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From these materials I have learnt a lot of things for my projects. Things I have learned included different themes in the fairy tales I want to base my video off of. As well as, a further understanding of fairy tales and how people perceive them. I have also learned about the relationships between the fairy tales I have chosen. What I still need to learn is how I will integrate the themes and music videos together. Also, how many examples I want to include in the video I will be creating.

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Songfacts - Songs with lyrics based on nursery rhymes or fairy tales

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Songfacts category - Songs with lyrics based on nursery rhymes or fairy tales

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Katy Perry - Wide Awake (Official Video)

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The Theme of Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs

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Read along and learn about the theme of Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.

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BICKFORD, TYLER. “The New 'Tween' Music Industry: The Disney Channel, Kidz Bop and an Emerging Childhood Counterpublic.” Popular Music, vol. 31, no. 3, 2012, pp. 417–436., www.jstor.org/stable/23325786. Accessed 7 Feb. 2020.

Bruce, Alexander M. “The Role of the ‘Princess’ in Walt Disney's Animated Films: Reactions of College Students.” Studies in Popular Culture, vol. 30, no. 1, 2007, pp. 1–25. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/23416195. Accessed 7 Feb. 2020.

“Charles Perrault's Cinderella: Morals & Themes.” Study.com, Study.com, study.com/academy/lesson/charles-perraults-cinderella-morals-themes.html.

“Fairytales/ Themes of Beauty.” Beauty and the Beast, beautyadaptions.weebly.com/fairytales-themes-of-beauty.html.

Songfacts. “Songfacts - Songs with Lyrics Based on Nursery Rhymes or Fairy Tales.” Song Meanings at Songfacts, www.songfacts.com/category/songs-with-lyrics-based-on-nursery-rhymes-or-fairy-tales.

Staff, Flavorwire. “Pop For Skeptics: Why Are Music Videos So Obsessed with Fairy Tales?” Flavorwire, Flavorwire, 11 July 2012, www.flavorwire.com/307604/pop-for-skeptics-why-are-music-videos-so-obsessed-with-fairy-tales.

Starling, Amelia. “Sleeping Beauty: The Meaning of Fate, Sleep, and Death.” - The Willow Web, 12 Oct. 2018, thewillowweb.com/2017/06/12/sleep-death-fate-sleeping-beauty/.

“It’s Not Such a Small World After All: Disney Live-Action Films in the 1960s.” The Imaginary Geography of Hollywood Cinema 1960–2000, by Christian B. Long, Intellect, Bristol, UK; Chicago, USA, 2017, pp. 197–228. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctv9hj8kf.12. Accessed 7 Feb. 2020.

“The Theme of Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.” Kaltura, cdnapisec.kaltura.com/index.php/extwidget/preview/partner_id/417271/uiconf_id/44372841/entry_id/1_xnkclxqh/embed/dynamic.

“Wide Awake.” Wide Awake, Youtube, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k0BWlvnBmIE.

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Throughout every version of 'Sleeping Beauty,' the presence of fate remains constant. Few other fairy tale heroines have their lives so dictated, or spend the majority of their story rendered so helpless. Although the circumstances surrounding her fate differ, Sleeping Beauty is always destined to fall asleep. But that's not the only thing her future holds, and the line between death and sleep is not always apparent.

Some stories contain fairies or wise women, who bestow desirable qualities upon the princess. As Maria Tatar notes in The Annotated Brothers Grimm, 'the gifts given by the Wise Women promise to turn the Grimms' Briar Rose into an "ideal" woman - virtuous, beautiful, and wealthy. In Perrault's version, the girl is given beauty, an angelic disposition, grace, the ability to dance perfectly, the voice of a nightingale, and the ability to play instruments.' Both sets of gifts are trivial things, putting emphasis on physical attraction instead of personality. They also reflect, as Tatar says, society's notions of 'ideal' women during the times they were told. A beautiful woman who could sing, dance, and play music would certainly have been popular in 17th century Versailles.

However, none of these gifts bear any relevance to the plot. In earlier versions of the story, there is not even any mention of them. In his book Once Upon a Time: On the Nature of Fairy Tales, Max Lüthi observes that in Giambattista Basile's 1634 story 'Sun, Moon, and Talia' the 'motif of prophecy' and 'threat of an unavoidable fate' remain strong even without the gifts. The sleep curse is still predicted for Tahlia's future, despite it not being given to her. The story doesn't change.

The sleep is always caused by spinning - from pricking a finger on a spindle or a stray piece of flax. This also has a connection to fate, as mythology from several cultures contains beings called 'Fates.' These are women who spin the threads of mortal lives, determining lifespans and causes of death. My full discussion of Sleeping Beauty, fate, and mythology can be found in this article which I wrote for the University of Essex's Centre for Myth Studies.

