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Pretty Hurts

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"Pretty Hurts"
Song

"Pretty Hurts" is a song recorded by American singer Beyoncé for her fifth studio album, Beyoncé (2013). It will impact mainstream radio in the United Kingdom on June 2, 2014 and in the United States on June 10, 2014 as the fourth single from the album. The song was written by Sia Furler, Ammo and Beyoncé, while the production was handled by the latter two. "Pretty Hurts" was initially written for Katy Perry and then offered to Rihanna; as both of the artists did not record it, the song was eventually sent to Beyoncé who decided to include it on her fifth studio album that was still in development.

"Pretty Hurts" is a pop self-empowerement song discussing society beauty stereotypes and analyzing female body image. Beyoncé decided to record it to show the negative affect of beauty pageants and expectations on how women should look. Upon its release, it received positive reviews from music critics who commended the lyrics and Beyoncé's vocal performance, further highlighted its meaningful message. Prior to the release of the song as a single, it charted on several international charts after the release of Beyoncé in 2013 and so did its music video in April 2014.

A music video filmed for "Pretty Hurts" was made available on iTunes with the release of the album on December 13, 2013 and was later released online on April 24, 2014. It was directed by Melina Matsoukas and it shows Beyoncé as a model competing in a beauty peagant trying to achieve physical perfection. The story depicted in the video is meant to accompany the lyrics of the song. It received positive reviews by critics who generally praised Beyoncé's acting and the cohesion between the video and its lyrical content.

Background and recording

Sia Furler, the co-writer of the song, had previously worked with Beyoncé on the songs "Standing on the Sun", "Rise Up" and "God Made You Beautiful".

"Pretty Hurts" was initially written by Australian singer Sia Furler. Furler subsequently sent the song to Katy Perry on her e-mail but Perry did not see it. Afterwards, she sent the song to Rihanna's manager, who put it on hold for eight months but did not pay a fee to secure it.[3] Furler then proceeded to send it to Beyoncé, who knew immediately that she wanted to record it.[3] During an interview, Beyoncé said, "The second I heard the song, I'm like, 'I have to sing this song, I don't care how hard I have to fight for this song, this is my song!'".[4]

The final version of "Pretty Hurts" was written by Furler, Beyoncé and Ammo.[1] When replying to a fan lamenting that Furler's song "Elastic Heart" would have been a fine single for Beyoncé, Furler commented that she gave Beyoncé her "other best song".[5] Beyoncé and Ammo produced the song. Rob Suchecki engineered and recorded the song's instrumental tracks with intro synthesizer help from Derek Dixie. Beyoncé's vocals were recorded by Stuart White who also handled the mixing of the song.[1] "Pretty Hurts" was recorded in three studios: Kings Landing in Bridgehampton, and Jungle City Studios and Oven Studios in New York City.[1]

In an interview with iTunes Radio, Beyoncé praised Furler's songwriting and expressed her desire to focus on the beauty pageant industry as "the most humiliating, judgmental place you can be as a woman. I feel like sometimes the world is a big contest, we're all being judged. I wanted to capture how humiliating and insecure that makes you feel."[4] Talking about the theme, Beyoncé said that it "represents finding that thing in the world that makes you truly happy".[6] She added that the song was in line with the album's theme of "finding beauty in imperfections".[7] "Pretty Hurts" will impact mainstream radio in the United States on June 10, 2014 as the fourth single from the album.[8]

Composition

"Pretty Hurts" is a pop, power pop and neo soul ballad[9][10][11][12] with undertones of mellow R&B music[13] and a hip hop groove.[14][15] Musically, it is complete with synths which give "crisp clarity" and "spare background" to the track[16][17] as well as minor chords and booming drums.[18] It was composed using common time in the key of B major, with a slow tempo of 65 beats per minute.[19] Beyoncé's vocals span from the low note of F♯3 to the high note of D♯5.[19] Beyoncé's vocal performance in the song received comparison to her own powerhouse vocals in "Halo" (2008).[20][21][17][18] "Pretty Hurts" further received comparisons with TLC's "Unpretty" (1999) and Christina Aguilera's "Beautiful" (2002) due to their similar themes and statements;[22][23] Una Mullally of The Irish Times' further noted that the song sounded like something Pink could sing.[23] Jody Rosen writing for Vulture said that the song sounded like a "robust, black" tune sang by Barbra Streisand.[18] Chris Bosman from Consequence of Sound described the song as a blend of "cinematic reach of modern Top 40 pop with the patience and melancholy of post-808s & Heartbreaks hip-hop."[15]

