Misery Business - Paramore (Textual Analysis)

The song misery business is about a 'mean girl' in high school, who is stereotypically pretty, skinny and popular. She uses her sexuality to get what she wants. This is shown in the music video by the use of a narrative, although there is still a performance based side to the video.

The rock genre can immediately be recognised within the first 10 seconds through the use of colours, editing and mis-en-scene. The first shot we see is the drummer hitting the drum (on the drumbeat), there is then an extreme close up shot of lead singer Hayley Williams, who is a lead singer in the rock industry, therefore we know it will be a rock song. We then see the whole band dancing and head banging to their track, with fast pace editing and a range of camera angles. This creates an interesting visual for the audience and excitement to match the song.


The band all wear dark colours, apart from lead singer Williams, who wears bright orange and yellow to match her hair. This foreshadows her fiery personality and she stands out from the black and white background. The word 'RIOT' is scribed all over the wall in white against a black background, these colours represent the rock genre. The word riot is an aggressive word, which portrays the rock genre, it is also the name of the album on which the track has been released from.

The representation of the rock genre can mostly be seen through the performance side of the video, as that is where we see who the artists and are the mis-en-scene surrounding them shows what they represent. Although, the narrative part of the video doesn't really show the rock side, some of the actions of the main mean girl are shocking/aggressive which portrays the genre, for example she pushes a boy who has broken his arm and cuts off a girls plait.

At the end of the video, we see the band enter the high school corridor and confront the mean girl. Williams, with her band mates behind her, goes up to the girl removes her 'chicken fillets' from her breast, and wipes off all of her makeup. This shows how the girl needs to wear makeup and be fake to feel confident. Williams sings about how being popular doesn't make you great and
I believe that the aim of the video is to show young girls/boys that being yourself is the best thing.