Music Video Analysis

'break up with ur girlfriend, im bored' - Ariana Grande 

At the beginning of the music video, Ariana is walking is a sassy manner which complements the catchy tone of the song. Here a slow down tracking shot is used to follow the artist as she moves away from the camera, the editing is fast paced as rapid jump cuts are used to go with the beat of the song. Within only a couple of seconds, the long shots sway out of a silhouette which could highlight her essentially 'coming out' due to the plot twist at the end being she kisses the girl, not the boy but also emphasises her sass. The low key lighting & night time setting foreshadows the dramatic narrative. Her clothing is fully black which represents her power & strength, reflecting the lyrics of wanting to take someones boyfriend because she's 'bored', this lyric removes the gravity of emotion from the song.

This scene is where the couple have met Ariana at another party/event which has an incredible view of Los Angeles this establishes the similarities between the girlfriend & Ariana as they have similar features, the same hairstyle, similar height, skin tone etc. The facial expression on the boyfriends face is significant as he looks confused as he switches between looking at both of the girls, essentially showing interest to both. All of their clothing are black which highlights mystery as its obvious to the audience whats going to happen but whats expected doesn't happen, the low key lighting is used throughout to continuously set the night time, party scene. 

The camera is situated behind the couple who are sat next to each other but not sat close as you can see Ariana through the middle of them, looking & singing directly to the camera, which could consequently be from Ariana showing interest and the boy noticing - an over the shoulder shot is used here. In this scene, she is brooding over the fact he is taken but doesn't see this as a problem. Within the party, each person is an ambiguous body expect for the 3 main subjects: Ariana, the sought-after boy and his girlfriend.

The ending scene of this music video consist of a plot twist. It turns out that a close up shot is used to show Ariana kissing the girlfriend instead of the boyfriend which defeats the whole purpose of the song. This challenges sexuality stereotypes as no one thought that would happen (which is evident with the Twitter outburst it created) which makes the video more interesting and not like a typical love/relationship music video and leaves the audience stunned. This scene happens in a pool at another party setting therefore the same theme is maintained throughout. The lyrics don’t specify whom exactly Grande is talking to, but since Ariana has only dated men publicly, the audience assume it’s a man. The music video leads the audience to initially think the same thing: that she is trying to break-up a heterosexual  couple to pursue something with the boy. Also, the final moment is plastered with YouTube annotations that seem impossible to minimise, making it not even fully seen. This could be due to Ariana believing her fans don't need to know everything personal about her.