#3 ‘Broken-Hearted Girl’

‘Broken-Hearted Girl’ is the seventh single released by the American R&B singer ‘Beyoncé Knowles’, which is from her third studio album, ‘I Am … Sasha Fierce’. This song was written by Beyoncé Knowles herself as well as Kenneth Bryan Edmonds, Eikkel S. Eriksen and Tor Erik Hermansen, for the production of the song Beyoncé produced it alongside Stargate. ‘Broken-Hearted Girl’ was orignially lined up as the sixth US/fourth worldwide single from the album, but was replaced by ‘Sweet Dreams’. The song will be released in the UK on November 2nd, 2009, the same time when the Platinum edition is released. The critical reception that the song has gained are from the Pop Matters, they said; “The piano-balladry of ‘Broken-Hearted Girl’ is simply more Celine Dion that Aretha Franklin”. The Village Voice call the song “romantic-comedy soundtrack fare”, which is shown throughout the music video as the romantic setting of the beach helping with the emotion of the song. A long review given by Bubbel G shows the exact affect that this song has had on the public that have viewed the music video and what it focuses on as well as the relation that occurs within the lyrics. “We all love Beyoncé, she is such an amazing singer and always looks stunning. The video for the video is shot on a beacj and she looks lovely and classy. It’s not like a Paris Hilton beach video! To be honest, she seems to be holding back the ‘diva’ voice quite a bit on this single, but it really works because it makes the lyrics a lot more believable. We can all relate to the lyrics within this song, and if you actually listen to what she’s saying, it can make you feel quite sad. The single is a lot mellower and R&B sounding than her other tracks, and it’s a real ballad break up song. It focuses on her voice rather than anything else, and she doesn’t have to over-do it with instruments or anything. It’s very simple and very honest, there isn’t a Beyoncé song we don’t love, she is one of the best singers around!”. As you can see from the quote above written by Bubbel G we can tell that the song is moving just by the title ‘Broken-Hearted Girl’, it creates the thought of someone having maybe spent a lot of time with someone being together in a relationship and now has gotten their heart broken from this. The emotion will be intense just by reading the title we can tell it’s a song about to tell us a story whether it’s true or not it will play with our own emotions maybe relating to our own experiences depending on the way we are emotionally effected by the lyrics that have been chosen.

The genre of the song is R&B/Pop being produced by an artist covering; Pop, R&B and Dance music, the music video illustrates the genre that Beyoncé tries to portray to her target audience – this being young teenagers to people in their 20’s, accounting for both female and male audiences’. By analysing this music video to the previous music video done by Beyoncé I will be able to identify the changes in Beyoncés’ performance – if any shall occur, and being able to see the similarities or differences that have been set in each of the videos throught the key concepts and techniques that are required for any production of a music video.

‘Broken-Hearted Girl’ was supposed to be released alongside the US-Only single ‘Ego’. However, at the last minute, the release of ‘Broken-Hearted Girl’ was scrapped, and ‘Sweet Dreams’ was released instead.

Immediately at the start of the video we are faced with an establishing shot, this helps to set the scene of what is about to happen. This shot is a typical beginning of a video shot as it sets the scene for the upcoming storyline of the video. It can be noted that this shot is sometimes used at the end of videos allowing the shot to indicate where the scene has taken place. The video begins with us seeing a vehicle pulling up into a parking bay in what looks like a car park. The song begins the second we enter the car, the first shot of Beyoncé is a close-up allowing us to look into her eyes and view her emotion already unwinding at the beginning of the song. This close-up forces up to focus on Beyoncés’ face, we can see that her expression is somewhat sad and vacant – in terms of her feeling empty. In terms of mise-en-scene, we don’t really see what she is wearing from the way she is presented in the car we only get to see her face, shoulders and her hands. The mise-en-scene on the areas where we can see shows she is wearing a coat and gloves, the way the video has been made we see the camera shots in black and white, creating a better affect for the telling of the story, helping to portray her innocence and sadness, which generates a rather mysterious and sensuality connotation shown through Beyoncés’ eyes. Furthermore, the fact that she appears in black and white adds to the emphasises of the story and the meaning of what is being focused on in this shot – this being her eyes.

