When you watch this music video, baby, you should know what you’re falling for. The brand-new addition to Katy Perry’s collection of colorful, whimsical, and flamboyant music videos is up to par with the others, and then some. The Egyptian-themed “Dark Horse” video portrays Perry as an evil Queen who turns men into crumbling stones. Per usual, she parades around the screen in myriad different hair colors, styles, and costumes. The video highlights how pretty she is, albeit in a less sexualized way than her past ones have done.
There was clearly a lot of thought put into the composition and photography of the video, as each shot is intricate and full of detail. Surely, there are a bunch of angry Youtube comments regarding her use of Egyptian culture as a fashion statement rather than as an accurate portrayal of its history and faith, but maybe Perry had no intention to insult any viewer. Cultural appropriation aside, the music video is simply a visual expression of the song itself. The lyrics of the song are about a woman who is essentially crazy, warning her lovers about the intensity of being with her. The video is a visual representation of that concept, and it does it in an extremely theatrical way. Each frame might as well be a picture right out of a fashion editorial. The producers use a lot of computer-generated images and effects to complete the ethereal look. The colorful sets are filled with dancers in costumes who move in unison to the “trap” beat of the song. All in all, this is a solid pop music video that is not deep or meaningful, but manages to entertain-which is exactly what viewers have come to expect from Perry’s career.