"Pretty Hurts"
A 24-second sample of "Pretty Hurts", an "anti-plastic surgery [song]... [and] a brave statement about the damage body modification in the name of objectification".[23] Its anthemic composition accompanied by big-sounding production characteristic for Sia was noted to be "one of the more musically traditional tracks" on Beyoncé, an album composed of songs with minimalistic sound.[23][24][18]
Problems playing this file? See media help.

The theme of "Pretty Hurts" is related to third-wave feminism;[25] it is intended as a self-empowerment anthem for women as Beyoncé sings negatively of beauty stereotypes and expectations on how women should look which are often "impossible" and created mostly by the society.[20][26][27] The song opens with a beauty pageant judge asking Beyoncé, "Miss 3rd Ward... What is your aspiration in life?" to which she replies "My aspiration in life would be... to be happy."[20] The opening lyrics then follow, in which Beyoncé sings about "a pageant contestant about to be judged", according to Tris McCall of The Star-Ledger: "Mama said, 'You're a pretty girl, what's in your head, it doesn't matter. Brush your hair, fix your teeth. What you wear is all that matters". The lyrics further indicate the self-doubt and nervousness of a girl who is under pressure.[28][29][30]

Lyrically, the song is also complete "with speechy lyrics about the tyranny of the beauty industry",[9] with the singer analyzing female body image and questioning the need for women to beautify themselves and people's obsession with physical perfection.[10][24][31] This is evident in the second verse, in which Beyoncé lists the things that are considered beautiful in society, "Blonder hair, flat chest/ TV says bigger is better/ South Beach, sugar free/ Vogue says thinner is better."[29] According to McCall, the song implicates that "American women are flung from their cradles into competition with each other, and are coached to disguise their flaws and distrust any gesture toward solidarity."[30] Beyoncé further describes the sickness behind perfection and sends a message about increasing a person's self-esteem and self-love[13][32][33] as well as respecting a person's character instead of the looks.[18] This is heard in the chorus lines:

Pretty hurts
We shine the light on whatever's worst
Perfection is a disease of a nation[...]
Tryna fix something
But you can't fix what you can't see
It’s the soul that needs surgery"[33][22][34]

Marc Hogan of Spin magazine felt that the lyrics of the song made a type of a political statement against beauty industry and added that it resembled "a speech set to music".[35] McCall somehow agreed with Hogan's statements, noting that if the song had been sung by Phil Ochs in 1995, set to an acoustic guitar background, it would have been regarded as a "protest number".[30] He further noted that Beyoncé recorded the song as a response to the criticism she received following the lip-syncing of the American anthem during Barack Obama's inauguration in 2013 for her "perfection".[30]

Critical reception

"Pretty Hurts" received positive reviews by music critics with many of them discussing its placement as the opening song for the album. Mesfin Fekadu of The Huffington Post called it a "supreme way" to open Beyoncé.[13] Randal Roberts from the Los Angeles Times praised the song for being placed as an opener for the album and described it as "a striking first glimpse".[32] Hardeep Phull of the New York Post described the song as a "strong start", although said that its chorus was "a slightly overcooked sentiment".[36] Claire Lobenfeld from Complex called "Pretty Hurts" a preamble for an album which discusses body-positivity and self-acceptance and wrote that it "cuts even deeper" than Beyoncé's previous female empowerment songs.[37] However, Ryan Dennehy from the website AbsolutePunk opined that the placement of the song as the first one on the album was not good as he further criticized it for being "too safe at this point in her [Beyoncé's] career".[38] Similarly, Emily Mackay of NME wrote that the choice of the song as the opener of the album was "nauspicious". She wrote that it was similar to Aguilera's "Beautiful" in a way that a "beautiful celebrity becomes convinced they can relate to the body image issues of the masses".[16] She concluded that Beyoncé failed to understand "that the result comes off like a City banker lecturing you on the need for spiritual rather than material wealth".[16] Philip Cosores of Paste commented, "'Pretty Hurts' opens the album with didactic rhetoric without the grace of subtlety, with its repeated conclusion that the 'soul needs surgery,' hardly a poetic payoff that listeners deserve".[39]

