music video analysis the heart wants what it wants

Music Video Analysis Reece Mechan

Selena Gomez – The Heart Want What It Wants https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ij_0p_6qTss Target Audience & Needs

I think that the target audience for this music video is people who have recently come out of a relationship and they feel insecure and they feel like they’re not going to be the same. The needs for this target audience is for the music video to make the people who is watching this like they are not alone and other people are going through the same. I think the music video achieves the needs and meets the target audience because it shows Selena Gomez being vulnerable and showing emotion, as seen in the photos below. Another target audience is fans of Selena Gomez, the needs for this target audience is that they want to get a glimpse into her life and see the real her. I think she met the needs of this target audience because before the song was released she went through a tragic breakup with former boyfriend Justin Bieber, so in a way this song and music video is also autobiographical. The last target audience I think the music video has is women who are between 21-27. I think this because most women think they should be in a serious relationship by this age and I also think it’s a very mature song which addresses something we all experience at some point in our life. Also in the music video she comes across very grown up and mature which is stereotypically how we see women being when they reach 21. She could’ve come out and made the guy seem bad but she shows how it has affected her and in a way she’s come out of the relationship more mature and with a different view on life which we don’t think a teen could react like that to a break-up.

Lyrics (Meaning Implied?)

At the beginning of the video she says:

“When I was on, when I was on stageAnd I was thinking of...

I felt like I knowI know him though

And I know that, and I know his heartAnd I know what he wouldn't do to hurt me

But I didn't realize that I-I-I

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ij_0p_6qTss


Feeling so confident, feeling so great about myselfAnd then it just be completely shattered

By one thing, by something so stupidBut then you make me feel crazy

You make me feel like it's my faultI was in pain”

In the introduction to the song in the video she says “Feeling so confident, feeling so great about myself and then it just be completely shattered by one thing, by something so stupid”. In these lyrics she is saying how confident and happy she felt after the break-up it was covering up the fact that deep down she was destroyed. But after she sees something to do with her ex she can’t keep up the act and she just breaks down emotionally. This could be referring to her ex-boyfriend Justin Bieber and how it seems harder for her to keep up the act because they are both in the public eye and it’s harder to not hear about rumours about new relationships and the things he gets up to without her. Also she could be referring to how almost every magazine was starting rumours about the reason they broke up and forcing her to relive every second of the tragic time in her life. In the last three lines of the intro where she says “but then you make me feel crazy, you make me feel like it’s my fault I was in pain”. I think she’s saying that somehow every negative in the relationship turns out to be her fault and after a while the person who’s being blamed starts to believe it is their own fault. It’s driving her crazy because she feels like he dumped her because she did something wrong and she doesn’t know so everything’s playing over and over in her head and really she didn’t do anything wrong it was his fault they finished.

The first verse of the song is:

“You got me sipping on somethingI can't compare to nothing I've ever knownI'm hoping that after this fever I'll survive

I know I'm acting a bit crazyStrung out, a little bit hazy

Hand over heart, I'm prayingThat I'm gonna make it out alive”

The first two lines of the song are “You got me sipping on something I can’t compare to nothing I’ve ever known”. In these lines she is saying that he makes her feeling something that she’s never felt before. Selena uses the metaphor of a drink to compare to their love. This can be took in two ways. It could mean that loving him is bad for her or that it makes her happy being near him and


she feels addicted to him. In the third line of the verse; “I’m hoping that after this fever I’ll survive”. The fever she speaks about is lovesickness. In the song selena doesn’t make being lovesick sound like a good thing which it usually is related to in other songs. This could mean that she doesn’t see the love she felt for him as a good feeling but instead she sees it as a hurtful feeling. Another thing she brings up in this lyric is that she hopes to survive after the love goes. I think this means that she is saying that she hopes she’s strong enough to get over the guy and stop feeling feelings for him. In the last four lines of the verse she’s saying that her love for him makes her feel dizzy and she doesn’t know if she will ever be able to stop loving him. In these lines she also is saying that she’s praying that after she stops loving him she wants to go back to the real her instead of seeing a negative view on things which most people feel after they have split up from their first love.

