With a sizable amount hitting over 3 billion views, Katy Perry is known for her music videos. I think there is a so much worth discussing here, but I will be focusing on the difference between her ‘Chained to the Rhythm’ video and ‘Bon Appetit’ featuring Migos. Both published in 2017 to promote her new album ‘Witness’, the videos centre her as the protagonist. It is common for artists to be central to their videos – it helps promote the song by use of star power as fans of their work or appearance boost viewers. To maintain her celebrity persona (Arnold, G and Cookney, D 2017) Katy Perry is central to both videos’ plots. In ‘Bon Appetit’, she is represented as food, something edible, that is pulled and shaped throughout the video to be consumed by paying customers. Katy Perry – Bon appétit slowed version …

The sexualisation of her body paired with the elements of food make her appealing to the eye and keeps audience retention. Whilst the song lyrics link to the visuals, I would agree with Gina Arnold’s point that music video can take away from the form itself. Whilst the video matches the sound, after watching the video it is easy to see how viewers can become distracted from the music itself.

Daniel Cookney (2017) makes a differing point in relation to music video and its inclusion of celebrities, that it allows audiences to interpret how they want to rather that how the artist or company who produce it dictate. I think this is increasing relevant to Perry’s video ‘Chained to the Rhythm’, because whilst she is still central to the video and present in most shots, she uses her persona to distract from the topic of the song itself. In the video we see a theme park, with hundreds of smiling, perfect people, but the lyrics of the song go as follows:

Where nothing will ever be enough

Happily numb

So comfortable, we’re living

in a bubble, bubble

So comfortable, we cannot

see the trouble, trouble

So put your rose-coloured glasses on

And party on

Turn it up, it’s your favourite song

Dance, dance, dance to the distortion

Turn it up, keep it on repeat

Stumbling around like a wasted zombie

Yeah, we think we’re free

Drink, this one’s on me

We’re all chained to the rhythm

I think it is poignant to notice the contrast she is trying to create. By separating the song and the video, she is able to reach a much broader demographic than if she matched the lyrics and the tone of the song with visuals. In doing so, the video has amassed over 760 million views. This further enables the video to be shown on television and broadcast channels whilst still sending her message about problematic societal issues surrounding social media and ignorance without becoming too political and dividing audiences. Carole Vernallis (2013) suggests that music videos can be thematised and specific to artists, and I would make a point that Katy Perry uses her star power and persona to successfully promote her music and solidify her status whilst simultaneously using her platform to send important messages she feels are important.

By Lily De’Athe 33735532

References –

Daniel Cookney (2017) ‘Vimeo Killed the Video Star: Burial and the User Generated Music Video’, Music/Video: Histories Aesthetics, Media, 255-267

Carole Vernallis, (2013) ‘Music Video’s Second Aesthetic’, Unruly Media: YouTube, Music Video, and the New Digital Cinema, 207-233

Gina Arnold, Daniel Cookney, Kirsty Fairclough, and Michael Goddard (2017) ‘Introduction: The Persistence of the Music Video Form from MTV to Twenty-First-Century Social Media’, Music/Video: Histories Aesthetics, Media, 1-14

Katy Perry (2017) ‘Chained to the Rhythm’. Available at: https://youtu.be/Um7pMggPnug?si=xn2-WN_qIPss3Tvl ( Accessed 18.11.24)

Katy Perry (2017) ‘Bon Appetit’ Available at: https://youtu.be/dPI-mRFEIH0?si=azUAutPdQAPog4BK (Accessed 18.11.24)