Beyoncé's vocal performance was complimented with Arwa Haider of the British newspaper Metro describing her vocals as "fiercer and more tender than ever"[40] and Drowned in Sound's Robert Leedham hailing it as "impeccably sung".[41] Andrew Hampp and Erika Ramirez of Billboard magazine praised Beyoncé's vocals saying that unlike other singers singing songs written by Sia, "[she] doesn't just re-sing a... demo – she fully makes this self-empowerment anthem fully her own" further highlighting the song's bridge.[20] Conrad Tao from the website Sputnikmusic wrote that "Pretty Hurts" shows Beyoncé's "ability to take potentially trite lyrics and turn them into something affirming and/or beautiful".[42] Tris McCall of The Star-Ledger praised Beyoncé's vulnerable delivery in "Pretty Hurts" saying that the sounded as if she's "on the verge of tears".[30] Its production also received praise and attention[30] with Newsday's Glenn Gamboa describing it as "dynamic musically and bold lyrically".[17] Tao praised the song's production which "create[s] nuance amid the bombast".[42]

Andy Gill of The Independent referenced the song as the "best thing on the album" and an "undeniably noble attempt to boost female morale".[28] Consequence of Sound writer Chris Bosman also chose the song as one of the best on the album with its "dramatic and painful exploration of female beauty".[15] Michael Cragg from The Guardian chose the song as an "immediate" choice for single.[43] Writing for the Los Angeles Times, Mikael Wood commented that Beyoncé succeeded in making "razzle-dazzle pop out of small-scale sentiments that might've seemed on paper like fodder for hushed ballads".[24] Sal Cinquemani from Slant Magazine praised the "admittedly catchy slogan (and inevitable meme) 'It's my soul that needs surgery'".[25] Ryan B. Patrick of Exclaim! also described the song as "admittedly catchy".[12] Dee Lockett from Slate magazine felt that the opening lines of the song in which Beyoncé tells her aspiration in life was the "album's most empowering line".[44] Describing it as "one of the few relatively straightforward" songs on the album and calling it a personal statement by the singer, Philip Matusavage of musicOMH added, "The song is good but its performance by Beyoncé is absolutely crucial – its power is derived from the tension between the artist as an icon of perfection and as aforementioned 'every woman'."[22] Ryan E.C. Hamm from Under the Radar magazine gave a mixed review about the song and "Heaven" calling them the album's "flaws... okay songs, but a little on the nose".[45]

Chart performance

Following the release of Beyoncé in December and its music video in April the song managed to appear on several international music charts before being released as a single. In the United Kingdom, the song debuted at number 123 on the UK Singles Chart and number 12 on the UK R&B Chart on December 28, 2013.[46][47] The following week, it climbed to number 93 on the singles chart.[46] "Pretty Hurts" debuted at number 82 on the Irish Singles Chart on December 26, 2013 and the next week it fell off the chart.[48] On the chart published on May 8, 2014, the song re-entered at a new peak position of 56.[49] On the ARIA Singles Chart in Australia, "Pretty Hurts" debuted at number 68 for the week ending May 31, 2014 becoming the singer's twenty ninth entry on that chart.[50]

Music video

Background and release

"Well I think we definitely wanted to speak to as many women as we could and all the pain and struggle that we go through as women to maintain this impossible standard of beauty. We wanted to give it a darker edge and take it there and not give you the Disney version of that struggle. And Beyoncé was more than willing to go that far with it. And I applaud her for that."