Aside from the gifts and the notion of spinning fate, the other irrevocable fate in Sleeping Beauty is death. Both 'Sun, Moon, and Talia' and Charles Perrault's 1697 'The Sleeping Beauty in the Wood' do not end when the princess awakens. Instead, they continue to detail her life with the prince (or king in 'Sun, Moon, and Talia') and their children. Her new mother-in-law has cannibalistic tendencies, and plans to kill and eat the children. They escape, thanks to some assistance from a compassionate servant who hides them. The mother-in-law then prepares a horrific death for the princess, but the king/prince arrives in time to prevent it.

Of this ending, Max Lüthi writes that 'the theme of the death prophesy and the fortunate deliverance is once again called to mind.' The princess survives not only the death-like sleep, but also attempted murder. Peril occurs at defining moments in her life. The first is during adolescence, when she is on the cusp of womanhood. The second is when she is a mother seeking to protect her children. These life stages are reminiscent of the Neopagan Triple Goddess, which represents aspects of female life through the phases of the moon. The waxing moon is the maiden, the full moon the mother, and the waning moon the crone.

The princess escapes death first as the maiden and again as the mother, which leaves only the crone stage to contend with. Things in fairy tales often happen in threes, with the third time being slightly different. Therefore, it can be assumed that when death comes the third and final time, the princess will not escape. Like for all living things, her ultimate unavoidable fate is death.

However, one Sleeping Beauty-inspired story challenges this fate. In 'The Lady of the House of Love' by Angela Carter, the girl is already dead - or rather, undead. The main protagonist in this story is a vampiric countess; a simultaneous embodiment of life and death. Carter describes her as 'both death and the maiden,' showing that the mother and crone stages are absent. In an attempt to reconcile this, she wears 'her mother's wedding dress,' which gives her the appearance of 'a child dressing up.' The countess's servant is 'a crone in a black dress,' and through her the old age she will never have can be vicariously experienced.

Instead of having her fate decided or predicted for her, the countess reads Tarot cards. But no matter how many times she shuffles them, she is 'constantly constructing hypotheses about a future which is irreversible' and they always show 'the Grim Reaper.' Her condition makes her biologically and emotionally dormant, so there cannot be any change in her future. She is, in a sense, sleeping. Carter acknowledges that 'a single kiss woke up the Sleeping Beauty in the Wood,' but the only desire vampires feel is for blood. She longs for a lover to save her, but trapped in her maidenhood she doesn't know how to respond when one arrives.

At the end of the story, she cuts her finger and the sight of her own blood overwhelms her. This could be interpreted as an analogy for menstruation, as some folklorists interpret the blood drawn by Sleeping Beauty pricking her finger. However, instead of a long sleep to process the change and move on to become the mother, spilling her own blood is what kills the Countess. In true death, 'she looked far older, less beautiful and so, for the first time, fully human.' Her fate could not provide the remaining life stages, so instead it returned her to nature.

Fate in Sleeping Beauty stories goes far beyond the prediction of the sleep. They connect to the perennial cycle of life and death, and how we progress through its stages. The princess is always doomed to sleep and a pivotal moment in her life, and she can never be the same once she awakens. Life's movement and nature's processes carry on regardless of curses, spindles, fairies, or vampirism.

Sources

Maria Tatar, The Annotated Brothers Grimm, W. W. Norton & Company, 2012.

Max Lüthi, Once Upon a Time: On the Nature of Fairy Tales, Indiana University Press, 1976.

Angela Carter, 'The Lady of the House of Love' in The Bloody Chamber, Vintage Classics Edition, 1995.

Giambattista Basile, 'Sun, Moon, and Talia' in Lo Cunto de li Cunti, 1634.

Charles Perrault, 'The Sleeping Beauty in the Wood' in Histoires ou Contes du Temps passé, 1697.

Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, 'Little Briar-Rose' in Kinder-und Hausmärchen, 1812.

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Sleeping Beauty: The Meaning of Fate, Sleep, and Death - The Willow Web

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Throughout every version of 'Sleeping Beauty,' the presence of fate remains constant. Few other fairy tale heroines have their lives so dictated, or spend the majority of their story rendered so helpless. Although the circumstances surrounding her fate differ, Sleeping Beauty is always destined to fall asleep.

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AbandonmentBeauty
Helplessness
Self Image
Honesty
Trust
Honour
Power
Feminisim
Love
Redemption
Vanity
Threats/ Dangers
Change
Family
Knowledge

Growth

Listed to the left, these are just some of the reaccuring themes which can be examined and are within many versions and adaptations of the Beauty and the Beast stories.

For myself the themes which stand out from most of the versions of Beauty and the Beast that I have looked at are that of beauty and trust.

