Pink - Stupid Girls
1. Get the party started
“Music videos are capable of drawing
emotional responses from fans as well as the performers themselves[1]” which is the reason why
such great importance is attached to music videos and why so much effort and
money are put into them as well. Music videos have evolved and this helps to
explain their meaning in contemporary context. To explain how and why music
videos have such a great importance today the following term paper gives a
short summary of the history of music videos. Then an actual music video from
Pink, namely “Stupid Girls” is analyzed in terms of how the video works.
Finally, the message of the video and the way Pink uses the video to express
her opinion are described.
The history of music videos started
in 1927 when sound was added to film. Before this event all films were silent. The
first music genre which was played in those first videos was Jazz music. During
the 1930’s and 1940’s, as Hollywood was emerging and gaining importance, music in
films was also gaining importance. The scenes in which music were played “[…]
seemed to provide stories within themselves[2]”. The video which was
considered as the first music video was produced by the Disney studio and was
called “Fantasia”. The basis of the film is the classical music of Leopold
Stokowski and Disney set animated figures and let them move to the music “[…]
which ultimately made it the first unintentional long-form music video[3]”. The so called Soundie,
which can be seen as a deviation from the jukebox because it does not only play
music but allows the audience to watch a film which fits to the music, can be
seen as another progress towards the contemporary music videos . Furthermore,
the distribution of TV sets in America took place in the late 1940’s. This is
relevant for the development of music videos. Between the normal TV program
short little clips were shown. They were 2-3 minutes long and consisted mostly
of musicians singing and dancing to fill in the gap between two different
programs. The 1960’s was important due to the fact that Hollywood produced a
film which featured The Beatles’ song A Hard Day’s Night in which The Beatles
performed their song but also the TV show The Monkees was released in which the
band performed a song every week. Generally TV programs about or containing
music did not have a huge audience since these programs were not shown during
prime time. The very first actual music video was produced in 1975 by Queen for
the song Bohemian Rhapsody. The band actually used the video to promote their
new album A Night at the Opera. The video mostly shows the band playing their song
but there are also some specials effects such as fade-in and fade-out camera
shots. Queen’s music video was played very often in the TV show Midnight
Special. Other musicians noticed how successful the music video was and how
much it helped promote the band’s new album. This had the effect that other
musicians made music videos as well, for example AC/DC and David Bowie. Since
there were so many bands which produced their own music videos more platforms
were needed to distribute them. One example for a show which produced to
distribute videos was Elephant Parts by Michael Nesmith. The music videos were
shown mixed with comedy. This show helped promote and make music videos popular
because parts of the show were played on other TV shows such as Saturday Night
Live. Nesmith decided to produce another show which was called PopClips and
only showed different music videos. PopClips was shown on Nickelodeon which
belonged to the company Time Warner. This company noticed how popular music
videos had become which is why a whole cable network that only showed music
videos 24 hours a day was developed: MTV (Music Television)[4].
Music videos are used to send a
message. The artist and the producer send a message to the audience but also
use the video to promote and advertise themselves. In general a music video is
able to combine different elements such as pictures, sounds, associations and
so on. There are various ways in which this can take place. One example is that
the video represents and visualizes the beat or different sound elements of the
actual song (for example the song Around the World by Daft Punk) or that
different shapes which are produced through, for example, magnets represents
the different sound elements of the song. Every time you hear a certain sound,
you see a certain object or a certain shape, so that the rhythm is transferred through
the repetition of objects. Some music videos also use certain structures which
are repeated throughout the music video such as the music video Come into my
World by Kylie Minogue. Another example is that the video is used to visualize
the story that the lyrics tell. There are also a lot of music videos which show
space or have futuristic elements. Sometimes the music video just shows the
band playing their own song and sometimes the music video does not have to do
anything with the band or song. Michael Chion summarizes the way a music video
works with one term: synch point. A synch point is when music and picture
meet. A good example for this would be
when the rhythm of music is repeated by the bouncing of a seat[5].
The director of the video “Stupid
Girls” is Dave Meyers who is very popular and famous for directing music
videos. Dave Meyers was born and raised in California. The first contact he had
with film was in a local cinema in Berkley for which he worked when he was
seventeen years old. Dave majored in Film Production and Philosophy. He started
making music videos in 1997. The first music video he produced was “Yay Deep” for
the band E40. Since then he has directed videos for various artists and
therefore different music genres. Some artists he has worked for and with are:
Twista, Notorious B.I.G., Jay Z, Kid Rock, Britney Spears, Missy Elliot and so
on. Today he has directed over 200 different music videos for which he has also
won a total of twelve MTV Video Music Awards. Dave Meyers does not only direct
music videos but also works as a photographer, directs commercials and has also
directed the movie “The Hitcher”[6]. The first time Pink and
Dave Meyers worked together was in 2000 for Pink’s song “There you go”. After
this video Pink and Meyers worked together for many other videos as well, for
example “Get the Party started” in 2001 which won the MTV Video Music Awards
for the categories Best Dance Video and Best Female Video.
