In 2008, American singer Katy Perry found relative fame due to a number of songs recently released, one of which being "Hot n Cold". This song and music video was one of the first examples of her appealing to her target audience of young girls starting to face insecurities in themselves. The video shows a wedding gone wrong, and while this may be nerve-wrecking and scary to some people, Katy Perry puts herself in a position of dominance over the 'groom'. Her aggression and power over the groom shows to the young girls watching that a woman can always stand up and fight in hardship. She also attracts a male audience in her appearance, as her outfit is designed to be sexually appealing to men in some scenes yet sensible enough to not intimidate women.
On top of this, her songs also reflected her real life problems, including her marriage and divorce against Russel Brand. Songs such as 'Firework' were created in order inspire people to feel better about their personality and interest. She uses examples in her video such as people who like magic or that are gay. She presents them to feel self conscious in their individuality, and by the end they embrace who they are and are able to come out feeling better. This is a lesson that Katy wanted to share with her audience, as once again the 14-19 year olds watching may be feeling self conscious and by telling them that their quirks and interest aren't something to be ashamed of the audience can feel morally boosted and supported that otherwise they may not have had..
In the "Wide Awake" video Katy Perry is expressing her feelings after she broke up Russel Brand after a two year marriage. It starts off with a scene from a previous video that she had made during her relationship. The song 'California gurls' expressed how happy it was to be in love this is evident as she is on 'cloud nine'.
However 'Wide awake' was about self reflection because at this point in time she had got a divorce from Russel Brand. In the beginning of the music video she amplifies her lyrics 'i was in the dark' and her costumes and make up is very dark almost satanic. This represents the time in her life where she had lost herself and was in a dark place because of her failed marriage. 
The lyrics tell her story of how being married wasn't the best thing that had happened to her. "Falling from cloud nine, Crashing from the high...I picked up every piece, And landed on my feet, I'm wide awake" These lyrics show that she hasn't been herself through the marriage, but now that it's over she has seen clearly how she has changed. She also had some graphics in the video that referenced to her "Firework" video. This shows that she is a new person and she doesn't have to pretend to be someone else.
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