Kelly Clarkson's music video above follows the narrative of Kelly and a boyfriend heavily arguing - which obviously creates a flashback for her of her mother and father's relationship. She proceeds to sit with her 8 year old self to rewatch her parents fighting and fighting.
Within this shot the mise-en-scene is very significant. The walls are covered in old photos, suggesting that being entrapped in the past is likely to play a role in the music video. The audience watch her storm away from her boyfriend as she shows a relucatance to be around him - an implication that something else of substance is running through her mind, or this is a normal reaction for her. Her clenched fists also suggest a strength and toughness.
After Kelly looks in the mirror to see herself as a child, she proceeds to walk around hand in hand with her young self. This is an implication that she never had the ability to grow up, or perhaps something that happened at this age has never been able to escape her and is now a big part of who she is. In this shot the father character is all in black, which classically presents him as a negative character - since black implies danger and darkness. The audience are given the impression that he was a dark part of her life. The hopeful expression on the childs face looking up at the father creates sympathy for Kelly, since by his closed-off body language the audience can already see his disinterest. The audience cannot see the father figures face either, a method which we used in our video in order to create an intimidating persona (which is always more effective when left to the audiences' imagination.
When the dynamics of the song changes to a slower pace and lower key, quickly-cut shots of the father acting out - pushing over a table at the mother and numerous shots of fighting. The long shot of the fight displays a stereotypical family house, family photos cover the wall and it looks iconic. This implies that this kind of family fued and dynamics can occur in any family, it is not always obvious. It is then revealed to the audience that the father figure leaves, at which point the child version of Kelly runs away from herself. A suggestion that this is when and why she lost herself, and why her child hood was disturbed. This is re-emphasized by the fact that the narrative at this point flashes back.
The fact that at the end Kelly triumphs tells her fanbase that she understands difficulty, and portrays her as a role model who has come out of a difficult time in her life, strong. She is presented as quite an admirable character, whose lyrics and songs are about more than trivial things - they bring support for her slightly younger target audience.
Pink uses a similar method of creating the impression that she has not moved on from her childhood, by having her childhood self also in the video. The opening few long shots show Pink in various positions obviously having an inability to sleep. Which quite obviously implies that there is something going on in her head, and she is presented as quite a downbeat character. Once her mother rings her, her childhood self appears and acts as the singer in the video aka creating the impression that despite Pink is now an adult these lyrics are things that her childhood self has got to say.
There are many mid shots displaying how her childhood self is pulling her in different directions and will not leave her alone. The very very dim lighting and minimalistic kitchen setting implies to the audience that this woman does not own much and has had some difficulty living her life.
When the dynamics of the music change to talk about the 'pretty happy family portrait' the lighting suddenly changes, upon the adult Pink the lighting is very bright and clear. Short shots of the young Pink laughing and smiling are then cut in, this creates an unnatural almsot sinister effect since the audience due to the beginning of the video have the awareness that neither the young character or the old are happy.
They are watching a TV show with the "perfect family" on it, round a dinner table happily laughing. The young Pink then gets taken into the TV and the video ends on the family posing for a family portrait. Thereby this shows to the audience once again how just because a family seems happy, that does not mean they are so. Since it cuts between this family and Pink left now on her own miserably in the dim lighting again, it creates a huge isolation for Pink's character.
Since Pink has a young child (as herself) miming the lyrics for a majority of the video, it creates a similar impression to Kelly by suggesting to their audiences that they were not always as strong as they are now. Therefore if Pink's fanbase is feeling vulnerable and in need of help, so did she once. When Pink overtakes miming the song from herself, in the warehouse setting she is presented as a strong and capable woman. A woman her childhood self looks up to and needed (she needed the aspiration to get through) therefore she is presented as someone to aspire to. Widely Pink is represented as a strong woman, often singing about sexism and independence and having music videos to reflect this. Thereby by creating this personal music video which reveals her vulnerable side slightly more, it confirms that you can be seen as a strong person no matter what hardships you go through. Young fans of the singer therefore alongside this video, will be able to relate to Pink and aspire to be like her - a person who has triumphed.
The final video that I looked at - Runaway love, is a more extreme adaptation of children who come from broken homes. The video begins with a mid shot of a leaflet flying across a dirty pavement - perhaps a metaphor for children trying to run away from a harsh world. Similar to in our music video, then many close-ups/mid shots are used of young teenagers looking into the camera or just away from it. Presenting them as lost, distant, scared, vulnerable etc.
Since the music video is set in America most of the themes featured within it are quite shocking (eg gun crime). Even the shots with the two artists are located by a heavily grafitied bridge. The bridge may be symbolic of the children looking to escape, or the journey that they have to go through in order to come out happy on the other side. The rap tells the story of three different narratives. The first of a young girl Lisa with a mother who is addicted to drugs with a sexually abusive step dad. There is a shot of her glancing through the doorway, peering into where her mum was sitting with wide eyes and a careful stance which represents her as shut away, entrapped and disinvolved in her parents life. Often the only light presented is through Lisa's window or a door, which implies to the audience that the only chance Lisa has of a good life would be away from this family.
Throughout the three different narratives sympathy is created for the girls, by emotional shots of them, the constant long shots of the posters covering a variety of different walls which create the impression that it is not just these three girls facing dire situations at home but numerous, numerous young people. The music video ends with Mary in the middle of a circle of lost looking girls with candles in a dimly lit, as if firstly looking for guidence. Secondly it almost has religious connotations - there are shots of religious statues and it also implies that the children are looking for guidence and lost. The artists are suggesting that not only does their music have a political meaning behind it, but also a spiritual comfort for their audience.
Both singers/artists in this music video are almost presented as saviours. Ludacris is always in the corner of the character's rooms/situations, therefore he is presented as almost angelic looking over the children as if to take care of them. It is also quite intrusive and makes the audience feel slightly uncomfortable, which I feel the video does as a whole since it's such a sensitive subject, the artists obviously wanted to create a music video to evoke a reaction from their audience.

Three really powerful videos to illustrate your points and exploration of abuse. You have looked at narrative and media language carefully. Could you extend your analysis to look at the way the performance elements are integrated into the storyline and then how the artist is represented? How the track links to the story? In the Kelly Clarkson video the mirrors around the performance and her expression seem to suggest that the music is redemptive and helps the artist deal with emotions - therefore represents her music as cathartic experience? In the Pink video the shots of the artist singing in the warehouse seem to represent similar power in the music - but also as the young girl mouths some of the lyrics it is as though the track is an expression of childhood pain? In the Ludacris video the artists seem to be portrayed as protectors - in the bedroom, on the street and in the waiting room. The end shot with candles is as you say almost religious and seem to represent the artist as a healer.
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