Lacey’s Repertoire of Elements – Beyoncé

Beyoncé’s pretty hurts video recreates a beauty pageant, in which we see female characters changing their appearance to win the competition. The video reflects the preparation girls have to go through before entering pageants. The first scene shows a series of shots of a group of female characters getting ready in a dressing room. We can see these characters physically changing their look, putting themselves through pain and suffering through the way their physique and facial expressions are shown. An example of this would be when a female is shown in a backless dress, pinching the skin on her body. This is an emphasis on stereotypes of girls in beauty pageants losing weight and willing to change their look to win.

The appearance of the women in the video contrasts in the beginning and towards the end. At the start we see female characters getting ready, applying makeup and dresses. However towards the end these same characters are shown with their makeup on and dressed in elegant dresses. This conforms to stereotypes of women becoming obsessed with their image, always wanting to impress male. As the only male character in the video is the judge, therefore the girls are trying to impress the man. The girls in the video all appear unhappy. This again is emphasising the girls are putting on a show to impress the male character, using the false smiles, hair and makeup to do so.

The music video shows the story line of girls entering a beauty pageant, competing to become the winner. The narrative is shown clearly as the story carries on in each shot. However cross cuts are used showing Beyoncé standing in front of a shelves of trophies. This reminds the audience they are watching a music video, switching back to Beyoncé singing the song. When Beyoncé says “My aspiration in life is to be happy.” The camera then cuts to Beyoncé destroying her trophies. This shows she is not happy in the pageant as she has to pretend to be someone she isn’t. The narrative is shown clearly through the way the video is edited in chronological order apart from the use of cross cuts and cut aways to Beyoncé singing the song. However Beyoncé sings the song during the talent part of the music video. This makes the story more believable and doesn’t conform to any key features of a typical pop music video, with high key lighting and over exaggerated acting.

Props used in the scene are iconic of a beauty pageant. Examples of this include; trophies, elegant dresses, crowns and makeup. These props are commonly associated with beauty pageant. This is a contrast to the props that are seen to the girls changing their appearance which reveal more of the serious side behind pageants. For example there is a scene in which Beyoncé is seen with her face outlined with a dotted line as a surgeon takes a needle to her face. The prop of the needle emphasises the serious reality behind beauty pageants and remind the audience that women in reality do change their appearance to impress other people.

In this music video the setting is varied. The main settings are the stage where the competition takes place and the dressing room backstage. This is done to show peoples expectation of a pageant or a competition and then also show the reality of them backstage. Neither of these settings use high key lighting, this is done for a dramatic and dark effect which links to the message and narrative of the song and video. I think this is successfully done to emphasise the darker side to the narrative. This again goes against our expectations of a pop genre music video. The setting is also used to state the clear location of the music video. The stage and dressing table show clearly that the video is set during a beauty pageant as well as the props and characters.

The song ‘Pretty Hurts’ is used both diegetically and none diegetically through the music video. The sound begins of just a non diegetic as the women in the changing rooms are getting ready. This is done to introduce our characters before going straight into song. Beyoncé is introduced to the stage by the pageant show host. A mid-shot shows Beyoncé stood behind a microphone she begins to sing. In this scene the song is diegetic as she is singing the song. However the camera then cuts to the next scene the song starts again only this time non diegetic as it is played over short clips of Beyoncé preparing herself for the pageant. For the rest of the video the sound varies between diegetic and none diegetic, showing both the narrative and performance style in the video.

Beyoncé’s ‘Pretty Hurts’ music video does use Lacey’s repertoire of elements as characters, iconography and narrative evens are used. Even though the music video is a mixture of the performance and narrative video the contrast works well to successfully and clearly show the linear narrative of the storyline.