During my time in intro to media, I got to choose a topic over the topic on Media Literacy. The topic was the No Tears Left to Cry music video by Ariana Grande. It had to have the five steps of media literacy. They include; Description, Analysis, Interpretation, Evaluation, and Engagement. I hope you enjoy reading this. I’ll have No Tears Left to Cry music video for you to watch.
Luis Alfaro
Walker
JMC 1013-010
17 April 2022
Ariana Grande has been in the industry since her Nickelodeon days. She starred on Broadway in the musical, “13”. Since then, she has evolved into an actress. She has starred in hit television shows, “Victorious”, and being in the spin-off show, “Sam and Cat.” She had played Cat Valentine in both shows. She went from actress to singer after “Sam and Cat.” In 2013, she released her studio album, “Yours Truly”. She continued to explore pop and R&B in her second and third studio albums, My Everything (2014) and Dangerous Woman (2016). My Everything experimented with EDM and achieved global success with its singles “Problem“, “Break Free” and “Bang Bang“; Dangerous Woman became her first of four consecutive number-one albums in the UK. Personal struggles influenced her trap-infused fourth and fifth studio albums, Sweetener (2018) and Thank U, Next (2019), both of which were critical and commercial successes. Sweetener won the Grammy Award for Best Pop Vocal Album, and Thank U, Next broke the record for the largest streaming week for a pop album and was nominated for Album of the Year. The singles “Thank U, Next“, “7 Rings“, and “Break Up with Your Girlfriend, I’m Bored” made Grande the first solo artist to hold the top three spots on the Hot 100 simultaneously and the first woman to succeed herself at the top of the UK Singles Chart. Her 2020 collaborations “Stuck with U” with Justin Bieber and “Rain on Me” with Lady Gaga helped her break the record for most number-one debuts on the Hot 100, the latter winning the Grammy Award for Best Pop Duo/Group Performance. Grande’s R&B-focused sixth studio album, Positions (2020), and its title track debuted at number one in the UK and US. In 2021, she had her sixth US number-one single after featuring on the remix of The Weeknd’s “Save Your Tears”. Therefore, she has released more albums and hits getting on to the Billboard charts. Some songs included: Problem featuring Iggy Azalea, One Last Time, Love Me Harder, featuring the Weeknd, and more songs. One of the songs that have made a lot of success is, “No Tears Left to Cry.” She produced the song in 2018. She wrote it because of the Manchester bombing that happened a year prior. The bombing also occurred on her Dangerous Woman world tour. So, to demonstrate, here’s the background and understanding of the music video, “No Tears Left to Cry.”
Before talking about the music video, here’s an interview of Ariana Grande, and the accomplishments that she did. She demonstrated Ariana Grande has been making major strides in her career in the past couple of months. Her fourth album, Sweetener, is now her third number one album on the Billboard 200. She has produced three Top 10 singles on the Hot 100. At the American Music Awards, Grande was nominated for “Favorite Social Artist” and “International Solo Artist”. At the Norway GAFFA Awards, she was nominated for her song, God is a Woman. Grande won the Billboard’s “Woman of the Year”, which is one of her biggest accomplishments. In her speech, Grande said, “I find it interesting that this has been one of the best years of my career and like the worst of my life. Grande has been known for being a great performer. She has performed many of her new songs on shows like Ellen, Jimmy Fallon, and at the VMA’s. Coachella, a major music festival, just announced that Ariana will be headlining in 2019. Grande also announced that she will be going on tour with her new album Sweetener. The singer will perform at Madison Square Garden, American Airlines Arena, and The Staples Center throughout the tour. She will be coming to the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul, MN on July 8, 2019.
Before a brief history of Manchester. Manchester () is the most populous city and metropolitan borough in Northwest England and Greater Manchester, England. The city has the country’s fifth-largest population at 547,627 (as of 2018), lying within the United Kingdom’s second-most populous urban area with a population of 2.7 million and the third-most-populous county at around 2.8 million. It is fringed by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east. The city is surrounded by outlying towns and the neighboring city of Salford. These two cities and the surrounding towns form a large continuous conurbation. The local authority for the city is Manchester City Council.
Also, include what was the Manchester bombing. According to ABC News, they reported that “A suicide bombing at an Ariana Grande concert at Manchester Arena on May 22, killed 22 people and wounded more than 100 others. Children and teenagers were among the victims of Salman Abedi’s attack. The 22-year-old British-born man of Libyan descent detonated a device minutes after Grande finished performing.
