After watching this music video for the first time, it's difficult to "put this 'sensation' of understanding into words"(p 316) as one must in a rhetorical analysis. However, I think that the main point of the video is showing that she was trapped (hence the cage, 0:02) in an unhealthy relationship, hence the fighting/ dancing, symbolizing both their closeness in the relationship and how they cause each other pain (1:10). The general feeling communicated by the video is that she tried to leave before (2:53), but that she came back because she caved in to her desires for intimacy, even though it was an unhealthy relationship (3:16). CDA says that in critiquing something for a rhetorical analysis, "certain aspects will stand out: a funky voice, a scary scene in the background, some strange words, or an example that makes you blink." To me, this video had all of these features. everything from the dirty, plain clothes they wear (0:07), their strange fight-dancing (1:10), and the cage (0:02) all give this video a very confusing vibe, but that could be because Sia was confused about her past relationship: she couldn't tell what was really going on because her feelings got in the way of her rationale, just like our feelings towards fighting, cages, and dirty clothes probably block part of our critical thinking skills. These choices paired with certain lyrical points of emphasis like "And another one bites the dust", "You did not break me", "Cos I've got an elastic heart" give the audience the feeling that the music video is intended to have a combative, slightly resentful and defiant tone in which she shows that she is shrinking her loss down to a simple cycle of nature (Another one bites the dust), and she refuses to admit that her partner had the power over her to "Break" her. The title of the song, used in the line "Cos I've got an elastic heart" seems to communicate the fact that her heart may be stretched and bent out of shape by losses and troubles, but it will never break and she will continue fighting to live her life. This mood is different than my original hypothesis, as I couldn't initially tell how exactly she was trying to communicate her thoughts and feelings on the subject. Reading the lyrics and watching the video separately, the audience can get the general mood and tone of what she is saying, but having them together really gives the viewer insight into how she really feels, as the combination of the imagery and the music inspires them to feel similarly. She appealed to the emotions of her audience with the mood of the music as well as the subject matter of the lyrics and the story told by the video of a couple in an unhealthy relationship, one that she struggled to get out of but when she finally did she felt liberated and independent. This is something that many people have gone through, so it has mass appeal on the emotional level.
Sources:
"Lyrics." Sia —. N.p., n.d. Web. 18 Sept. 2015.
"Sia - Elastic Heart Feat. Shia LaBeouf & Maddie Ziegler (Official Video)."YouTube. YouTube, n.d. Web. 18 Sept. 2015.
Wysocki, Anne Frances, and Dennis A. Lynch. Compose, Design, Advocate: A Rhetoric for Integrating Written, Visual, and Oral Communication. New York: Longman, 2007. Print.
I find it interesting to see how different people interpret the video and agree with how you think it seems she is trapped in an unhealthy relationship. I had not though about it that way. And I, too, find the video confusing and difficult to decipher. But, it seems you accurately found what the artist's influence.
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