The music video for Katy Perry's "Roar" tells a narrative of Perry and her boyfriend crashing in a jungle. Her boyfriend mistreats her but gets eaten by a tiger, leaving Perry alone. She learns to survive in the jungle, becoming friends with animals and the queen of the jungle. The video uses imagery and camera techniques to symbolize Perry's journey from victim to empowered woman, amplifying the song's message of overcoming adversity through strength and independence.

1. Roar – Katy Perry
Amanpreet Bhopal

2. Narrative
The music video for Katy Perry’s “Roar” includes a narrative of
her and her boyfriend landing in a jungle after a plane crash. The
boyfriend doesn’t seem to treat Perry very nicely which can be
seen through the beginning of the video. For example, when he
gives Perry the bags to carry after taking selfies on his phone and
leaving her. However, he get’s eaten by a tiger which leaves
Perry on her own to fend for herself. As she began to get used to
the jungle she began to become a part of it and made friends
with the animals and became the queen of the jungle.

3. The
boyfriend
taking selfies
He then
gives Perry
the bags and
leaves

4. Here, the tiger is about
to eat the boyfriend and
this links with the lyrics
as the next line Perry
sings is “You held me
down, but I got up”. The
tiger is used to represent
the pressure put on by
her boyfriend and also
when he gets eaten, it
symbolises that she has
moved on and she
doesn’t need him
anymore. It can also be
used to show Perry as
fighting back.

5. In the middle of the
video we see Perry
swinging of a vine
which links to the
narrative as it
symbolises her
freedom after the
boyfriend got eaten
and how she is now
much stronger than
before. Her costume
shows that she is
now a part of the
jungle and she has
accepted it. This also
has conventions of
Tarzan as he uses a
vine to swing off.

6. The beginning and end borrow
ideas from old cinema and has
a comic feel to it due to the
way the title and backgrounds
have been drawn on. This gives
the effect that Perry is telling
an old tale through the song
and she is spreading the
message of getting back up
after having your heart broken.

7. Camera
At the beginning of the video, the camera tilts
downwards to show the setting where Perry and
her boyfriend have landed. This high angle
makes her look small and vulnerable which
contradicts the song as the song refers to her
being strong and an empowered woman.

8. • Here we can see a low angle
which illustrates how
Perry is gradually growing
her confidence and
independence and also
strengthens the message
of the song. This goes
against what we
previously saw (the high
angle) which can be used
to show that although
she is an empowered
woman, she still has
obstacles and that the
world around her is still
bigger than her.

9. Near the end of the video, we see the
camera placed behind her so that we can
see how high up she is. This can be used
to symbolise how far Perry has come in
terms of finding herself and being strong.
It also allows us to see all the land that
she has conquered. She is holding a
monkey which shows how she has made
new friends along her journey and she has
made a fresh start in her life. Since this is
placed at the end of the video, it shows
what she has accomplished throughout
the song and it makes us feel like we are
behind her, on the tree. It allows the
audience to feel as though we have been
with Perry throughout her journey and
that we (as the audience) can also get
through difficult times if we try.

10. • At the start of the video, the camera is quite instable and moves around a
lot. This can be used to show instable her relationship is with her
boyfriend and also how she is unable to do what she wants to when he
is around as he always takes control. This can be further reinforced by
the first verse of the song as it just tells the audience about how she had
to behave with him, for example “So I sit quietly, agree politely”.
Furthermore, this is also demonstrated in the music video itself as we
can see that Perry is given the bags and she is always behind her
boyfriend which connotes that her boyfriend doesn’t take care of her
and pay attention to her.

11. • During the chorus of the song, the camera tracks out so that we can see the fire flies come
together and form a tiger while Perry sings “you’re gonna hear me roar”. The fire flies can
be used to connote her broken pieces coming together and fighting back. The tiger would
represent her being strong and it also links to the title of the song “roar”.
• In the second verse we see a dirty shot which could be used to connote her past still lurking
around her and still affects her. This contradicts the lines she is singing “I went from zero,
to my own hero”. On the outside it appears that she is fine but on the inside, she is
reminded of her past. This changes when further on in the video, she comes out of a cave
after being inspired by cave drawings dressed up in leaves to represent her becoming a
part of the jungle and leaving her past behind.