Melina Matsoukas talking about the video for "Pretty Hurts", 2013[51]

The video for "Pretty Hurts" was directed by Melina Matsoukas. It was filmed at Bishop Loughlin Memorial High School in Brooklyn's Fort Greene neighborhood beginning on August 11, 2013 with the shoot lasting three days.[52][53] The school in which the video was filmed was small as "a small-town kind of pageant" was showcased in it.[53] Several of the actresses portraying the beauty contestants in the video were also real-life models and served as experts on the stage.[51] American actor Harvey Keitel also makes a cameo appearance during the video.[54] Speaking about Keitel's involvement, Matsoukas said that she wanted to use a "greasy, Vegas-type pageant character" realizing that Harvey would be a perfect match for that role. After her proposals for the role to him, Keitel immediately accepted it.[53]

Beyoncé revealed that she wanted to film the video to showcase the correlation of physical beauty and happiness in life, something which is also discussed in the song. She said, "It represents all of the things women go through to keep up with the pressure that society puts on us. I wanted to tap into the world of competition. Some of the things young women go through is just really heartbreaking for me."[6] The director noted that she wanted to create a documentary-type of a music video, with a lot of the shots occuring organically during the shoots and previously unplanned.[55]

The clip was released on December 13, 2013 to iTunes Store on the album itself. On April 24, 2014 it was made available on Time magazine's official website to celebrate Beyoncé being on the cover of the Time 100 issue.[56][35] To further promote the release, she launched a website and a cammpaign titled "What Is Pretty" asking from her fans to post photos and videos on Instagram explaining their definition of pretty.[57] Later, that same day, the video was also released on Beyoncé's Vevo account.[58] A behind the scenes video was released on MTV and Vevo.[6]

Development

"I had this image of these trophies and me accepting these awards and kind of training myself to be this champion. And at the end of the day when you go through all of these things, is it worth it? I mean, you get this trophy and you're like, 'I basically starved. I have neglected all of the people that I love. I've conformed to what everybody else thinks I should be and I have this trophy. What does that mean?' The trophy represents all of the sacrifice I have made as a kid, all of the time that I lost."

Beyoncé talking about the concept behinf the trophies in the song and the video for "Pretty Hurts"[7]

In an interview with Vulture, Matsoukas said that Beyoncé was the one who initially proposed the concept behind the video to be about a beauty competition. Matsoukas accepted it and said, "I was like, 'Let's get into the toxic world and what we really do that is so damaging to ourselves, and use it as a microcosm for our society'. Obviously, those ideas don't just live in the pageant world; they live in our world. And that's what the song is about. And it felt like we had to take it there to make it have meaning, because otherwise it would be a superficial, preachy kind of song and visual."[53] Initially, several scenes had different concepts behind them. The scene where Beyoncé is preparing for a plastic surgery and takes diet pills and vomits were not meant to be included in the video. However she eventually decided to add them as they were only part of her role.[53] Another scene when Beyoncé is drowning in water as the host asks her about her aspiration in life, was originally meant to show her stepping onstage and falling. However it was not filmed as the crew didn't have enough time.[53]

Matsoukas also revealed that the video was supposed to show Beyoncé winning the contest, realizing it had no meaning to her. However, Beyoncé wished an albino woman to win the contest. The director elaborated, "We thought it was really important and interesting to break those ideas of what the classic beauty standards would be and to do this with this beautiful albino woman, I thought was really great. And to show 'Yeah she's not perfect, she doesn't always win and you put your best foot forward and you may still lose.'"[51] At first, the ending of the video was meant to show an archival footage of actresses Halle Berry and Vanessa A. Williams competing in a beauty pageant, further exploring the beauty of black people. However, Beyoncé sent a note to the director saying that she wanted to use a footage from her childhood as music video for "Pretty Hurts" was meant to be connected to the next one on the album, "Ghost".[53]