Within most versions trust is the deciding factor for which Beauty falls in love with the Beast and the spell therefore being able to be broken. If there was not time in the story for Beauty to grow a connection of trust with the Beast over time, it is likely we can say she would not have fallen in love with the Beast at all!

Beauty however is subjective and upto each persons intepretation and observation of what they beleive to be beautiful. The idea of beauty is different to different people. In a website by Martin (2012) Margaret Wolfe Hungerford is discussed as being the women credited with the saying 'Beauty is in the eye of the beholder'.

Margaret Wolfe Hungerford (magaretwolfe.jpg, n.d.)

Women gaining knowledge is another issue which is touched on in Disney's film version whereby the character Gaston proclaims..

Gaston: It's not right for a woman to read. Soon she starts getting *ideas*, and *thinking*...
(Hahn, 1991).

Whether or not this alludes to what a women should or should not do. Or whether it is the idea that men are afraid of a womens potential if given the same oppurtunities as a man to become knowledgeable is upto one own to intepret. One thing however is clear to me in that the story of Beauty and the Beast is a depiction of societies views at the time of its writing depending on the different versions.

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AbandonmentBeautyHelplessnessSelf ImageHonestyTrustHonour PowerFeminisimLoveRedemptionVanityThreats/ DangersChangeFamily Knowledge Growth Listed to the left, these are just some of the reaccuring themes which can be examined and are within many versions and adaptations of the Beauty and the Beast stories. For myself the themes which stand out from most of the versions of Beauty and the Beast that I have looked at are that of beauty and trust.

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What Can We Learn from Cinderella?

One of the most well-known fairy tales ever written is Cinderella. The original title of the story by Charles Perrault is Cinderella: or, The Little Glass Slipper. He published the story in 1697 in French as Cendrillon in his Tales of Mother Goose. The story is based on a folktale present in a number of cultures throughout the world. The tale is about a young woman who is treated poorly and saved from her dismal existence. Let's take a look at some of the important morals and themes we can learn from this popular story.

Morals in Cinderella

Cinderella was first considered to be a folktale because it was a story originating in popular culture, typically passed on by word of mouth. These stories are commonly known for passing down beliefs and sharing morals with younger generations. A moral is a lesson, especially concerning what is right or prudent, that can be derived from a story. Here are a few of these important lessons from Cinderella.

The first is 'kindness towards all matters.' Even though Cinderella was seen as less than by others, she was good in her heart. Perrault says of Cinderella, 'A young daughter, but of unparalleled goodness and sweetness of temper.' She maintained her good temper throughout all of life's hardships and being treated as a servant. In fact, Cinderella 'bore it all patiently, and dared not tell her father.' No matter how much she was worn down or belittled, Cinderella showed kindness towards all. At the end of the story, Cinderella ends up with the prince, due to her lovely heart. He liked her even when she wasn't wearing her beautiful ball gown. Cinderella teaches us kindness is a form of beauty, which will eventually be recognized.

The second is 'forgive others for doing you wrong.' In the story, Cinderella's stepmother and stepsisters treat her horribly. They called her names like 'Cinderwench' and 'nasty. In addition, her stepmother 'employed her in the meanest work of the house. She scoured the dishes, tables, etc. . ., and cleaned madam's chamber, and those of misses, her daughters.' Even though the stepsisters and her stepmother treated her poorly, Cinderella kept a full heart. When her stepsisters realized she was actually the beautiful woman from the ball and apologize to her, Cinderella 'said that she forgave them with all her heart, and wanted them always to love her.'

The third is 'don't let the bad things ruin your heart.' Cinderella's mother died and her father remarried. This loss could have made her bitter and sad, but she still remained positive. In fact, she learned it from her mother 'who was the best creature in the world.' Her heart was true, even as life got difficult. In fact, 'Cinderella. . . was no less good than beautiful. . .'

Themes in Cinderella

Some of the themes brought forth by the text Cinderella are now known as the most common themes in literature. A theme is defined as a central idea in a piece of writing or other work of art. From the idea of good prevailing over evil or the impact wealth has on life, the themes of this folktale are essential in both life and literature.

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charles perrault's cinderella: morals & themes - video & lesson transcript | study.com

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Charles Perrault's Cinderella: Morals & Themes - Video & Lesson Transcript | Study.com

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One of the most well-known fairy tales ever written is Cinderella. The original title of the story by Charles Perrault is Cinderella: or, The Little Glass Slipper. He published the story in 1697 in French as Cendrillon in his Tales of Mother Goose.

