Semiotic Analysis - Scars to your beautiful - Alessia Cara - Def Jam

Semiotic Analysis - Scars to your beautiful 

• This song is recorded by a Canadian singer songwriter Alessia Cara with the record label Def Jam
• Her song has a clear message which is conveyed through her music video and the lyrics which she uses
• Cara wrote this song to inform to the people that have struggled and still is with their body image; she also goes on to say that you don't have to change to suit other people's expectations
• Alessia opened up about her experience with having hair loss when she was young and she still experiences it now; this song is personal and emotional

Social Context

• This song can relate for most women as in our society, some young women feel that they're pressured to look a certain way and if they don't, they are not considered beautiful; they would be considered as an outcast
• These issues could lead to depression and self harm 
• Her song could be a beneficial for people with these issues and it could be a sign for these people that they are beautiful the way they are
• Her song is about the struggles of having the 'perfect body' image for any gender, but mostly for women including herself

Analysis of Lyrics

• 'So she tries to cover up her pain and cut her woes away.' -  This explains how a person tries to cover her pain and how they really feel inside which eventually could lead to self harm. 
• 'You don't have to change a thing, the world can change its heart.' - This lyric itself shows how strongly she feels; it's not you that needs to change but the opinions and social norms in this world and society that should change.
• 'Beauty goes deeper than the surface' - Your looks and beauty doesn't define who you are and that whats in the inside is more important 
• 'So she's starving, you know cover girls eat nothing' - No other body size is seemed to be accepted, being slim is seen to be beautiful, therefore people are not eating as they feel they need to be slim to be beautiful
• 'She don't see she's perfect, she doesn't understand she's worth it' - Social norms has distorted how people view themselves and they pick out their imperfections.

Music Video

→The first couple of seconds of the music video starts off with Alessia being the focus of attention and the camera particularly focuses on her face. She is seen to be wearing no makeup which matches with her views. We do not need makeup to be considered beautiful; we are beautiful just the way we are 

→After the shot of her face, we get a shot of Alessia where she is seen to be wearing all black clothes and the setting of her music video is just a regular hall. Again she is challenging social norms of having to have certain clothes and certain body types to be able to be considered beautiful. Her clothes being all black connotes how she is being neutral and how she believes she doesn't need fancy and designer clothes; she can be in her ordinary

→During the video, there are images of what people consider to be their imperfections and shows how they feel they are beautiful regardless. This shot is of a women who has had a c section and that regardless of having it, she still believes she is beautiful and she knows she is beautiful

→Towards the end of the music video, there is a powerful message where she says that we do not need to fit beauty standards regardless of our shape, colour or size we are all perfect in our own way