costumes and surroundings. The video references the story of Tarzan through vine swinging and jungle calls, amplifying the song's message of overcoming hardship through exaggerated performance and illustration.

1. Music video analysis
Katy Perry - Roar

2. Narrative
The narrative in the video is of a woman who isn't valued by her man, who ends up dying
leaving her to fend for herself. She then found her way through the jungle finding herself
along the journey and becoming a queen of the jungle, making friends with all the animals
along the way, the story ends with her waking up on a plane however as the camera zooms
out we find she asleep on the crashed plane she originally awoke from at the start.
In the lyrics the common narrative is about her overcoming the mistreatment and breakup
from her boyfriend and becoming a stronger woman who does not need men. This is implied
by “you broke me down, but I got up”.
The heavy drums remind us of jungle tunes which compliments the message of the lyrics, in
addition we see her ‘dancing in fire’ suggested when she is surrounded by fireflies.

3. Camera
A range of camera angles are used throughout the video such as high angle, low angle and
eye-line match. The movement changes quickly and scenes often ends with swipe pans
highlighting the change she is experiencing.
Katy is the is often the composed to be in the centre of the shot highlighting her presence
and importance in the scene, as the focus is on her.
The narrative has clearly influenced the camera angles as i the start high angles were used
which made katy seem small and insignificant however, as the video progresses eye-line
match and low angles become more popular which signify a change in power.

4. Editing
Golden fireflies surround her which signify hope for katy but also lead to her becoming a
‘lioness’/queen of the jungle, this is suggestive of the dominance katy wishes to acquire.
From the cuts, we see when katy enters the cave she is a weak women and when she leaves
the cave moments later we see he has become the queen of the jungle dressed in a small
amount of leaves and leopard print top which has sexual connotations.
The sequencing of the video coincides with the lyrics to highlight the rise and fall of katy from
start to finish. Gaining power.
The fact that Katy lip syncs almost 70% of the song in the video could tell us that
she is speaking from her own personal experience.

5. Star image
Katy is known her long either very dark or very bright hair which feature in this
video. Her story lines are often very graphical and have a lot of contents and props
which exaggerates the message she is trying to convey. It is also common is her
videos to be the main focus but as part of a story and is also very sexulaised due to
the costumes or lack of costume she wears in the video.
Her character is very fun/bubbly which is indicated by her exaggerated image and
the fact she is very fanciful.

6. Intertextuality
The story has a lot of references to the movie Tarzan which is similar to the
storyline represented in the video. This is implied when we see katy swinging from
vines throughout the video much like tarzan does.
Furthermore, in the lyrics we hear a familiar yodel “roar-ar-ar-ar-ar” which is similar
to the call tarzan gives when contacting other animals in the jungle.

7. Contradict, amplify, illustrate
In summary of all my analysis, it seems all three of these were displayed
throughout.
Illustration is suggested when she roars and the lion appears in the reflection of the
water.
Amplification is highlighted through exaggerated costumes and performance.
And contradiction is displayed through the contrast between the lyrical meaning of
the song and the how the video represents the message the the lyrics convey.