The scene where Beyoncé is seen breaking down a shelf with trophies "represent[s] knocking down... beauty standards and falling into a victim of that".[53][51] While creating the scene, Matsoukas was inspiried by an image of a young Beyoncé standing in front of a shelf of trophies she had won.[55] She explained that "[they] don't bring you happiness, [they] don't move you forward in life".[55] Jake Reed from The Daily Collegian interpreted the scene as realizing that the pressure of being "pretty" was not worth of the dedication spent on it.[59]

Synopsis

The seven-minute long video depicts Beyoncé playing a beauty queen who represents Third Ward, the area of Houston in which she grew up.[60] It opens with a sound of a poignant piano and shots of Beyoncé with short hair looking at herself in the mirror with her face covered in make-up. It then transitions to shots of female models preparing for a beauty pagent backstage, combing their hair, fitting their dresses and analyzing their bodies; one scene during the preparations shows Beyoncé arguing with another model for a hair dryer. Multiple shots of the singer follow, with one showing her sitting on a floor dressed in tiara, sash, underwear and socks and another one showing her coming out of the bathroom with a hand on her mouth indicating that she vomitted.[61] The scene then shows the models looking tired behind the curtains of the stage.

Harvey Keitel (pictured) makes a cameo appearance in the video as the host during the pageant show.

Beyoncé is announced by a host as "Miss 3rd Ward" and she appears on stage, smiling and singing the first verse of the song a capella. An applause follows from the crowd as the judges take notes about her. The music starts and Beyoncé is seen during the preparations for the show. She combs and sprays her hair, depilates her face and whitens her teeth with jelly. The scene transitions to a judge working with the models during which Beyoncé is seen taking diet pills. He measures her abdomen with a tape and hits her thighs showing her how she should behave when she appears on the stage. The second verse follows during which she is seen exercising at home and measuring her weight appearing unsatisfied.

As the second verse finishes the host calls Beyoncé on the stage and praises her for her performance at the competition asking the crowd to applaud to the "beautiful and poised" ladies in the competition. He then asks, "Miss 3rd Ward, your first question. What is your aspiration in life?" the line which is also heard during the beginning on the album version. She replies, "Oh, my aspiration in life? That's a great question. I wasn't expecting that question" as her voice repeating the question is echoed and the scene transitions to her drowning in water and looking unhappy behind the stage. After that, she answers "My aspiration in life would be to be happy". The chorus starts again and the model is seen destroying all the trophies she had previously won, further emphasizing their meaningless.[53][51] She is also shown backstage, rubbing her face and smearing her make-up, vomitting in the bathroom. Another model is seen eating cotton.

During the bridge of the song, the model is seen at a hospital with a plastic surgeon injecting botox in the previously drawn lines on her face. During that scene Beyoncé is wearing a white straight jacket to represent that she is trapped by society's beauty standards. She is then being spray tanned while wearing bikini. At the end of the video, Beyoncé loses the competition to an albino woman after which she happily congratulates her. The last scene shows het looking happy and smiling with little make-up on her face. The last thirty seconds of the video transition to a footage of Beyoncé as a child winning a price for Female Pop Vocalist on a television show. She appears onstage saying, "I would like to thank the judges for picking me, my parents who I love. I love you Houston".

Reception

Sal Cinquemani of the website Slant Magazine commented that the song sounded more "immersive" along its accompanying music video.[25] Similarly, NME's Emily Mackay who gave a mixed review for the song felt that "the accompanying video... saves the day" further commending the scene where Beyoncé smashes the trophies as "powerful".[16] Praising the "intense, touching" video and its "body-positive message "Jon Blistein from the Rolling Stone wrote that the "shots of her bashing her trophy shelf prove way more cathartic than any pageant victory".[61] Kitty Empire of The Observer commented that the video contained perspective in the scenes showing "painful depilating, pill-popping and toilet-hugging details".[10] Whitney Phaneuf from the website HitFix praised Beyoncé's acting in the video and added that the vulnerability in the character she portrayed was palpable. Phaneuf commented that the footage of Beyoncé competing in a talent show as a child made it look more realistic.[62] Ryan B. Patrick of Exclaim! wrote that the video allowed Beyoncé to showcase her acting skills.[12]

