2. Technical Aspects
The opening shots are shaky, as if filmed though a hand-held camera. This is done
to illustrate to the audience the artist the video is drunk or tipsy as she stumbles
through the crowds. The dark nature of the shot suggests she is in some sort of bar
or nightclub. As the artist walks up to the mirror in the bathroom, close-ups of the
other women are used, displaying the mean, dirty looks they give the artist as she
enters the room. These looks are emphasized to convey the idea that the other
women view each other as
‘competition’ in the bar, and they all
push and shove for a space in the
mirror. These images relate strongly to
the lyrics that suggest the artist is
lonely and feels old and is in the bar
looking for a partner, just like all the
other women in the bathroom.

3. The close-up shots in the mirror illustrate how the artist really looks; disheveled and
messy as a result of her night out, and how she sees herself in the mirror, pretty and
put together. This suggests the artist is not happy with her life and is trying to ignore
the reality of being ‘nearly thirty now’ and still ‘out every night’. This is shown by the
artist lip synching at the image of herself that she wants to be like. All the women in
the bathroom join in with the artist, singing at their reflections suggesting that they all
feel the same.
The shot changes to the artist dancing in a dark Technical Aspects
room with a handsome man, whom she obviously
likes, however this man disappears and the dark
room is illuminated and shown as an empty male
toilets. In contrast to the female bathroom, they
are completely empty and this seems to suggest
the artist feels men are not under the same emotional
pressure felt by all the women in the bar.

4. Convention/Genre/Meaning
Following the classic Pop conventions the artist lip synchs throughout the majority of the video.
However, this is slightly challenged when the large group of women in the bathroom surround
the artist and begin to lip synch in time with her. This further emphasizes the idea that all the
women in the video feel the same lonely, unhappiness emanating from the artist and also
creates a sense of unity in the video, very different from the usual self-obsessed video seen in
Pop culture.
The video illustrates a sad, unhappy vibe, not only seen through the lyrics but through the
visuals of depressed, desperate looking women and the dark lighting that dominates throughout
the video. This atmosphere contradicts and juxtaposes the cheerful Pop sound of the song,
which seems to be the only aspect of the video following Pop culture convention.
The defiance of Pop convention is finally seen in the lack of a ‘happy ending’, the male love
interest appears half way through the video and soon disappears, indicating he was only a
fantasy of the artist, illustrating what she wished she had. Unlike classic Pop video’s where the
love interest is firstly real, and secondly, ends up with the artist.

5. Carlsson
Sven Carlsson’s theory of
Modern Mythic Embodiment
is blatant in this video, as
with most Pop videos it
follows the idea of the
commercial exhibitionist,
using close-ups of the artist
to sell her brand and image to
the audience. However, the
close-ups do not illustrate a
sexualized image as with
many videos, instead the
artist is disheveled and
looking worse for wear. The
video could be said to convey
more of the televised bard
than the commercial
exhibitionist, telling the
personal story of the artists
so-far failed love life.

6. When looked at though Shore’s perspective we can see that
this video does not follow his theory of surface without
substance as it tells the story of the artist’s pain and Shore
loneliness and it connects on a subconscious level with a
large number of the audience. It does however had the
clichéd imagery of the artist
looking at herself in the mirror,
women putting on make-up in a
club/bar bathroom and the
classic romantic scene with a
male love interest.

7. This video only has two different scenes, the
ladies bathroom and the men bathroom. The
Goodwin effect of only having one scene change is that
the message embedded in the song and its
lyrics is easily understood as the audience are
not confused or overwhelmed by an ornate,
over-the-top video and as a result the
message is amplified. The use of a simple set
again helps illustrate the message behind the
lyrics, the repeated shots keep the audience
interested but at the same time allow them
to focus more on what the artist is trying to
convey. The video only becomes disjunctured
when the scene changes from the women's
bathroom to the men's, where the artist
begins to fantasize about her ideal man. This
dream-like scene breaks up the smooth flow
of film and disrupts the simplicity of the
video. However, it does help to make the
video different and more appealing to the
audience.