Artists use music video’s to visually show the meaning behind of the song and how they want it to be portrayed. Some music video’s use socio-cultural codes to construct the visual narrative and structure of their work. For example the music video of Christina Aguilera’s song ‘Beautiful’, ‘packed with a message of holding one’s self up against criticism from the outside.’¹, shows the insecurities people have with what society portrays to be beautiful. Such as showing characters throughout the video struggling with body image, sexual preference and bullying. The characters develop throughout the video, showing that they accept themselves for who they are and understand the meaning of inner beauty.
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Another sequence shows a stereotypical ‘goth’ male sitting at the back of the bus and other passengers moving away from him. The passengers may have moved away from him thinking he could have been dangerous because of his appearance. This shows how people often judge those who look and are different. In the end of the music video each person is shown smiling, as if saying that they are happy with who they are and that they accept themselves.
The video also shows another socio-cultural code such as sexual preference through two sequences and how society responds. For example showing a gay couple feeling slightly awkward about kissing on a public bench while people walk by staring. As the video goes on it shows they grow more comfortable with their public affection and ignore those who are walking by and judging them. In the end they stop and smile at each other, being happy with who they are. Another scene shows a man standing in his bedroom only wearing underwear and looking like he is contemplating something. Later we see he is transgender and see him putting on make-up, a wig and women’s clothing. This shows that he was thinking about living life as a women and how society would react to this choice. In the end once the make-up and clothes are on he smiles, happy with how he looks, and who he is. These sequences of the music video were widely embraced through the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender community,