Me myself needs I

Katy Perry’s “Firework” video is worthy of note. 

 

If at all, the realities portrayed by the characters, though mostly Caucasian, cut across most races and sensibilities. The video begins with American recording artist Katy Perry singing from the porch of a building. Then as she sings, fireworks shoot from her chest to the sky.

 

Then the video cuts to scenes of young people throughout the city. There is an overweight girl who cannot join her friend swimming in a pool where a party is being held. Later in the video, she “finds the courage to shed her clothes and jump in the pool” filled with the party swimmers.

 

Then, there is a cancer-stricken child in a hospital who cannot show herself out on the street because she is balding. But she goes out just the same and sees a pregnant woman in the same hospital with fireworks coming out of the baby being born.

 

There is a young magician being mugged by hooligans in an alley but uses tricks to overcome them. A boy at home witnesses his quarreling parents and how their bickering distresses his little sister; he stands up to them and pushes them apart. Also, a young man in discotheque who takes interest in a guy approaches him and kisses him, igniting fireworks from both of them.

 

Later in the video, young people are shown converging into a castle’s courtyard. There, together with the singer, they dance and “light up the night,” with their own fireworks shooting from their chests into the sky.

 

On many levels, the song empowers the self—telling it to assert and let it shine in a time and place where others see it unfit—“You just got to ignite the light and let it shine/Just own the night, like the fourth of July.”

 

The video also reminds us of Christina Aguilera’s “Beautiful” whose lyrics read—“You are beautiful no matter what they say/Words can’t bring me down/I am beautiful in every single way/Words can’t bring me down.”

 

All characters portrayed in the video rather only exemplify the struggle of the self in a society that values apathy or indifference most probably because of diversity.  The video also seems to say that free will should be exercised by young people. Perhaps the video features self-empowerment only of the youth because the producers have considered only the Youthube audience.

 

But for all these, the video preaches tolerance for all races and sensibilities. Showing the various predicaments of young people, it asks audiences to be considerate and caring, or assertive of what the self desires—if love is too trite a word to use.

 

The song implies that no one but the self can empower himself or herself. In particular, no amount of external force can salvage the youth from their own dilemma. As another American, diplomat Eleanor Roosevelt said, “No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.”

 

In many senses, the video allows for reflection of what the self can do what it really wants: to assert, to prevail, to shine. After all, at the end of the day, what really matters is the self soul heart [chest] making sparks in the dark.

 

Written by Katy Perry in collaboration with Mikkel S. Eriksen, Tor Erik Hermansen, Sandy Wilhelm and Ester Dean for Perry's second studio album, Teenage Dream, this sensible work won Video of the Year at the 2011 MTV Music Awards.