Conceptualised and Directed by Christian Breslauer, Ariana Grande’s ‘The Boy is Mine’ music video exemplifies the idea presented by Arnold et al that music videos though often used as advertising tools allow artists to add new depth to the message they aim to convey.  

The video is aesthetically reminiscent of early 2000s superhero movies, but from the perspective of a sort of anti-hero. 

The story follows a young woman in a town overrun by rats who develops an unhealthy obsession with the newly elected mayor who announces plans to use stray cats to solve the city’s rat problem.  

She brews a love potion and dresses herself in a Catwoman-esque costume and jumps across rooftops to the mayor’s house in a city scape that feels akin to Halle Berry in 2004’s Catwoman.  

The song itself is an obvious reference to Brandy and Monica’s 90s song of the same name. 

As a means of advertising Grande’s song, a video surrounding a boy-obsessed young woman is clever as at the time of the video’s release, news of her relationship with Ethan Slater was generating rumours about her being obsessed with married men.   

The video gives Grande the opportunity to address the rumours which creates interest around the song as well as fuels gossip on social media as no publicity is bad.  

As a story however, the music video builds a different world for listeners to experience adding layers of artistry to an already sonically sound song. The pop culture references to 90s and 00’s culture as well as Catwoman imbue the video with a sense of nostalgia that is currently popular in the industry. It furthermore references older forms of media with a 1950’s sitcom-esque epilogue repopularised by the likes of WandaVision.  

The music video feels much like a short film with a succinct story and an added layer of real-world relevance which makes it work both as a means of advertising and to add depth to the meaning of the track.   

Faramade Olaitan.