‘Kill ‘Em with Kindness’ by Selena Gomez Textual Analysis

Selena Gomez’s music video for Kill ‘Em With Kindness is a video I took inspiration from when creating my music video to another one of her songs ‘Revival’ I decided to use a lot of close up shots of the main actress in the video and I also took inspiration and made my music video black and white, to keep up with a contemporary audience and do something different compared to most music videos.

The mid shot at the beginning where she is looking directly at the camera is interesting as a viewer because we are getting an insight into her as a character. Her eyes, looking directly at the camera, make her appear confident, however her body language – slouched over and not appearing to be sitting straight, suggest she is shy. The contrast between these two make viewers want to listen to the lyrics, to find out more detail about her. The first words “The world can be a nasty place. You know it, I know it” suggest it’s the outside world that have shattered her confidence. As she looks into the camera this supports the words she sings as she clearly is addressing the viewer and listener. This could mean the video and song itself is Selena’s words of advice to the audience, and the message itself is to be kind to one another. Which is something admirable.

We then see the lighting contrast from light to dark and barely see the main character Selena. This could symbolise the dark times she has been through in her life through the dark lighting and as it changes from dark to light in the video it shows how she managed to escape the dark – which the lyrics suggest is caused by people being mean. However as it appears that a camera flashes the dark could symbolise her private life and the flash could suggest her celebrity status. It could show that she doesn’t want anyone to see her private life, but being a famous celebrity it is inevitable. This could be supported by her very public relationship with Justin Bieber, which she was unable to keep private and eventually the two went their separate ways.

The long shot of Selena shows how she is having her picture taken, but the way she is facing the camera and looking directly at it, shows how she has grown in confidence from the beginning of the video – which could represent the beginning of her fame. She is showing her amazing figure in her dress which we didn’t see at the beginning of the video, showing how her confidence has blossomed since learning to ignore the ‘haters’ by being kind.

The Low-Angle Shot shows Selena feeling powerful and confident and supports the lyrics ‘Kill Em with Kindness’ as she is a powerful advocate of being nice to people and setting a good example and it is shown in this shot how confident she is with that statement.