Producer: Max Martin
Genre: Pop Rock
Structure: Narrative
Label: LaFace, Jive
This song 'So What?' is sang by American recording artist P!nk about her having a break up with her boyfriend but acting like she doesn't care about it and that she will be fine without him. The music video has a narrative structure and contains scenes of P!nk driving a lawnmover down the streets, her cutting down a tree with her and her ex's name on, her singing at a concert, her in a guitar shop, and her in a house having a pillow fight. The structure of this song is very typical of the pop genre and follows it's conventions, yet the usual pop songs are about love and being in a relationship, whilst hers is about a break up and her being happy about it. The song is an uptempo pop rock song influienced by club music.
The location of this video is shot in many different places, but all are locations where P!nk is being wild and outrageous, showing her feelings for her relationship and that she doesn't really care about her break up. The first scene opens the song to P!nk being sat in a tattoo shop getting her tattoo of her and her husband covered up with the word 'VOID' in bold capital red lettering. The meaning of void typically means 'something that doesn't contain anything, and is empty', which is conveying to the audience that her feelings about her ex husband are empty. There is a scene within the video that is P!nk driving down a busy road on a lawnmower, with all of the drivers behind her waving her hands at her suggesting that they are annoyed. This is showing first of all that she doesn't care what anyone else thinks or what they have to say, she just wants to enjoy herself and forget about everything. The whole video contains scenes of P!nk being reckless, for example when she enters the guitar shop and starts playing as guitar, then decides that she wants to smash it up and starts a fight with the guy who works at the store, and this is showing her anger about her break up and that she is taking it out on everyone else.
In relation to cinematography, the camera uses a lot of close ups and medium shots, which is very typical music videos to use, as it shows the feelings of the artists face and their actions to tell the narrative. The camera also uses some slow zooms and this is used to create more of an atmosphere to the music video, making the video and song appealing to watch and listen to. In some scenes the camera is hand held and it has a slight shaking movement to it when P!nk is performing aggressive or wild actions, and this again gives more atmosphere and makes it more exciting. Also, it conveys her feelings of aggression across to the audience by the shaky hand held camera. In relation to editing, there are constant cuts throughout the video, adding to the fast beat of the song and keeping up with the fast narrative. If the cuts were slow, they would not match with the beat or the lyrics and it wouldn't give the video excitement. At the end of the video, there is a fast fading out effect, and this could connote that her feelings for her ex husband have faded. Fades are also usually typical of music videos because it looks neater and better than a straight cut with an abrupt ending. In relation to editing, in the scene were P!nk and her husband are together, there are headlines from the newspaper floating around in the background for example 'P!nk has "Hart" break' relates directly to her relationship as her husbands last name is Hart. The way the headlines are floating about in the background could maybe connote that P!nk doesn't care about what the media says.
In relation to costume, there are strong connotations of her going crazy and insane because of her break up, and what shows this is her hair when it is spiky and raised upwards, and this gives the look that she has been electrocuted. When she is in the tattoo studio, she is dressed all in black, connoting her anger and frustration for her ex husband. Some of her costumes that she is wearing throughout the video are sometimes revealing, for example her low cut top when she is driving the lawnmower. This could connote that she is trying to gain males attention to make herself feel better, but it could also connote that she wants change her appearance in order to forget about him. This relates to Laura Mulveys theory of women are perceived how men want them to be perceived, because P!nk dressing the way she is in this video, is appealing to the male eye, and this can relate to voyeurism.
The target audience for this video would be teenagers and young adults, usually females, but the actual lyrics would be aimed at people who have been through a break up and want to act as if they don't care. The lyrics give the audience a sense of feeling strong and sure about a relationship that has ended, and gives the audience positive feelings. As the video can also be seen as a comedy, it makes the song more positive because it makes people laugh when they watch it. The ideology of this song is represented very strongly because it is put across is every scene that the ideology of the song is about love that has ended. The music video almost makes the ideology look like a joke and makes it look not serious, as if it is slating off sad typical love songs about them being unhappy and P!nk is showing everyone that you don't need to be unhappy, because she has so much to look forward to and she doesn't need a man to make her life any better.
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