The second verse to the song is:

“The bed's getting cold and you're not hereThe future that we hold is so unclear

But I'm not alive until you callAnd I'll bet the odds against it all

Save your advice cause I won't hearYou might be right, but I don't care

There's a million reasonsWhy I should give you up”

In this verse the first four lines say “The bed’s getting cold and you’re not here the future that we hold is so unclear but I’m not alive until you call and I’ll bet the odds against it all”. She’s saying that she’s not used to the fact that he’s not there anymore and she’s feeling alone until she hears his voice again. Also in the verse she admits that she doesn’t know if they are ever going to get back together and even when she hears him it’s still all the doubts are playing over and over in her head and she can’t see them getting back together but secretly she wants them to be back to how they were. The next two lines in the verse are “save your advice cause I won’t hear you might be right but I don’t care”. This is relating back to her relationship with Justin Bieber. During this relationship they received a lot of criticism about how they live and how they should be when they are together. In these lines she’s saying that even though the criticism may be right the things they are doing now makes her feel happy so she wasn’t going change anything because of what people said. In the last two lines she saying that if she makes a list about him of pros and cons there are more cons that pros.

The chorus to the song is:


“But the heart wants what it wa-a-a-a-a-ntsThe heart wants what it wa-a-a-a-a-nts”

The chorus is relating to the quote by Emily Dickinson which says “The heart wants what it wants – or else it does not care” this quote means to always go with your heart over your head even though your head might know the right decision to make. This could be referring to this quote as a reason why she kept going back to her on-off relationship with Justin Bieber. Although there was a million reasons to end her relationship with Justin she let love perceiver even though she knew they were not meant to be together anymore.

The third verse to the song is:

“You got me scattered in piecesShining like stars and screaming

Lighting me up like VenusBut then you disappear and make me wait

And every second's like tortureHeroin drip, no more soFinding a way to let go

Baby, baby, no I can't escape”

In the first two lines of the verse we find out that he makes her feel like the most beautiful thing in the world and make her shine like a star but at the same time she’s screaming about how much hurt she’s getting put through in the relationship. In the third line she makes reference to Venus the Roman goddess of love and sex. Selena describes how this man can make her feel like the most beautiful woman in the world before ruining it all. In the line “Heroin drip no more so” she lets us know that she is addicted to him and she keeps on going back and forth like an addict does when they relapse. Also she wishes that it would be easy for her to let him go and stop loving him but he isn’t. In the last two lines we find out that she’s trying different ways to forget the feelings she had but she can’t. By using the word ‘escape’ she’s letting us know just how painful the relationship is. The word escape makes us think of desperation to break free of somewhere.

The fourth verse to the song is:

“This is a modernFairy-tale


No happy endingsNo wind in our sailsBut I can't imagine

A life withoutBreathless moments

Breaking me down, down, down, down”

The first three lines to the verse refer to older fairy-tales and how they all have happy endings, for example snow white is a heroine who gets her prince charming to stay with her all their lives. Nowadays there is no such thing as clean closure. She knew the relationship would end but she hung onto it on the off chance that the love in the fairy tales where it all ends happily ever after is real. As a result of her relationship proving otherwise she can’t envision a perfect romance anymore. In the last four lines of the verse I think she says what makes you the most happy can also make you the most sad because when that person is gone all the happy memories go with them.

Tempo The tempo of the song is slow. This is portrayed in the song because the scenes fade into each other and they stay on the screen for quite a long time.

Genre The genre of the song is Pop. The genre conventions of a pop music video is; imagery is based on sex and partying, animation is used, bright lighting, fashionable clothing, mostly performance based, synchronised dancing, close-ups are featured heavily. The video doesn’t follow most of these conventions. It doesn’t include anything to do with sex but it does have some scenes where they are having some sort of party, as seen in the picture on the left. Animation is not used and the video is in black and white all the way through. In the shots we can’t see that much detail about what she is wearing and there is no dancing used. Close ups are used heavily.

Camera Technique The very first camera technique is a mid-shot. In this shot we see Selena looking down looking very upset in this shot it looks like she’s looking at a photo or letter that is either from or off her ex-boyfriend and it’s brought memories back. In the second mid-shot


we see Selena putting a top on and she looks like she’s just stopped crying. This makes the audience realise that she is really upset about the events that have taken place regarding her relationship with Justin Bieber. In the third mid shot we see selena Gomez taking her hair out of the back of her top. She still looks upset this is telling the audience that she is so hurt that she can’t even fake a smile. In the fourth mid shot we see her looking down once again but this time she’s looking down at a desk maybe she’s looking at a magazine that has started another rumour about the breakup between her and Justin and that has made her more upset. In the fifth mid shot we see her looking down to her lap looking nervous. This makes the audience wonder what she is about to do or who she is about to see. In the sixth mid shot we see her wearing a revealing top. Maybe this is a clue to how her relationship was. By wearing a revealing top she wants people to look at her and to admire her. This could be to make her ex-boyfriend jealous or to get the attention she has been deprived off throughout the relationship. In the seventh and last mid-shot we see her stood in front of a wall and two men are behind her. Even though we can’t see her face clearly we see a glimpse of it and her facial expression looks worried. This makes the audience draw their own conclusions about why she looks worried and who the two men are.


