Music Video analysis: Katy Perry- A part of me

This music video by Katy Perry, shows very heavy use of narrative, this being that a tainted relationship that has always made her not do what she wanted to do in life and held her back is finally over, by her accord, thus helping her grown stronger and then committing her life to the marines. As the video begins the use of diegetic sound is a radio station in which people are calling it and talking about their relationship issues:
Presenter: "So why you still with him then?" Distressed woman: "He says that one day he wants to have kids with me, and that he
hates travelling and being away from me". Presenter: "So whats the problem?" Distressed woman: "How come it takes him like two hours to call me back, I just think that's shady." as this is happening we see Katy Perry who plays the main character looking at a locket and at a man kissing a attractive blonde woman at a work environment. This is interesting at just by this 25 second extract of the music video we as a viewer already understand what is happening in the world of the music video and that the main female character is at breaking point of being disrespected in her relationship. As the female lead confronts her spouse and tells him there relationship is over the music begins. This was to show the importance of this part of the video, it was important that the viewer understood this part of the narrative.

As the main character goes into a shop and sees an advertisement for the marines saying "All women are created equal, then some become marines" this is a slight foreshadowing of the events to come, she then abruptly goes into the toilets and in a very distressing scene she cuts off all of her hair whilst crying, this shows the extent in which she is going, to rid herself of all of the thoughts of her ex-spouse. As she is getting ready to go to the marine camp, she also wraps her bust in bandage to hide her womanly parts, her cutting of her hair and covering her cleavage shows her striving to become seen as equal, not as a woman but as a equal human being. As the story progresses we see her using a memory of her and her spouse at a fun fair playing a game with a fake gun targeting an object, which she uses to her advantage when practicing to shoot targets with real guns in a drill.

Throughout the video Katy Perry is acting as this strong female in the marines, but occasionally singing parts of the song to show that this is still a music video, there is also a main singing part of the music video were Katy Perry is slightly acting out of character as herself singing and dancing in the army uniform, she also seems slightly more done up make up wise and seems to be smiling and seems free which is not seen at any other time in the music video. The music video ends in a highly interesting shot of the main character staring intensely into the camera with a sense of anger and full camouflage make-up .