Once again, the camera is focusing exclusively on a particular feature of her face. In this case, it is her eyes again that we are forced to focus upon. The close-up allows us to see that Beyoncé is really upset and emotionally drained from the situation that is occuring which we later hear about as the song continues. We can tell from this close-up that she has been crying as her eyes are filled with tears and this particularly shot allows us to see the tears running down her face. When the lyrics of the song begin we are watching Beyoncé dry her tears away this is setting the atmosphere for the song and shows the audience Beyoncés’ expression, portraying the sadness and the personal-factor that is what this song is portraying through the lyrics and melody of the song itself.

She is then shown walking to the beach from the car; the scenes are shown with Beyoncé with her love interest playing around on the beach, which seem to be recalled events that Beyoncé is thinking while in the car. Here, we have an interesting shot as this is shown to be a flashback of Beyoncé and her love. This master shot shows us the setting of the beach which Beyoncé and her love were on, this helps to visualise what they were like and how upset she really is. The flashback is shown after looking at Beyoncé and seeing her wipe her tears away and sign, it then jumps to this shot of the two of them establishing the connection they once had. In terms of mise-en-scene we can see he is wearing a white shirt with white pants, showing a casual look to his character. The white clothing could be noted to mean the freedom of their relationship being able to be free on the beach and be themselves to him being pure and full of love and life; showing the personal-factor that this scene has upon Beyoncé herself. Beyoncé herself is wearing a vest top and jean shorts we don’t get to see this here as the shot if moved on quickly before she knees down beside her love. This is a very personal moment to Beyoncé as this is a flashback of what was happening before it all ended. We as the audience could relate to this feeling of emotional and personal-factors as we may have been through this ourselves allowing us to feel like we are in her shoes and feeling what she feels. This is a great way to make the audience interested and stay interested in the video, as they feel for the artists pain making them stay and see how the story unfolds.

Beyoncé then walks on the beach for a while then in the water with teary eyes singing into the camera. This image has been merged with another, like a photo over a photo image, this gives it a great affect as we still get to see the ocean but are able to see Beyoncé singing the song. Allowing us to view her emotion in a close-up camera shot, this time we are focusing on the whole of her face as well as her hands on the wheel. We can see the sadness again in her face – from her eyes being teary and just the vacant look that is pictured across her face. The lyrics: “And though there are times when I hate you ‘cause I can’t erase”, imply that Beyoncé is conveying her personal emotions and experiences through the song and this provokes a more personal and intimate style between the artist and the listener.

The lyrics continue with the changing of the scenery – from the car to the beach, the close-up of Beyoncé is merged with a mid-shot of her on the beach.
“The times that you hurt me and put tears on my face”, this corresponds with the previous camera shots showing Beyoncé crying and wiping her tears from her face. This line helps to identify her pain and what has been happening, this plays with the emotion-factor and the audience are able to relate to the feeling of being hurt and having tears upon their face from the situations that can occur.

Here, we have another close-up of Beyoncé allowing us to see her expressions of emotion, from this camera shot we are able to visualise the pain this is causing Beyoncé and how hard it must be for her to deal with it. We are able to tell this from the features on her face; her eyes although they are half shut we are able to see her looking towards to ground as if she’s to upset to look at anyone or anything so it refined to staring at the ground, her mouth defines the distinctive storyline of the ‘Broken-Hearted Girl’ still in love with her man but in some way hates the fact that she is still in love with this guy. This shot is seen just after the lyrics: “I know that I love you but let me just say, I don’t wanna love you in no kinda way”, this implies her love for him but we can tell from this that Beyoncé doesn’t just want to love him in any kind of way, we are left thinking what way is it that she wants to love him.