The cohesion of the lyrics of the song and the video was commended by critics, with Evan Rytlewski of The A.V. Club noting how it allowed Beyoncé to "[open] herself up in ways she's resisted before".[26] Hardeep Phull of the New York Post commented that the lyrics of the song were literally interpreted for its video.[36] Greg Kot of the Chicago Tribune who haied the song as a "soaring critique of the beauty industry", added that it was "enhanced by its troubling video".[63] Marc Hogan of Spin magazine commented that the video expands the album version of the song, hailing it as a "powerful piece of work".[35] Tris McCall of The Star-Ledger wrote in his review of the song that its "brutal" music video takes the critique of perfection and physical beauty further than the track.[30] Robert Leedham of Drowned in Sound felt that the video was significant as it narrated the song's lyrics unlike the other "immaculately conceived" shots which he criticized.[41] Calling it the best video on the album, Brandon Sodeber of the magazine Vice further described it as "an incredibly affecting mini-melodrama that underlines to Beyoncé's painful awareness that being black and female means you're never enough of something or other for mainstream America".[64] However, Neil McCormick of The Daily Telegraph felt that the video sent mixed messages.[14]

Questions raised by critics mainly concerned the irony and hypocrisy of the lyrics of the song and its video.[39] Louie XIV of The Huffington Post calling it "disingenuous" of Beyoncé to "sing about how perfection is a disease while looking flawless".[65] Philip Cosores of Paste felt that Beyoncé herself did not respect the message she sent through the song but felt that it was notable enough to stand on its own.[39] Amanda Hess of Slate offered further critique, questioning the sincerity of the song by juxtaposing the lyrics with those of a later track on the album, "Flawless" — "Beyoncé may by exposing how ridiculous this notion [of beauty] is, but we’re still meant to believe that she really does 'wake up like this'."[29] Similarly, Shannon Kelley for TakePart believed that whilst the irony of the video was evident, it showed that "[Beyoncé is] not immune to the disease" and the song "offers an honest commentary on an important reality".[66] Randal Roberts from the Los Angeles Times commented, "She makes a convincing case, were it not for the string of nearly soft-core fashion shoots that follow [on the album]... As a first song on an album, 'Pretty Hurts' works. But as thematic opener to such a relentless visual seduction, the hypocrisy is hard to ignore."[32] Although Daisy Buchanan of The Daily Telegraph praised the message of the song and its video, she wrote in her review that the clip was "pure hypocrisy" as the singer was "promoting heavily sexualised and unattainable standards" with her body through several other songs on the album and when appearing in public.[67]

Cover versions

Chloe and Halle Bailey uploaded a cover of the song on their YouTube channel on December 22, 2013. It was then shared by Beyoncé on her Facebook page describing them as "amazingly talented".[68] On January 14, American singer Sam Tsui released an acoustic cover version of "Pretty Hurts" on iTunes Store.[69]

Personnel

Credits adapted from Beyoncé's website.[1]

  • Beyoncé – vocals, production, vocal production
  • Ammo – production
  • Stuart White – recording, mixing
  • Ramon Rivas – second engineering
  • Rob Suchecki – second engineering
  • Derek Dixie – intro additional synth and SFX
  • James Krausse – mastering

Charts

Chart (2013–14) Peak
position
Australia (ARIA)[50] 68
Belgium Urban (Ultratop Flanders)[70] 27
Canada (Canadian Hot 100)[71] 78
France (SNEP)[72] 133
Invalid chart entered Germany2 83
Ireland (IRMA)[49] 56
Netherlands (Single Top 100)[73] 87
Switzerland (Schweizer Hitparade)[74] 68
UK Singles (OCC)[75] 70
UK Hip Hop/R&B (OCC)[76] 12
US Bubbling Under Hot 100 Singles (Billboard)[77] 13
US Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs (Billboard)[78] 36

References

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  2. ^ http://www.freezepage.com/1401930770NAOVDOOLZA
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