As stated earlier the video uses many close ups. The first close up used shows Selena smiling after she leaves a room. In the scenes before the close up appears she is crying and showing a vulnerable side to herself but when she walks out it’s like all that vanishes. This implies to us, as the audience, that even though she’s smiling in magazines it doesn’t mean she’s happy. Also this could she could be saying that people shouldn’t judge her based on what they see or hear about her because the public only sees what she wants them to see. In the next close up we see a different expression on her face. This time she seems sad and lonely. In the background it seems like she’s in a bar or club, a place where the press wouldn’t be. This also links back to the earlier idea about her not wanting people to judge her based in what they see in tabloid magazines because it’s very rarely the real her. In the third close up we see her looking up to the ceiling with tears in her eyes. In the shot she seems like she’s remembering something but she’s holding back the tears for some reason. Maybe she’s in front of people and she doesn’t want to show any kind of weakness. In the fourth close up used we see that she has just fully broken down emotionally and she can’t stop this also shows us how much she was hurt by the tragic break up. In the fifth close up we see that she wiped away her tears. In this shot she looks emotionally drained like she hasn’t had any sleep/rest she also looks like she has to go somewhere and that’s why she has stopped herself from crying. In the sixth close up used she seems to have a more angry look on her face like she’s trying to explain why it’s the best thing for them to do but he’s blaming her and doesn’t understand that she’s upset and that she didn’t want it to turn out this way.


Another shot which is featured heavily close to the end is the two shot. The two shot is used to show the relationship between two people. In the first two shot we see Selena with a guy who must be a boyfriend. This makes the audience wonder why she’s breaking up with him because she looks really happy. This leads to the audience making their own assumptions about the relationship and what problems their smiles might be covering. In the next two shot used we see that Selena looks less happy than she did in the first two shot. This could be because another girl has walked up to them both and the guy has greeted her with a hug. This also makes the audience jump to their own conclusions about what’s happening in the relationship. The conclusions that could be thought of here are that she is just a jealous person or she knows that he has cheated with or been involved with this mystery woman. In the third two shot we see the guy about to put his arm round her most likely to cheer her up or to make sure she knows that he isn’t going to cheat on her. I think the reason why Selena has made the audience come up with their own ideas about this music video is because it is about her relationship with Justin Bieber and she doesn’t want to make it out like it was his/her fault so it doesn’t seem like she’s being childish and passing all the blame onto somebody else when it a tiny bit of it might have been her own fault. In the fourth two shot used we see Selena being completely ignored by everyone including her boyfriend. This could make the audience think that one of the negatives about being with him is that she doesn’t fit in with his group of friends and she just ends up fading away when she’s there. In the fifth two shot it shows the couple in a different way to how we have seen them in other shots. In this shot they are both sat in a house alone and they both seem happy and affectionate to each other. The editing in this shot is different to the every shot used, the editor of the music video has made it a different kind of black and white and they have made it look like it’s on an old TV. This suggests that they haven’t been like this for a very long time and just the memory of them both being together is what is keeping them both together. In the sixth two shot used we see her sat on his lap with her face on his. This has been edited in the last two shot used and in the same setting. In this two shot they both seem a lot more passionate than we have seen them both. Once again though the idea of it being a very distant memory comes to the audiences mind.


Editing One of the editing techniques we see is flashback. We see this close to the end, they are mostly only shown for two seconds each but three of them are shown for a second. In the flashbacks we see Selena with the guy who’s playing her partner and in the flashbacks we see them in a house and in the front of a car. We can tell it’s a flashback because they have used a different kind of black and white and instead of it looking clear like it does during the scenes leading up to the flashbacks, in the flashbacks it looks more washed out than the rest of the music video.

Use of Digital Effects The digital effect used is black and white. This is used all the way through the music video. As a result of this I think it makes the audience think of the olden days and it helps the audience realise that themes that the song and video addresses have been affecting people for centuries.

music video analysis the heart wants what it wants

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target audience

mature song

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