
Katy Perry, Roar - Factsheet
Music / Katy Perry
1
Katy Perry, Roar (2013)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CevxZvSJLk8
Subject content focus area
Media language
Representation
Contexts
Background context
• Successful Singer/Songwriter Katy Perry released ‘Roar’ as the lead single from her fourth studio
album ‘Prism’ on August 10th 2013.
• On July 7, 2015, the video for ‘Roar’ became the fourth video to reach 1 billion views on Vevo,
making Perry the first artist in history to have two music videos with 1 billion views.
• As of February 2017, the video for ‘Roar’ is the eleventh most viewed YouTube video of all time,
receiving over 1.79 billion.
• “Roar” made Katy Perry the first artist in history to have two music videos with over 1 billion
views.
Part 1: Starting points - Media language
• The video opens with an Establishing shot of a plane crash in the jungle leaving only two
survivors. The female looks visibly shaken and scared whilst the male is seen, through a point of
view shot, to be taking selfies indicating how he isn’t recognising the seriousness of the situation
or showing any care towards his partner.
• That night, when walking through the jungle, the male meets his demise after being attacked by
a lion, leaving the female alone. The surrounding darkness indicates the danger and the close
up of the female’s face shows her feelings of shock and absolute fear.
• We cut to a mid-shot again showing the female’s abject terror whilst two tarantulas crawl over
her. Her clothing indicates how she is unprepared for such an environment and she is seen as a
victim who we sympathise with.
• As the video progresses, the female becomes more accustomed to the dark and begins to see
the beauty in the nature around her rather than the dangers, for instance when what looks like
ominous yellow eyes actually turns out to be fireflies.
• The female soon turns cat-like and a mid-shot shows her crawling on all fours and roaring at the
water’s edge. In the water we see what is supposed to be her reflection shown as a tiger’s face.