Homework (Analysis of Music Video) By Christina Rankin

"Pink - So What"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RXfO09me3v4

I have chosen to analyse the music video "So What" By pink. I chose to analyse this video because of two reasons, firstly; it is one of my favourite videos as it is extremely catchy and I feel that the lyrics represent Pink the vocalist as a person, her whole image gives off a persona of a person that is going to do whatever they feel like and they don't care about other peoples opinions or attitudes. Pink is going to rebel when a negative situation arises; for example, in the first line of the first chorus, the lyrics are "I guess I just lost my husband, I don't know where he went." Pink's response to this is an I don't care attitude and this is how she turns a negative situation into a positive situation; with the lyrics and making the video look fun and enjoyable to make. Pink is not a very serious person, as when she says that she doesn’t know where her husband is, there is an element of slapstick humour, as we see in the video, he is actually behind her, covering her eyes so that she cannot see him.

Key conventions are used in this video, with star image, there are a lot of close ups of Pink, and body shots. The first shot is a medium, central shot to show that the video is going to be about Pink as she is the main character and the first shot we see is of her. With it being a medium shot, she takes up the whole screen; which emphasises that the narrative of the video will have something to do with her. The second shot is a close up of Pink driving a sit-on lawnmower, the immediate shot after is a long shot of Pink driving the sit-on lawnmower on a public road, with queuing traffic behind her and a man in the background in the car behind waving his arms, looking annoyed; implying that Pink is rebellious, choosing the sit-on lawnmower as her mode of transport on the road, instead of a car.

With the video being about pink telling a story that she is over her husband, voyeurism is incorporated into the video, as there is a lot of footage of Pink herself, she is the main focus. Panning is used with a zoomed shot of Pink on the lawnmower, to show that she is holding a can of beer in her hand. Lyrics and visuals are also used here as Pink says “So I'm gonna drink my money” and then it shows her drinking her can of beer. This also happens when Pink uses the lyrics “I wanna start a fight” and then she has a fight with a man in a guitar shop.

The genre of the video is pop, mainstream, with a slight edge of rock, the conventions of a pop video are rather minimal in this video, as there are not any choreographed dance moves; matching outfits, and the song itself is not about happy- go-lucky people, however, there are other elements of pop with one of the shots where pink is being photographed by journalists which is similar to the pop video by Britney Spears called “Everytime” where Britney Spears is being photographed by journalists. This also expresses intertextuality with the shot from the Britney Spears video. With the conventions of the rock genre, there is a shot where Pink throws a guitar on the floor, which is stereotypical of a rock artist.

There is a shot which expresses music and visuals, where Pink uses the lyrics “drum boy” and then there is a medium shot of a man using saucepans as drums and teaspoons as drumsticks and the sound of a drum in the background is heard.

There is an extreme close up of Pink when she says “fall” and then she falls to the ground, showing that sub consciously she is affected by her husband leaving her. Towards the end of the video Pink is reunited with her husband but they just fight showing that the video is still about them and there relationship enhancing the music and visuals together as the tempo is rather upbeat and the shot switches from long shot, to a medium shot (to show both Pink and her husband) and then an extreme close up to show their facial expressions, to allow the audience to see that they are annoyed with each other. Towards the end of the video, Pink then sings on stage which is often a characteristic of her personality, as in most of her videos there is a part where she shows herself singing on stage, or shows a clip of her performing live on stage in some part of her videos like her video for “Leave me Alone (I'm Lonely).” This is both conventional of her and of the genre pop/rock. There is an extreme close up of her face to show that she has attitude when she sings “So, So what, I’m still a rock star.” Her rebellious streak is still highlighted in the video where she has a pillow fight at the end, which would seem rather immature of someone who is in their mid twenties.

The last shot is a medium shot of her and her husband, with her leaning on his arm to imply that she is not that mad at him for leaving her, and then the final shot is of her sticking out her tongue to basically suggest that the video was just a tongue in cheek, fun video to make, although there is a narrative of her husband leaving her she explains that she is still a rock star and that it hasn’t affected her too much.


By Christina Rankin