12. Dirty shot
Perry coming out
of the cave
Fire flies
forming a tiger

13. There are lots of close ups
within this music video and
most of the time she is looking
at the camera. This makes it
seem as though she is singing
this song for the audience as if
to tell a story. We can also see
her facial expressions as well
such as in the first image we see
her looking quite frightened and
this was when she was with her
boyfriend. In the rest of the
video she seems happy without
the boyfriend.

14. Editing
The majority of the video is lip synced and this makes
it feel more like she is telling us a story rather than us
just hearing the song. It also puts her in the spot light
a lot more as we can see her face when she is singing
and we can see her expressions. At the start she
seemed quite upset but as the video progressed she
gets happier and in the end we see her smiling.

15. • Straight cuts are mainly used throughout the song to allow the
audience to remain undisturbed and for us to not notice the cuts.
It allows the video to run more smoothly so we can concentrate on
Perry more.
• Near the start of the song, there is a fade which is used to show time
passing. It also gives a dream like effect to the scene and this
connotes how Perry feels as though her relationship was like a bad
dream. This can be strengthened by the fact that she is wearing
ripped clothes and the lighting is darker than what we see further
on in the video. It also has a very mono-tone effect due to the lack
of colour. However, when she ‘wakes up’ from this bad dream, she
is wearing much brighter clothes (such as the leaf skirt) and the
lighting is much brighter around her.

16. The
lighting
here is
darker
compared
to the
lighting
here:

17. In the middle of the song we see
Perry go into a cave where we
see live cave drawings. These
drawings involve a tiger scaring
away people who are trying to
kill him which inspires Perry to
fight off her feelings and
memories for her boyfriend and
move on fearless. We see the
mouth of the tiger become the
opening of the cave in which
Perry steps out of which
connotes how she has had a bad
past but she is stepping out of
this cave ready to fight back and
to move on. This also illustrates
the lyrics as she says “I got the
eye of the tiger, a fighter”.
Which further strengthens the
idea that Perry is strong and is
going to successfully move on.

18. Near the end of the clip, Perry has a mini face off with a tiger in which she manages to
become the dominant one and tiger becomes the submissive one. Through the editing, we
see that Perry’s inner tiger comes out and scares the tiger. It reinforces the ideas built up
previously about how she is now stronger and she has changed. She is now ready to stand
up against anyone and anything. She also says “Roar” whilst her inner tiger is seen and the
editing amplifies her voice by us being able to physically see the impact of her roar and so
we can see how strong she actually has become.

19. • The artist plays a big role in the video as she is the main
‘character’. She plays the ‘damsel in distress’ at the
start of the video but then breaks this apart and
becomes her own hero. It highlights the idea that this
is her story and she is telling us her story. It wouldn’t
have the same effect if it was someone else
performing instead of Perry as it would seem as though
she is telling a story on their behalf.
• From this video we get the impression that Perry is a
strong person and that she too has personal problems
like everyone else and she has the will to overcome
these issues. We also get the impression that she is
light hearted as she didn’t choose to create a
‘depressed’ feel to the video like most break up songs
do. Instead she made it bright and colourful.

20. There is also some voyeurism within this video when Perry is having a shower with the
elephant. This emphasises the idea that Perry is a light hearted character. It can also
be argued that the video itself is voyeurism as we are looking in on a personal matter
and we are being invited to watch how she moves on from an old relationship. This
may have been done to create a relationship with the audience as many people have
tough relationships and to see Perry go through one may give someone a sense of
hope and that even famous people go through the same things the audience does.

21. • Perry has shown a mix of persona’s within her
album “Prism”. For example, her songs such as
“roar” and “this is how we do” are very light
hearted and bright colours where as songs such
as “unconditionally” are much darker. Her
darker songs are a big contrast to her previous
appearances as during her concerts it used to
be very pink and ‘bubble-gum’ and so were her
songs such as “California girls. However now,
she has seemed to matured and does a range
of different types of songs and videos rather
than having a girly and pink theme.

22. Illustrate, contradict or amplify?
• Overall, the video generally amplifies the song due to the use of
editing. For example, when the fire flies came together to
create a tiger and when we saw a tiger in the reflection of the
water at the start. It adds more emphasis to the idea of Perry
being a tiger and also relates more to the title of the song
“roar”.
• However, when Perry was in the cave and we saw the cave
drawings, the drawings illustrated the whole song. For
example, at the start Perry was being pushed down by her
boyfriend and at the start of the drawings, we see the tiger
being attacked by humans. We then see Perry find her
strengths and stand up for herself, which is what the tiger did.