Miley Cyrus ft. Goodwin’s Theory- Wrecking Ball

Alex Reddish

The first thing we see in the music video for ‘Wrecking Ball’ is a close up of Miley Cyrus’ face. This would satisfy the want of the record company as they often like to have their stars’ front and centre so more people will see them and therefore recognise them in the future, this may eventually boost details. This shot is 00:01 into the music video meaning that people will see the artist immediately even if they may not have meant to click on the videos link.

Within the close up of Cyrus’ face we see tears rolling down her cheek, this will spark an interest within the audience and they are likely to continue watching the video to try and decipher why she is crying.

Miley Cyrus is miming and through this shot (that continue until 00:32) we can come to the conclusion that she is telling the story of the song.

In this we can see that Cyrus is in a very simple location and she is leaning against a brick wall with a large sledgehammer. This differs from the lyrics as they are about the breaking up of a relationship and no sledgehammers are mentioned in the song.

As we move onto a low angle shot of Cyrus walking we see that she has no trousers or clothing covering the lower half of her body. This can be seen as voyeurism as her body may be being sexualised through this lack of clothing.

These two shots only last for 2 seconds; however, the previous shot of Cyrus miming to the camera lasted for over 30 seconds, this short period of time in which the shot changes will once again hook in the audiences attention sothey are not tempted to watch a different video.

Voyeurism again can be seen in the beginning of the first chorus, in the above shot we can see that she is naked and this is sexualising her body. But, if we listen to the lyrics we may interpret this as her being stripped bare emotionally.

In the shot to the right we see that Cyrus is running the hammer along the wall wearing only a cropped vest, some pants and some Doc Marts. The white colour of her clothes may connote innocence and the lyrics support this idea as is her saying that she ‘never hit so hard in love’ and this implies that this is her first real heartbreak.

Here we see Cyrus sat on a wrecking ball, this connotes that she isthe ‘wrecking ball’ that broke the relationship. This illustrates the lyrics and also adds to the story that she is tryingto tell.This is screenshot is from the second chorus, the images within thischorus have been manipulated slightly, we still see Cyrus miming to the camera for some parts but now she is on the wrecking ball ratherthan her running a sledgehammer along the wall. This change will keep the audience interested and this benefits the record company and the artist as people are more likely to go out and buy the song if it has a memorable music video.

*in the video, Cyrus is completely naked so I used this image as it is a little bit more appropriate.

The ‘Directed by’ insert at the end is becoming increasingly popular on music videos as they are becoming more like short films as they often tell a story of have a narrative. This benefits the director of the video as they will gain more publicity and boost their own career.