Alexandra Wells

The music video that I am analysing is ‘Roar’ by Katy Perry and is directed by Grady Hall and Mark Kudsi.

This music video belongs to the pop genre and this can be portrayed through the use of different generic conventions such as the use of the bright and cartoonish setting. At the beginning of the music video, the word ‘ROAR’ flashes up onto the screen in cartoon writing. After this, the screen appears to burn off from the cartoon effect to the realistic point of view. The representation of pop is shown here through how Katy Perry has distinguished the difference between reality and the imagination. As well as this, the light-hearted nature within the video can also portray the conventions of pop as the man within the video is essentially “eaten” by a tiger a few seconds into the video. We can see that Katy Perry is the centre of attention within the music video as the majority of the camera shots are close ups and are of Katy Perry. This may also be depicted through the vague amount of dancing in the video and how it’s upbeat and appealing to the pop audience.

The relationship between the lyrics and the visuals in the music video can be somewhat illustrated. This is portrayed through the line “You’re gonna hear me roar” and the diegetic sound and image of a tiger roaring being presented on-screen through Katy Perry’s reflection in the water. This representation shows Katy Perry to be a fighter and a strong character. As well as this, fireflies can be seen to make this image of a tiger when Katy repeats this line again. Although this can be the case, the music video can be seen as more amplified than illustrated as when Katy Perry sings, “You hear my voice, you hear that sound, like thunder gonna shake the ground”, the visuals of Katy Perry looking scared as spiders crawl over her appear on-screen. These visuals don’t really have anything to do with the lyrics which can strongly support this.

Katy Perry later sings the line “I went from zero, to my own hero” as she stands in a confident pose in a medium framed shot. This presents her as being an independent woman who doesn’t need to be saved by anyone. She produced this song later on in her career, which can show that her rise of star status contributed to her becoming this powerful woman.

The relationship between the music and the visuals is very strong as some of the cuts are fast paced which mirrors the upbeat personality and rhythm of the music. The sound of drums can be heard and are in beat with the editing of the music video. For example, near the end of

Alexandra Wells

the music video, the simple yet quick cuts are in time with the basic beat of the music. The shot of Katy Perry holding a parrot cuts to her painting an elephants nails which then cuts to the face of the elephant. These shots are in time with the diegetic beat of the music which represents Katy Perry as an upbeat and lively character.

There is a vague reference to the notion of looking although it doesn’t seem to be the intention to put Katy Perry on ‘display’, however, her costume and certain scenes in the music video may contradict this. Her crop top and skirt made out of leaves supports Laura Mulvey’s theory on the male gaze as she’s put her body on show for the audience. Also, her stance when she’s sitting can also portray this theory. The scene where the elephant is washing her down with water can support the male gaze theory as she can be shown to be sexualised as the view of her is restricted by a leaf if the foreground. These shots is general places the audience as voyeur as we are somewhat ‘lurking’ and ‘spying’ on her. These shots also portray her attractiveness and that she’s not afraid to wear next to nothing to prove this. She’s also not afraid to show her target audience who she is, by using her sexuality to persuade her audience to buy her music.

The image of Katy Perry in this music video is that she’s first portrayed as vulnerable, although she later proves the audience wrong as she becomes independent and the “champion”. She’s presenting herself to be free and to have literally built her way up to the top of the music industry, which can be reflected through her standing on top of a waterfall. This music video can relate to some of her other music videos as, for example, ‘This Is How We Do’ and ‘Dark Horse’ are very upbeat and catchy and the music video for each song appears to be suitable for the style of the music and type of lyrics.

There appears to be some intertextual references in this music video. One that significantly stands out to me is the reference to Tarzan. The setting of the jungle, animals and how Katy Perry adapts to that life reminds me of this. Also, the fact that the beginning and end of the video transfers to a cartoon look is like the animation version of Tarzan. The image of Katy Perry swinging from the vine, to me, is the main reminder of this TV animation. It is stereotypical that Tarzan is a male and he’s the ‘king’ of the jungle and saves the women, so it seems that Katy Perry is suggesting that even though she’s a woman, she doesn’t need to be saved and she works her way up to be the ‘king’ of the jungle.

As well as the visuals, the intertextual lyrics remind me of certain songs. Katy Perry uses the phrase “I’ve got the eye of the tiger” multiple times in this song which appears to be taken from the song

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‘Eye of the Tiger’ by survivor. This could have possibly been done to promote her song as the majority of people appear to remember the line ‘the eye of the tiger’. This song is used in the film ‘Rocky’ in the scene where he’s training for a fight. This can connote that Katy Perry herself is training for the survival in the jungle.

Another line, “I am the champion”, could possibly link to the song ‘We Are the Champions’ by Queen. Again, this could have been done to further promote Katy Perry’s song and to prove that women can be strong and dependent on themselves.

In conclusion, this music video is a pop genre music video which is portrayed through Katy Perry’s bubbly personality and the songs upbeat tune. The dominant reading, shown through Stuart Hall’s Reception Theory, displays that we as the audience accept Katy Perry’s success and enjoy the narrative and performance based music video as it is.