The song “Stupid Girls” is written
by Pink, Billy Mann, Niklas Olovson and Robin Lynch. The song was the first
single which was released from Pink’s album “I’m not dead” in 2006. The video
won the MTV Video Music Award in the category Best Pop Video in 2006.
Music videos often work in a
narrative way and have different modes “such as underscoring the music,
highlighting the lyrics and showcasing the star[7]”- just like Pink’s music
video. The way the video “Stupid Girls” works is that the lyrics are visualized.
Clearly a connection between the lyrics and the video can be drawn, though the
rhythm of the song is not represented visually. The only hints towards
repeating the rhythm visually are in scenes in which Pink in different roles
dances. Obviously the dance moves fit to the rhythm.
In summary Pink uses the music video
to visualize the lyrics of her song Stupid Girls. Therefore she imitates
different celebrities which she plays herself in the video. Pink utters
criticism in an ironic way and questions how these Barbie type girlie girls
behave and act in public since younger children look up to them and see them as
role models. Pink also challenges the audience to reflect on the video and
accordingly also to think about the celebrities’ behavior. The lyrics are very
important throughout the whole video since they are not only visualized in the
music video but also are used to address the audience. Especially with sentences
such as “I don’t wanna be a stupid girl”, “Where have all the smart people
gone” or “Do you think?” Pink is capable of addressing the audience and letting
the audience reflect what they see. The question “Do you think?” is repeated
very often throughout the whole song and gets more intense to the point where
it could be understood as “do you even use your brain and think about what you
see and do?”.
The music video “Stupid Girls” by
Pink which was directed by Dave Meyers works by visualizing the lyrics of the
song. Throughout the music video Pink makes fun of different celebrities and by
doing this she questions whether they are good role models for children. The
video is made in an ironical way and exaggeration is used to make a point.
Generally the music video is funny though there is also a serious criticism:
Pink criticizes the way celebrities act in public because tons of teenagers see
them as role models and want to copy the way they look and act without
questioning the actions of the celebrities or the consequences of their
outrageous behavior. Pink expresses the fact that stars and celebrities have a
certain responsibility since they are always in public and seen as role models-
even if they do not want to be one. Furthermore, Pink criticizes the way people
are reduced to the way they look and that everything is very superficial.
Especially in the scene in which Pink works out in the gym and her underwear
says “Say no to food” or in which she plays a bulimic girl that pukes and says:
“Oh my god, I totally had more than 300 calories- that is so not sexy” show
that a lot of celebrities which she imitates throughout her music video only
think about the way they look and lose their sense of reality since an adult
needs about 1500 to 2000 calories a day and everybody has to eat and nobody can
survive without eating or by saying no to food. These two scenes show exactly
the way Pink makes her point: she takes a serious problem or situation and by
exaggerating the situation she shows how ironic it is to take something
superficial like how much you weigh so seriously.
On the other hand it is interesting
to see that Pink contradicts her own criticism of role models by using a
preconception and superficial way to represent a tom boy which she thinks is
the right way to be. Using a preconception of a role model of a tom boy to
convert and criticize the role model of the superficial Barbie girl type that
only cares about the way she looks. So it seems that in summary Pink thinks
that there is no real stereo type which can be taken seriously to one hundred
percent. The video can also be seen as a type of questioning what one
personally takes serious and looking back at things which you once took
seriously until you noticed how superficial and ironic it was. So the main
message of the music video is that making fun of things and irony are a good
way to look at something and that life should not be taken too seriously though
of course it also important to question and criticize certain things and
opinions.
Books:
Chion, Michel. Audio- Vision. New York: Columbia University Press, 1994.
Marcovitz, Hal. The History of Music Videos. Gale: Cengage Learning, 2012.
Vernallis, Carol. Experiencing Music Video: Aesthetics and
Cultural Context. New York: Columbia University Press, 2008.
Internet
sources:
http://www.davemeyers.com/# (accessed 07.10.2014)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dave_Meyers_videography
(accessed 07.10.2014)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dave_Meyers_%28director%29
(accessed 07.10.2014)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stupid_Girls
(accessed 06.10.2014)
http://www.songtexte.com/songtext/pnk/stupid-girls-bdb7d2e.html (accessed
08.10.2014)
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x18zcna_pink-stupid-girls-official-video-hd-720p_music
(accessed 12.10.2014)