Pretty Hurts by Beyoncé is a music video that was released for her fifth studio album in 2014, self-titled, Beyoncé. The video explores themes of self-esteem, confidence and most importantly, the beauty standards that society projects onto women, which can damage how they see themselves. The music video for Pretty Hurts is a combination of a performance music video and a narrative video as there are multiple sequences in the music video where Beyoncé is lip-syncing to the lyrics of the song, but the music video also follows the storyline of a pageant girl who is competing against other women as she struggles to meet what society deems as 'perfect'. It doesn't just follow the story of Beyoncé's character, but also highlights the other women in the music video and how they feel pressurised to be as slim as possible, look pretty, and be perfect, which shows how this is teaching young women from very young ages what they should be like and what is considered to be pretty.
The sequences in where this music video follows the conventions of a performance video is where Beyoncé is in a simple room while she lip-syncs to the lyrics of the song. This is showing how the music video isn't trying to put on something visually
pleasing to its audience and is rather trying to contain the main focus to the performer. Beyoncé directly addresses the audience by looking into the camera, which creates a connection between the performer and her audience because she is 'singing' directly to them. Additionally, the music video does reflect the lyrics and the meaning of the song, which is conventional for performance music videos. The images and concepts all follow the storyline of a beauty pageant, which is also shown within the lyrics of the song. Also, the visual codes of the costume and accessories reflect the lyrics as she is wearing a crown and a sash in the sequences where Beyoncé is lip-syncing to the lyrics of the song to highlight the characters participation in the beauty pageant and make the storyline flow, rather than just cutting to her singing in a setting which doesn't relate to the context of the song.
The music video for 'Pretty Hurts' also follows the conventions of a narrative music video as it follows the storyline of a beauty pageant competition. From the first scene in the music video, it starts with a close up of Beyoncé as she is looking at herself in the mirror, which again creates a
connection with the audience, but also signifies how she and lots of other women are constantly critiquing themselves because of the existing beauty standards that women are repeatedly told to meet. Also, there is a visual code of a tear falling down her face and a unhappy facial expression, which shows how damaging teaching young women what they should look like really is and how exhausting it can be. Additionally, as the music video progresses, this scene of Beyoncé looking into the mirror is repeated, which could signify the constant reminder for women to meet the beauty standard, but there is a scene which highlights Beyoncé rubbing her eyes, which messes up her makeup and her smudges mascara. This shows how the beauty industry isn't realistic at all because beneath all the looks, many of the women aren't happy within themselves and constantly trying to follow new beauty standards to fit in wont change that.
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