Music is a way of communication that allows people to illustrate their feelings at certain times in their life. It gives people the chance to get any message across or display their emotions in a different art form. 30 Seconds to Mars composed and sings a song called “A Beautiful Lie” that is very relatable to the lifestyle that most teenagers live. The idea of having relationships, or grades, or friends, or anything else that only provides temporary happiness, is a feeling that everyone can relate to. Some of the things in life that give us temporary happiness do not last forever, and we are left searching for what is missing in our lives. A lot of times, teenagers tend to tell themselves that everything is okay, and these are the lies this band is singing about. These lies give people expectations for a beautiful life that is unrealistic. There are two scenes during this music video that seem to hit these ideas about temporary happiness best; at around forty seconds into the video and also at around two minutes (when the iceberg is shown).

Forty seconds into the song there is imagery shown when there is a picture of a group of small children that appear to live in the artic area. Their lives are completely different than those who live in other parts of the world. Their families live on the ice, and when the ice cannot be broken the families cannot get food, so they starve. These boys would then take the dog sled and go hunting and fishing for their families. Fishing was the hardest part because it all depended on the quality of the ice and if you could put a fishing line through it. This picture tells a lot about the lives of the children. The children are content right now but they do not see the bigger picture of what is happening in their lives. The children do not realize now that this way of life may only be temporary. The picture is in black and white, which adds a lot of contrast and emotion to the picture. It evens out the playing field when it comes to how we look at all the children because now each face cannot be distinguished as well. The viewer must focus on the image and every little detail in order to get the full story from the picture. But the adults of the families understand the harsh reality of dealing with the brutal winters and the slow melting of the ice will force the families to find a new way to live or even a new home. The iceberg is an even better example of a temporary solution. The families are living on the iceberg and it provides them with life, but just as the man in the video explained, they will not be able to survive there forever. 

The iceberg in the video is big and beautiful but in the end this ice berg is going to melt and turn into water. The iceberg is an accurate representation of temporary happiness because although the ice seems perfect and whole now, it could eventually disappear. There are a lot of factors involved in keeping the ice berg a solid object floating in the ocean, but there are also a couple that could force the ice berg to melt. Since these families base their lives on something that is temporary, they live life based on temporary happiness because as soon these ice bergs melt their lives will be turned upside down and they will be forced to adapt to a new lifestyle. This is very relatable because a lot of teenagers have their own “icebergs” in their lives that only give them temporary happiness. School is a great example of something that is full of icebergs. If the student gets an A on a paper, that’s just like an iceberg, because it is only temporary. As soon as the student stops working hard, the ice starts to melt and the grade slowly decreases. When something gives us happiness in our lives, we must realize that it may not last forever, unless we do something about it ourselves.

30 Seconds to Mars does a great job creating a song that is very relatable for those that really struggle in life and those that believe they aren’t struggling, but then end up with problems. Temporary happiness causes people to be stressed for little reasons because they look back on what happened and realize their mistakes. There is a lot to learn from events that cause temporary happiness, but people do not realize how important it can be to reflect on what happened. 30 Seconds to Mars is trying to make people aware of these lies. There are a lot examples of things the band is referencing that they believe provide temporary happiness relationships, or grades, or friends. There are two scenes in the music video that show examples of what life can be like when you rely on temporary happiness. 
