MV Opinion: Melanie Martinez - Mrs. Potatohead
MV Opinion: Melanie Martinez - Mrs. Potatohead
Warning: A scene in this mv may be a bit disturbing to watch.
For the record, this is my newest favorite music video as of right now. I’ve always wanted to portray the idea of beauty is pain either through film or through photography. I wanted to show that to be beautiful there is a good deal of hurt that comes along with it. My first thoughts on how I’d approach this topic would be to look at ballet dancers and how they carry out beautiful performances on stage and yet they carry that hurt and pain through their feet. Not only does the song provide this theme but also the music video itself (hence the reason why I’m doing this review).
Let’s start with my interpretation of the music video. There are several different things that the mv plays around with that take on symbolic meaning throughout both mediums (video and song). The concept of plastic surgery can either be taken literally or metaphorically (whichever fits your fancy). There are many people that believe that physically changing/altering your body is going to make you more attractive or more beautiful which can be done through cosmetic surgery. It can also be taken in the way that it symbolizes the idea that people (especially young women) who lack self-confidence and self-love end up wanting to change themselves in order to fit in or to be accepted in society; they are constantly trying to live up to the standards around themselves despite the fact that it’s hurting them in the process.
She gets the facial-lift and is bandaged up in hopes that she’ll become beautiful when she removes them off of her face but when she takes the bandages off, she is depicted in a way where she seems as if she’s gotten worse instead of better. The man in the music video is depicted as her lover and you can see him as such or you can also see him as a representation of society as a whole. The scene that introduces their relationship, it is set up that he wants her to go through cosmetic surgery in order for her to become “more beautiful”. She doesn’t disagree with this process but instead goes along with it = her following the social norms. Within the next scene, he is shown cutting her hair as she sleeps - she is essentially being forced to change and to fit in with society as she places the wig on her head to cover her messed-up hairdo. In the end, he is shown leaving her for another woman and everything dramatically changes (lighting, color, emotion). If you want to see him as the Lover, he forces her to change herself in order to fit his own standard of beauty and when she fails to meet these standards he abandons her for another woman that he believes would be a better fit than she is (despite how much she’s sacrificed and suffered for him). He was the one that she truly loved and he took advantage of this love and threw her away when he saw she was of no use to him. It is a pretty similar concept if you see him as a representation of society but instead of her loving him, society tends to trash you out and put you in the meat-grinder for the remainder of your days (sounds more harsh and indeed it is).
Let’s talk technical aspects. I want to say that I love how good Melanie is at acting. Her ability to act deranged and childlike is amazing in many ways I can’t describe. The cinematography was incredible in the way that it played around with elements from horror films with the contrast of soft, pastel colors (the pink within the bed scenes) which we’d normally associate with love, romance, and all things nice and sweet. You can definitely see examples of this in the scene where she’s actually getting surgery (when I first watched it the special effects of the skin peeling was a bit unnerving to me). I’m pretty fond of the aesthetics within all of Melanie’s music videos so there’s definitely no complaints there. Some elements that stood out to me: the great usage of pastel colors within the video (you honestly can’t go wrong with pastel colors in my opinion), constant center-framing (I felt like this helped to really put more focus on her and add some more dynamics to her “transformation” before and after surgery), the drastic fading of color from beginning to end (you can see the bright colors grow on a more grim look and tone as the story is drawn out), and the parallel between the television show and reality where the character watching the show changes her mind about what she originally perceived to be beautiful. She represents the audience in this case, where Melanie is making the statement that as an audience you should realize that beauty is not all that it’s cut out to be, there is more hurt and pain and suffering than you could ever imagine that comes along with being beautiful. You should love yourself and who you are first.
As a kid, I’ve always said that “the most beautiful people in the world have the most problems” and I was not wrong.
Warning: A scene in this mv may be a bit disturbing to watch.
For the record, this is my newest favorite music video as of right now. I’ve always wanted to portray the idea of beauty is pain either through film or through photography. I wanted to show that to be beautiful there is a good deal of hurt that comes along with it. My first thoughts on how I’d approach this topic would be to look at ballet dancers and how they carry out beautiful performances on stage and yet they carry that hurt and pain through their feet. Not only does the song provide this theme but also the music video itself (hence the reason why I’m doing this review).
Let’s start with my interpretation of the music video. There are several different things that the mv plays around with that take on symbolic meaning throughout both mediums (video and song). The concept of plastic surgery can either be taken literally or metaphorically (whichever fits your fancy). There are many people that believe that physically changing/altering your body is going to make you more attractive or more beautiful which can be done through cosmetic surgery. It can also be taken in the way that it symbolizes the idea that people (especially young women) who lack self-confidence and self-love end up wanting to change themselves in order to fit in or to be accepted in society; they are constantly trying to live up to the standards around themselves despite the fact that it’s hurting them in the process.
She gets the facial-lift and is bandaged up in hopes that she’ll become beautiful when she removes them off of her face but when she takes the bandages off, she is depicted in a way where she seems as if she’s gotten worse instead of better. The man in the music video is depicted as her lover and you can see him as such or you can also see him as a representation of society as a whole. The scene that introduces their relationship, it is set up that he wants her to go through cosmetic surgery in order for her to become “more beautiful”. She doesn’t disagree with this process but instead goes along with it = her following the social norms. Within the next scene, he is shown cutting her hair as she sleeps - she is essentially being forced to change and to fit in with society as she places the wig on her head to cover her messed-up hairdo. In the end, he is shown leaving her for another woman and everything dramatically changes (lighting, color, emotion). If you want to see him as the Lover, he forces her to change herself in order to fit his own standard of beauty and when she fails to meet these standards he abandons her for another woman that he believes would be a better fit than she is (despite how much she’s sacrificed and suffered for him). He was the one that she truly loved and he took advantage of this love and threw her away when he saw she was of no use to him. It is a pretty similar concept if you see him as a representation of society but instead of her loving him, society tends to trash you out and put you in the meat-grinder for the remainder of your days (sounds more harsh and indeed it is).
Let’s talk technical aspects. I want to say that I love how good Melanie is at acting. Her ability to act deranged and childlike is amazing in many ways I can’t describe. The cinematography was incredible in the way that it played around with elements from horror films with the contrast of soft, pastel colors (the pink within the bed scenes) which we’d normally associate with love, romance, and all things nice and sweet. You can definitely see examples of this in the scene where she’s actually getting surgery (when I first watched it the special effects of the skin peeling was a bit unnerving to me). I’m pretty fond of the aesthetics within all of Melanie’s music videos so there’s definitely no complaints there. Some elements that stood out to me: the great usage of pastel colors within the video (you honestly can’t go wrong with pastel colors in my opinion), constant center-framing (I felt like this helped to really put more focus on her and add some more dynamics to her “transformation” before and after surgery), the drastic fading of color from beginning to end (you can see the bright colors grow on a more grim look and tone as the story is drawn out), and the parallel between the television show and reality where the character watching the show changes her mind about what she originally perceived to be beautiful. She represents the audience in this case, where Melanie is making the statement that as an audience you should realize that beauty is not all that it’s cut out to be, there is more hurt and pain and suffering than you could ever imagine that comes along with being beautiful. You should love yourself and who you are first.
As a kid, I’ve always said that “the most beautiful people in the world have the most problems” and I was not wrong.
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