Today, the music industry is breaking boundaries and creating names. Music plays an important role in cultures all across the world, and the impact artists have is great. The messages told in many music videos highlight the changes artists want to see in their life, community, and world. The music video for “Hey Look Me, I Made It” (further known as “Hey Look Ma…”) by Panic! at the Disco (further known as P!ATD) , released June 21, 2018 highlights the issues and effects of fame, money, and management in the music industry. The music video does this by showing the path of downward spiral that can affect artists that are led down the wrong path, and the recovery they can have following hitting rock bottom. The key thing about this music video is that it shows this journey with a puppet as a Brendon Urie (the sole permanent artist in P!ATD) proxy. The use of a puppet highlights the idea of the industry creating, maintaining, and eventually destroying artists by treating them as objects instead of humans. Through the effective use of puppets and the meanings attached to them, the song, 'Hey Look Ma…", demonstrates the problematic ways that commercial interests negatively impact the well-being of musicians.
For this paper, the use of puppets with be analyzed via metaphor criticism. Coming from Aristotle, the term “metaphor” (in the rhetoric world) means the comparison of two objects with little to no similarities in order to better understand a concept. Originally seen as a bad thing in a culture that valued straightforwardness, nowadays metaphors are an important way in which people communicate and understand complex topics. Used often when talking about the way people reference events and ideas (e.g. war → terrorism, NOT crime → terrorism), metaphor is also now being applied more and more often to media that is visual and electronic. There is a specific procedure used when one chooses to use metaphor criticism, which is as follows. First, the entire artifact must be viewed with context playing an integral part to the artifact. Next the metaphors are isolated and are labeled “tenor” and “vehicle”. The “tenor” is the main focus, while the “vehicle” is the frame for the metaphor. Next the metaphors are taken and patterns are looked for in the artifacts. Finally, the metaphors are analyzed in order to see how the structure they are in affects the audience. Another key thing to understand before analyzing this artifact is the “reading” of this particular artifact. For this artifact, only the video will be analyzed without the context of the song, and the puppet in particular will be the main point of focus. The puppet will be analyzed using these four steps in order for a conclusion to be made. These steps, when combined with the “reading”, in context of “Hey, Look Ma…”, showcase how the use of puppetry for the music video critiques the methods and practices of the music industry and the prevailing idea that commercial success is more important than the health of an artist.
A key part of metaphor criticism is finding the metaphors in a given artifact, and locating and labeling what the vehicle and tenor is given the context of the artifact. The first major point that can be analyzed is the idea of a puppet and external perfection. For this metaphor, the vehicle is the puppet, as puppets can be washed, mended and externally fixed, because the interior isn’t important in how they physically look. The tenor would be the fact that the public image is all that matters when it comes to artists, because the interior isn’t as important because it doesn’t (usually) impact the commercial success of an artist. The second major point is the understanding of the relationship between puppets and control. In this metaphor, the puppet is the vehicle, as puppets cannot function without someone else controlling it. The tenor is the fact that signed artists are locked into a legally binding contract that puts them under the control of the people who wrote the contract, and they often don’t have much freedom to create and express themselves in a true fashion independent of the message that the company wants to put out. The final major point is the connection between puppets and replaceability. For this metaphor, the vehicle is the puppet, because of the fact that puppets can be massed produced and are easily replaced with little damage to the owner. The tenor is the solid fact that artists are a dime-a-dozen nowadays with many companies pumping out and promoting new artists all the time, and leaving older artists to fend for themselves in an ever-changing industry with little consequence to the companies. These points work together and create a bigger picture that highlight the issues with the music industry.
These metaphors come together and highlight the idea that artists are seen as (externally) perfect, control less, and replaceable to the music industries commercial interests in the same fashion that puppets are seen as these same things to the general public. These common assumptions of puppets are innocuous without context, but when used as a proxy for humans in the music industry, the negative aspects of these traits come out and highlight a narrative that isn't often heard when one speaks about celebrity and musician culture. The use of a puppet as a metaphor for an artist creates a story that has stronger impact than if it was just told from the viewpoint of a human. Used in combination, these metaphors build up the idea that artists are treated as just a replaceable vessel that can be controlled in order to protect and increase the commercial success of the music industry. When applied to reality, these metaphors bring attention to these “puppet” attributes many artists are given when they enter the music industry. The use of these attributes allows the music industry to generalize many artists, both new and old, and this generalization makes it easier to replace artists when they are no longer thought of as people with their own lives and instead as puppets that you move as pawns in order to reach full commercial success; which happens to be the main goal of most companies in the music industry no matter the genre, the country, or the language.
The study of metaphor criticism is important because it helps revel more about the world around us, and the way we view issues. Studying this particular music video is important because it’s important to understand the impact that metaphors can have on the understanding of a situation. The puppet is what really helped push the ideas that were introduced in the music video as it allowed the viewer to gain a deeper understanding of how the music industry views its artists. Without the puppet, there is the issue that many of the issues introduced would be viewed as a human choice made by the rich and famous as a result of being rich and famous, and not because of the stifling control music companies have on its artists and the ways of escape many artists pick to let loose from this. The use of puppetry was a solid choice by the producer as it allows the viewers to grasp the idea that the music industry doesn’t always have the artist’s best interests at heart, and is instead focused on the commercial success of the artists and their music for monetary gain. The use of a metaphor helps common people understand this complex idea as often people forget companies aren’t people, and don't have the same interests at heart that they might have. The puppet allows the viewer to read the music video in a way that contradicts the way they think about the music industry based on the narrative the music industry pushes, which is ultimately the goal of using a metaphor in this context. This is important to people here, specifically to students at BGSU, because here at the university there are students who are studying to become both artists and the people behind the scenes that are involved in the music industry. Understanding the impact the music industry has on artists is something people studying this field can understand, and can work to improve once they enter the general work force.
In conclusion, the use of puppets in the music video for “Hey Look Ma, I Made It” by Panic! at the Disco creates another layer to the narrative the music video is pushing as the implications of a puppet as a proxy for a human highlights how in the music industry, commercial success is often put above the health of the artists that are being used to reach that commercial success. The use of metaphor criticism to understand things such as the use of puppets in music videos, as a whole, also helps people understand complex issues that they may rarely think about without prompting. Understanding the idea presented in this music video helps both those studying and planning to enter the music industry and the general public because understanding the idea of the exploitation of artists for commercial success is important when thinking about an artist, and what made them the way they are. Overall, by understanding this concept people can work to better the world that they live and work in. The showcasing of the downsides of the music industry hopefully leads to improvements in the music industry, and the more people understand the more the know what they are supporting. Understanding ideas such as the ones presented here help make the world a better place for everyone and helps change the field they work in, the media they consume, and the way they view other people.