Representation

Our music video is centered around a female protagonist, and our artist is also a young girl in her late teens. There is a more Westernised representation of the artist. Considering that the indie genre, specifically indie rock, is male-dominated, having a female artist was going against the conventions and provided a bit more diverse representation which we believe is necessary. In Pakistan, the indie industry is very nearly obsolete and is usually revolving around a mix of Western and local representation.

Also, the portrayal of teenage girls and women in general in music videos has historically remained more or less similar, focused on glamour and fashion, objectification and hyper sexualisation. Teenage girls specifically are often portrayed as naive and superficial, and in terms of relationships, often hysterical, clingy and over emotional, and this has evolved to become a very common stereotype. 

However this representation is gradually changing, perhaps not so much in mainstream music but within the indie genre where objectification of women and stereotypical portrayal of teenagers is is barely present - for instance in music videos by Clairo and Fazerdaze show a mostly simplistic and natural portrayal of women/the artist. Similarly, our artist will not be represented in a voyeuristic or sexualised manner. Below are examples of representations of female indie artists in music videos. Our artist will follow a similar style of representation.

Our music video similarly goes against the stereotypes by depicting the protagonist with a conflicted state of mind, who learns to not be so dependent on someone else for her happiness and, in a healthy way, lets go of things and people holding her back. The confusion and conflict that is shown is something that normal teenagers experience very commonly but these seemingly minor struggles often appear to be diminished in most cases. So, instead of being centered around the breakup itself, the video shows the protagonist's state of mind way after it as she eventually learns to come to terms with it - nothing out of the ordinary experience for most of our target audience and general teenagers, yet something that is often overlooked.

Lastly, the portrayal of our character as a lesbian is something extremely rarely seen especially in Pakistan, hence it caters to a niche (read: more sensible) audience who are open to liberal values. Representation of queer people in music videos, especially lesbian couples, is often sexualised and fetishised and that was something we wanted to differ from and portray them as a regular couple.