A single arrow shot in the darkness. A bloody fist clenched in pain. The face of a girl responsible for the heartbreak to ensue. These images flash on the screen accompanied by beautiful pizzicato beginning a tale of heartbreak.
The raw fists, still covered in blood, put a physicality to the pain in the relationship, seen in Charlie Puth’s newest music video, “Dangerously.” He expresses the wrenching, distressing feelings of this lost love in a way that the audience can truly see. With every arrow falling from the sky, each time glass breaks, and each contortion of the body Puth creates, the audience is able to see and understand the toll of the painful experience that is marked by the end of this love.
Puth toys with the idea of both reflection and reflecting through his use of mirrors. As he gazes into the eyes of a previous girlfriend, she appears hollow. In mirrors throughout the video, the singer is confronted with the past he is forced to reflect on and with his current reflection. The message is about Puth’s moving forward after this relationship, and also his looking back and trying to look at himself in the present and the future.
This video is so beautiful in part because of its simplistic portrayal of this message of heartbreak. Using a plain, black background, doubling as a mirror in some instances, the message was essentially up to Puth to tell. The artist and storyteller was up to the task and perfectly conveyed the message giving new meaning to different parts of the song.
The flow of this video is seamless. Enhancing the music and drawing the audience’s attention to different parts of the song with certain imagery, this video is fantastic. This is the first piece of new music the public has seen from the artist since the summer. The bold approach of this new music video may signify a change in the singer’s upcoming music.
Featured Image by Atlantic Records
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