The music video for Sia's "Big Girls Cry" is a performance video that features the singer dancing in a black room. The video is meant to keep attention focused solely on the dancer. It uses a dark background, focused lighting, and neutral costumes to avoid distractions. Through her choreographed routine and emotionless facial expressions, the dancer's body language interprets and matches the lyrics and pace of the song. The simple, unchanging camera angle and lack of props, CGI, or other elements also keeps all attention on the performer. While unconventional for a pop music video, this challenges genres conventions and engages audiences through its unique style.

1. ORIGINAL MUSIC VIDEO REVIEW

2. SIA-
BIG GIRLS CRY

3. TYPE OF MUSIC VIDEO
The music video for ‘Big Girls Cry’ is all a performance music
video. This is evident as the whole video is based on a dance
performance that is performed in a black room in front of the
camera. The music video is also a disjuncture video as it doesn’t
make much sense and ignores the content of the music we know
this because the lyrics of the song don’t match her performance in
the music video and the movement is quite random and out of
place.

4. SETTINGS
The setting throughout the whole video is a black room which has been
used so that the attention stays on the performer all the way through. The
black background is used to symbolise the depressing mood that the song
creates as its quite a slow and sad song. The black background also helps
to keep the video simple which is what they have clearly aimed to do so
that the attention doesn’t leave the dancer as the dancer just wears light
colours to create a contrast.

5. COSTUME
The costume that the performer is wearing throughout the whole
music video is a blonde wig and a nude coloured leotard. The wig
that she is wearing is used to symbolise the singers image as the
wig is the same style as the singers actual hair. The leotard is used
because that is something that you would typically expect to see a
dancer wearing during a performance but the fact that she wears a
nude leotard that’s dull and boring to look at instead of being
sparkly and colourful has been done so that it doesn’t distract the
viewers eye away from the performance. The performer wears all
neutral colours that are all light in order to create a contrast with
the background.

6. LIGHTING
The lighting that is used throughout this music video is
focused lighting as the only lighting that is used is the
spotlight that’s been used on the performer. This is so that
the focus stays on the performer and draws direct
attention to her and nothing else. This lighting keeps the
video simple so that there isn't much going on in the
video. The lighting also helps to create shadows behind
the dancer which makes it more dramatic. The dark
lighting also helps to create emotion because it makes the
video more depressing.

7. PROPS
There are no props used throughout this music video as
the whole purpose of the video is to keep it simple and let
the attention stay on the performer so the use of props
would be distracting for the viewer because it would take
the attention away from the performer.

8. BODY LANGUAGE
The body language throughout this music video is a
choreographed routine. Her facial expression and body
language create quite an intense effect throughout the
music video because of the way she performs. Her facial
expression also makes the video quite serious and
intense because she has a very blunt facial expression
during the performance and looks emotionless. The body
language also links in with lyrics as the dancing becomes
faster as the lyrics get faster because the movement and
speed of her dancing depends on the pace of the song.

9. CAMERA ANGLES
The same camera angle has been used throughout the whole
music video for simplicity. They have kept a simple theme running
throughout the whole video with everything that they have done so
that the video is simple because the only thing happening is the
performance. The camera angle that is used is a mid-shot which
has been used so that it leaves enough distance to show her body
movement but is still close enough to read her facial expression.

10. HOW DOES IT FOLLOW THE GENRE CODES
AND CONVENTIONS?
This music video challenges the genre codes and
conventions because it does not follow any of them
throughout the music video so this video wouldn’t be what
you would expect to see a pop video to be. The only code
and convention that this video would follow from this
genre would be lyrics based on love or heartbreak as she
sings about being heartbroken.

11. CGI
There is no CGI used throughout this music video as this
music video was created to be simple so the use of CGI
would be distracting for the viewers and would take the
attention away from the performer.

12. WAS IT SUCCESSFUL?
Sia is an artist that focuses all of her music videos on
performance and entertainment instead of being like other
artists that focus on the glitz and the glammer. In some ways
this does make the video successful because it challenges
ordinary pop songs and makes it their own. This music video
was also successful because of the way it interoperates the
lyrics through the use of body language and movement. It was
also successful in the way that it engages the audience
through the use of lyrics. She also uses a very unique style of
dancing throughout this video which again makes it successful
because it stands out with it being so different.