The song continues with the chorus, “No, no, I don’t wanna a broken heart And I don’t wanna play the broken-hearted girl No, no, no broken-hearted girl I’m no broken-hearted girl”. At the start of the lyrics; “No, no I don’t wanna a broken heart”, we see Beyoncé and her love cuddling on the beach we can see Beyoncés’ expression of happiness as she is being held my her man. The content of this scene shows the deep love that she had for him and the emotional rollarcoaster that she seems to be on. This is another flashback that we are witnessing allowing us the chance to discover the full story as it is being told to us. The next line of lyrics are: “And I don’t wanna play the broken-hearted girl”, this is heard when Beyoncé is seen standing on the beach on her own looking into her hands. We see Beyoncé sing the next line “No, no, no broken-hearted girl”, this is seen in a close-up shot allowing us to see the affect this is having on her and the expression she is showing shows her eyes being wide open and vacant showing emptiness. There is a pause allowing us to view to two of them in the ocean itself holding each other close, cuddling under the hot sun. This is the romantic part of the song, as it is like they are dancing hand in hand with the sun blazing down upon them shining and creating the perfect shot. Before it continues with the song to, “I’m no broken-hearted girl”, we also see Beyoncé sing this part of the song as well – in a close-up allowing us the view of her eyes again.

This shot is a long-shot or can also be known as a master shot as they both show the entire figure of someone, which also tends to show the place of the setting and keeps everything in view of the audiences’ eyes.

Just before this shot we see Beyoncé and her love holding each other, the reason for this shot is to show that they did have good times spent together. We are mainly focused on her mouth and eyes as we can see she is smiling at the flashback we have just seen of them holding each other. Her eyes tell the story of the flashback just by looking into it, allowing us to understand the times they spent together weren’t all bad they did have some good times.

The lyrics: “‘Cause I’ve been afraid that you would walk away Oh, but now I don’t hate you, I’m happy to say That I will be there at the end of the day”, implies that she is getting over the fact that they can’t be together and she’s happy to just be there for him “at the end of the day”. This is song with a happy smile on her face as we see her singing these lines, this adds to the emphasis of the personal and emotional ride that Beyoncé has been feeling. In terms of mise-en-scene Beyoncé is wearing a tight fitted dress showing off her figure, although the dress looks rather simple it suits figure making her appeal to the male audience in a sexual way even though this is a sad song. The female audience may relate to Beyoncé as they may have been through something similar.

While in the car Beyoncé imagines holding hands with her love interest, we see this happen in this particular shot while it goes back to her in the water. This shot is yet another flashback helping us view what Beyoncé is thinking and what she really wants to happen. We can see that the passion of love is obvious as the intense look that they give to each other and the way they are with each other tells us they did have a strong relationship. We get to see the passion of love unravel at the seems to just be able to realise whether this is all in her head or if the previous love did actually happen.

Here, we can Beyoncé is a green long dress, this is a mid-shot of her which is typically shown intending to show the body language of someone; including their power and status – if it is beginning used in an action video.
As the song continues we see Beyoncé putting together what looks to be a rose, as we believe that earlier she had ripped it apart, this is useful as it reflects the past and reverses the shots as she gathers the broken ends of the rose. Instead of playing it forward they have done it different and played it backwards allowing us to reserve time, which is what the public would be interested in as people would like to change back the time and relive something that’s happened and this is what it illustrates.

As the rose begins to become repaired, we see Beyoncé walking backwards as she repairs the rose – illustrating the reserve of time. Beyoncé is shown again playing around with her love interest before the music video ends with Beyoncé wiping the tears from her face, smiling, and drives away. As she gets into her car we see her smiling showing that she is happy with the experience and is glad in a way that it is over. The video then ends with the last shot of Beyoncé smiling into the camera looking into a close-up of her, this reveals the expression of happiness and the emotion of sadness has disappeared and changed to happiness.

Overall, from analysing two Beyoncé music videos, I can see that each one truly compliments the artists’ style and nature of the video. We are given the impression that she does have her own unique style, and comes across as being a friendly woman who is just like anybody else suffering an emotional rollarcoaster experience. The two videos, ‘Sweet Dreams’ and ‘Broken-Hearted Girl’ are similar – we can see that the two videos are the similar from the way they have been produced, Beyoncé in the ‘Broken-Hearted Girl’ seems to be more relationing to the public than ‘Sweet Dreams’ although that can relate to the public in some scenes. In my opinion, I think that Beyoncés’ style of music is very original and interesting the way she produces her music videos to either entertain the audience or interact with them. I truly believe that she is a genuniely likeable artist and her dance moves, style of music and interaction makes her so appealing to the male and female audience.