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why are music videos so obsessed with fairy tales

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why are music videos so obsessed with fairy tales

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Once upon a time, pop stars used to be just like us. But then at some point - probably during their impressionable youth, while the rest of us were stuck in SAT prep classes - they were whisked away to an enchanted world of pop superstardom. It was the promised land of excess and beauty, where everything is magical all of the time. Louboutin heels served as glass slippers; award ceremony afterparties as fancy balls; black limousines as horse-drawn pumpkin carriages; and hunky A-listers as Prince Charmings. Yet it's an open secret that when most of these pretty young things got sucked into the vortex of pop, they also found themselves having to grow up overnight. While they shirked the banalities of roommates bugging them about the ConEd bill, pop stars found themselves entangled with the messier parts of becoming an adult too soon: contracts, scores of people relying on them to make piles of money, and grueling hours that most of us probably only begin to reckon with as adults.

So it makes a lot of sense that some of the biggest stars in pop have, at one time or another, have employed fairy tale motifs in their music videos - what other trope could so evocatively represent the difference between who they used to be and who they are now? In addition to providing a venue to meditate about who they have become, these children's stories allow pop stars to reconnect with that younger, perhaps forsaken version of themselves. Perhaps that explains why the fairy-tale music video trend pervades popular music across cultural, geographical, and musical divides. After the jump, we explore some rock and pop stars' kitschiest fairy tale fantasies - many of which harbor curiously dark messages about coming of age.
Katy Perry, "Wide Awake" (2012)
Katy Perry is just the latest pop star to cash in on tropes inspired by The Wizard of Oz and Alice In Wonderland. In the video for "Wide Awake," Perry ends up tapping into her inner child during a weaker moment in her adult life. It's a theme that finds her character navigating a hedge maze with this young girl, who ends up clearing some major obstacles for her - like slaying a couple minotaurs - and giving her the strength to punch out Prince Charming, an obvious reference to her split with Russell Brand. Ultimately, the singer and her inner child part ways and there is the grand a-ha! moment that finds Perry is in her dressing room, buoyed by this ability to connect to a more fearless version of herself.
Tori Amos, "Strange Little Girl" (1999)
Tori Amos tapped into a more anarchic quality of fairy tales in the video for her cover of The Stragglers' "Strange Little Girl." Amos touches on the mythology of The Little Red Riding Hood as an allegory for growing up and confronting your demons - the Big Bad Wolf, in this case. Maturity and refuge are both elusive until the girl finally confronts the demon - a confrontation that echoes the singer's demand, "Strange little girl / Where are you going?" Amos' use of the fairy-tale trope ultimately takes on a didactic tone, with the singer admonishing us, "There's no need to run and nothing to fear."
Namie Amuro, "Do Me More" (2008)
Not to be underestimated for its ability to twist Western conventions, Japanese pop adds a complex layer to what's otherwise an innocuous mash-up of fairy tales. There is a subversive Manichean angle to Namie Amuro's "Do Me More," which, on the surface melts down Snow White, Alice In Wonderland, a dash of Hansel & Gretel, and the Good Witch/Bad Witch binary of The Wizard Of Oz to a single story. While we're all familiar with Snow White 's classic happy ending, Amuro's video wraps up on a disconcerting note, wherein the Good Witch turns to the little girl - who has already fallen under the spell of the apple - and encourages her to eat another one. Partnered with the spare English refrain, "Do me more," this is a dance anthem about unequivocally embracing excess. If Perry's "Wide Awake" is about liberating your inner child in order to find strength, Amuro's "Do Me More" delivers the opposite message.
Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers, "Don't Come Around Here No More" (1985)
Lying perhaps smack dab in the middle of Amos' fairy tale didacticism and Amuro's fairy-tale dystopia is Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers' classic "Don't Come Around Here No More." It taps solely into Alice In Wonderland, and among the myriad disturbing ways Petty and his band bend the mythology of that fairy tale, none is more unnerving than the final scene, in which Alice is being carved up and consumed as a birthday cake - Petty's own attempt at melding didacticism and dystopia into a single, morbid conclusion: People will chew you up if you let them.
Spice Girls, "Viva Forever" (1998)
When we think back to the Spice Girls' heyday, it might occur to us how quickly and wholeheartedly we fell for these easy hooks, bought into the Girl Power message, and subscribed to the entire culture of merchandising they built around their brand. It's no surprise then that their video for "Viva Forever" finds inspiration in The Pied Piper, with a dash of European folklore. The five fairy stars - CGI-animated versions of the Spice Girls, endowed with festive wings - emerge from a Rubik's Cube, lead a couple of wandering children to an open field, and end up luring one of the kids to an oversize gumball machine. Curiously, in what may well be the band's darkest video, we see only four of the five fairies re-emerge from the gumball machine in its final moments - a possible reference to Ginger Spice's departure only months before the release of the clip's release.

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Pop For Skeptics: Why Are Music Videos So Obsessed with Fairy Tales?

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Once upon a time, pop stars used to be just like us. But then at some point - probably during their impressionable youth, while the rest of us were stuck in SAT prep classes - they were whisked away to an enchanted world of pop superstardom. It was...

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