First, the description and background of, “No Tears Left to Cry.” For example, the article, “The meaning of Ariana Grande, a new single may actually be deeper than you think”, talks about the song, and what it means. It states, “On the flipside ‘No Tears Left to Cry’ might be a callback to something else entirely. For Grande, 2017 was a pretty tumultuous year. She enjoyed massive success during her Dangerous Woman tour but was cut short in May 2017 when a terrorist bombed her Manchester arena concert” (Martinez). This demonstrates the explanation of the meaning but dives deeper into explaining what the lyrics mean in the song. Now to explain, the lyrics are very catchy in the song. For example, a lot of repetition, and amazing vocals in the song. In the Genius article, the intro of the song states, “right now, I’m in a state of mind I wanna be in like all the time ain’t got no tears left to cry. So, I’m pickin’ it up, pickin’ it up”, and it becomes repetitive in the intro (Genius). According to her manager, Scooter Braun talked to Grande about the tragic incidents. He said, “she felt everything – every face they announced ever name, she wore on her sleeve. Every bit of emotions because that’s who she is. To add on, another lyric of the song is, “they point out the colors in you, I see ‘em too and, boy, I like ‘em, I like ‘em. Colors are a metaphor and personal characteristics. This line can be regarded as encouraging, as Grande reads others’ personalities correctly” (Genius). Now to shift gears and talk about some important symbolism in the music video. One of the symbols that are significant in the music video is a bee. For example, the article, “The Council and democracy – the Manchester Bee”, talks about the meaning of the bee. The article states, “The Manchester worker bee is one of the best-known symbols of Manchester and has been an emblem for the city for over 150 years. The bee denotes Mancunians’ hard work ethic and the city being a hive of activity. It has also come to represent the sense of unity in our great city” (The Manchester City).
Second, there is a lot of analysis of the music video. For example, a YouTube video titled, “All the hidden messages in Ariana Grande’s music video ‘No Tears Left to Cry”, talks about the music video. They said, “there is a bee flying at the end of the music video, and that is a symbol of Manchester” (TheThings Celebrity). There are many reasons that she chose the patterns and themes for “No Tears Left to Cry”. For example, the only reason that chose the face masks is that she wanted to show the viewers, and her fans the times that she dealt with. Grande also wanted to interpret those who were affected by the bombing and see how the viewers reacted to the music video. The reason she chose a bee as a symbol of because she wanted to represent Manchester in a way that yes it was about the theme of light to a situation but wanted to bring good intentions to the situation that she dealt with.
Third, the interpretation, patterns, and themes in “No Tears Left to Cry.” For example, in the article, 9 hidden messages you might not have spotted in Ariana Grande’s ‘No Tears Left to Cry” video. It states, “It was accompanied by a stunning video, directed by legendary music video director Dave Meyers. The song is the first new music from Ariana since the terrorist attack at her concert in Manchester last year which left 22 fans dead. Ariana starts the video upside down before getting on some stairs and turning the right way round – it is an allusion to the huge effect the Manchester attack had on her life and the way that she had to rebuild herself afterward” (Pop buzz). Also, the bee is significant because she wanted to put a dedication to the Manchester bombing, and the 22 lives that were lost that day.
The media thought that the “No Tears Left to Cry” music video was uplifting and brought light to a situation where there needed a lot of love. Also, to include most of her fans love how it is so touching not for them, but for those who were attacked on that very day. May 22, 2017.
How others have dealt with the bombing before “No Tears Left to Cry”, was a lot of positivity. Also due to the bombing that happened, they did a concert called, “One Love Manchester”. For example, a rolling stone article, “Joy conquers fear at emotional one love Manchester benefit”, talks about the time doing the event. It states:
Optimism and wariness abounded in Manchester, England, on Sunday, when Ariana Grande led a star-studded benefit concert called One Love Manchester with appearances by hit-makers Justin Bieber, Katy Perry, Miley Cyrus, Coldplay, Liam Gallagher, Marcus Mumford, Pharrell Williams, and others to raise money for victims of the terrorist attack on her concert last month. The show, which took place at the Old Trafford Cricket Ground and included a section for attendees of the original concert, had sold out in under six minutes … The scene leading into the venue was filled with this sort of resilience. Thousands of fans – girls, boys, women, men, including many tweens and teens seemingly unaccompanied by adults – lined up and chatted with one another, posing for photos with banners touting the event’s name. Police – whose presence, which included the rare sights of explosive-sniffing dogs and some officers carrying machine guns, was apparent everywhere – were friendly, taking photos for fans and even posing with some of them. Inside, the merch booths were staffed by friendly vendors selling T-shirts, all proceeds from which benefitted the We Love Manchester Fund. They even gave out free buttons. And when the city’s bishop called for a moment of silence before the concert began, it was pin-drop quiet.” (Rolling Stone). These are demonstrations of the media, and the audience engaging with the concert, aside from, “No Tears Left to Cry.”
“No Tears Left to Cry” is one of those songs that bring light to anyone that goes through anything negative in life. Also, Grande has brought so much positivity when an event like the Manchester Bombing was going to destroy her career. What’s admirable about Grande is that she cares a lot about her fans. Grande began working on songs for her fourth studio album, Sweetener, with Pharrell Williams in 2016, but “the events in Manchester gave a hard reset to the project’s expectations”. Grande released “No Tears Left to Cry” as the lead single from Sweetener in April 2018, with the song debuting at number three on the Billboard Hot 100, making Grande the only artist to have debuted the first single from each of her first four albums in the top ten of the Hot 100. In June 2018, she was featured in “Bed“, the second single from Nicki Minaj’s fourth studio album Queen. The second single, “God Is a Woman“, peaked at number 8 on the Hot 100 and became Grande’s tenth top ten single in the US. Released in August 2018, Sweetener debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 and received acclaim from critics. She simultaneously charted nine songs from the album on the Hot 100, along with collaboration, making her the fourth female artist to reach the ten-song mark. Grande gave four concerts to promote the album, billed as The Sweetener Sessions, in New York City, Chicago, Los Angeles, and London between August 20 and September 4, 2018. After “No Tears Left to Cry”, she has made her mark with her journey of sorrow, love, and bravery during this tragedy.