The first time I listened to the song Pretty Hurts on Beyonce’s new visual album I got chills. It is probably the most realistic song relating to how society’s view on how women should look, takes a tool on women. About 2:13 into the music video for this song and the actual beginning of the song itself Beyonce sings “Mama said, you’re a pretty girl. What’s in your head it doesn’t matter. Brush your hair, fix your teeth. What you wear is all that matters. Just another stage. Pageant the pain away. This time I’m gonna take the crown without falling down, down.” Watching the music video you will see the signifiers which are a disappointed and sad looking Beyonce. She is waxing, brushing her hair, and fixing her teeth. The people around her are doing the same thing. It is a very depressing looking environment. This is signifying to me that she just wants to be accepted but she isn’t happy with the way that society wants her to look it isn’t how she looks and it is clearly taking a tool on her.
Doing a paradigmatic analysis the meaning of that part of the song to me would change completely if some of the signifiers were to change. For example When you just listen to the words “Mama said, you’re a pretty girl. What’s in your head it doesn’t matter. Brush your hair, fix your teeth. What you wear is all that matters. Just another stage. Pageant the pain away. This time I’m gonna take the crown without falling down, down.” it almost seems as if she is being confident and agreeing with what her mother said to her. If instead of a sad Beyonce we were to see her happy and getting ready for a pageant the whole meaning of the song would change for me. Instead of her challenging and not wanting to accept the worlds view on what beauty is, she would instead be going along with it.
The syntagmatic analysis of this particular part of the song would be how the signifiers: Beyonce’s face’s, waxing, bushing her hair, fixing her teeth and the people around her all play off of each other. In the book it says “ In the context of a traffic light or warning sign, red conveys danger, but when used as the backdrop for footage of a couple gazing at one another, it may connote sexual desire.” This holds true for the signifiers in this music video. If you were to just see the parts of Beyonce getting ready and none of her looking sad you wouldn’t take it as her doing something that makes her unhappy. Especially when she says “This time I’m gonna take the crown” I would just automatically assume her getting ready meant she just wanted to be perfect for the pageant but, when you see how she looks while she is getting ready it shows that she is unhappy that she has to change how she looks to be considered pretty.
After analyzing this song I realize why she wanted everyone to see the music videos for her new songs right when they were released. She has a message to get across and without the music video we may get a different message than she intended.
That is what every artist is afraid of; that the message you get out of their media is not the message they wanted you to get.
ReplyDeleteI like how you explain the different signs within this specific media. I too like how she is spreading this message of being yourself and how society wants women to act and look a certain way. Artists send messages to the users so that they can relate to their music and see them as not just a celebrity but a real and actual person.
ReplyDeleteI rarely watch music videos these days because hearing them on the radio is enough for me. But with this particular song, I wouldn't have fully got the message Beyoncé was trying to convey without watching the video. This music video gives viewers a visual representation of the stress that comes with striving for perfection. Great post!
ReplyDeleteFirst of all, thanks for posting this video because I've been meaning to watch more of them from this album!
ReplyDeleteSecondly, your post was very thought out. I think you're right to say the signifiers in the video really make this song's meaning pop out. Beyonce and the director had to be very careful to pick the right things to convey the message they wanted to put across, so it makes you appreciate the video even more.
The video sets a different tone than the one Beyonce sets onstage. Behind the scenes she is clearly disgruntled at having to be superficial, but onstage she is smiling and happy. This is a clear sign of how media is effecting singers these days.
ReplyDeleteI think you did a good job on making us understand that Beyoncé is afraid of sending the wrong message to her audiences. If she sent the wrong message to the audiences she might be looked at differently or even lose some of her fans.
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