
Mainstream pop music videos seem to all be the same. Some supercilious pop star singing and dancing in clothes that are barely there, repeating the same line over and over again about how some imaginary person broke their heart or how crazy that party was and how much alcohol they drank. But every once in a while you come across a song that has meaning with a music video that is for once, thought provoking. Pink's F**kin' Perfect, is one of those exceptions. Through the scene changes, angles and color schemes, the song becomes more personal and relatable because of the striking and sometimes even startling scenes. The use of color schemes, camera angles and views paints a picture that the words alone fail to. 

The first truly striking scene, when the viewer now understands the gravity and seriousness that the video is trying to portray, shows the main character as a teenager in her younger years of high school. Before the shot of this scene is a faded and blurry scene of older looking, pretty, and well dressed girls standing in front of the sinks of a bathroom whispering and laughing (we can assume they are standing outside of stall that our main character is in). The blurriness and briefness of the shot almost leaves the viewer questioning if we were even meant to see them so we know that they are not the main focus but are there simply to give the following scene more meaning. The following scene is of a girl, the main character in this music video, sitting alone in a bathroom stall alone. She then snorts some kind of drug, carves the words “skinny bitches” into the wall of the stall, and then looks through the crack in the door with one eye. This progression of three scenes move swiftly from one to the next signifying that she is not dwelling nor having any reservations about her actions. There seems to be a blue hue to these few scenes, signifying her unhappiness and the despair she is feeling at the moment, and making it seem like more of a dream then reality. Her one eye peering out of the stall says that she feels like an outsider looking in, and the small enclosed stall represents how small, insignificant, and separated she feels to the rest of the world. 

One scene shows a wide screen shot looking into the open door of a bathroom where she is standing on a scale wearing plain white saggy undergarments hanging loosely from her protruding bones. This shot leaves us without any doubt about what the music video is meant to portray, a girl like so many others that struggle with that fact that perfect is an unachievable goal. The angle of the shot, being far away and looking through an open door, leaves the viewer feeling as if they are watching something that they shouldn’t be, or witnessing a private, personal, and emotional moment. The colors of the scene are all very bland and mundane, making her blend in with her surroundings and making her feel invisible and insufficient, which there lies the underlying theme of the music video. She is standing on the scale looking down, her body language showing signs that she feels defeated, foreshadowing the next scene.

The following scene is just as, if not more striking. She is sitting in a bathtub, and then proceeds to carve the word perfect into her forearm with a small razor. The angles of the camera are very close and only show her and the bath tub, signifying that at that particular moment in time, in her mind she is the only person in the world. The close angles also give us a sense of intimacy and feel as though we are experiencing it with her. The camera changes angles, showing all sides of the story and giving the viewer more perspective. The colors of the scene are again all bland and neutral, and her skin has a ghostly white glow, giving the whole scene even more of an eerie and surreal feeling. The blood dripping from her arm and on and around the bathtub and bathroom contrast with the white and light neutral colors of the bathroom signifying her desperation and her feeling of difference from the rest of the world. The tub eventually turns all red from the blood from her arms, but she remains sedentary and simply sitting in a pool of her own blood, which symbolizes her acceptance of defeat as she literally drowns herself in her sorrows.

The next scene starts with one pair of scissors sitting alone on the bathroom sink. We then see her begin to carelessly cut off her long brown hair. The camera angles change swiftly, making the whole thing feel rushed and disorienting, which was most likely to signify the feelings she was going through at the time. The camera also shows a lot of close up shots making the whole scene feel personal and making it easier for the viewer to put themselves into the scene. We see her hair fall to the floor as she stands there with ragged and messy hair cut close to her scalp. The cutting of her hair signifies the loss of dignity she feels and is almost like she is cutting off societies expectations when it comes to feminism, and refusing to conform and feel defined by them. She is finally come to the self realization that she is not like other girls, after struggling with it for so long. The scene is made to leave the viewer feeling like some kind of renewal or rebirth is somewhere in the near future, and we do see that in the remaining scenes.  There’s also a moment when you can see the faded image of her one eye filled with tears and running mascara as the scene changes. Throughout the music video the camera seems to gravitate and focus on her eyes, most of the time showing them filled with tears or looks of hate or resentment. The next scene we see her painting, and for the first time when the focus is on her eyes, they are filled with content and peacefulness in stead of hate and spite. 

Both of these scenes are meant to portray a certain feeling in the viewer. The use of bland colors gives the sense of normality, even though nothing being shown is normal. The changing angles and the contrast between the distant shot and the close up shots are taking the viewer between the feeling of witnessing something that they feel they shouldn’t, and then placing them right into the scene and making them feel as though they are experiencing it as well. Both these scenes add so much depth to the words of the song. The lyrics of the song alone are powerful despite it’s pop origin, the music video takes the lyrics and paints a more and relatable picture for the viewer. 