Pale Waves have released an official music video for their song You Don’t Own Me. The indie rock group teased the video yesterday on Twitter for its next-day release. The song is the fourth single from their recently released sophomore album Who Am I?. The gritty tune takes aim at the patriarchy, with lyrics that fight for female representation in the ‘boys club’ of the music industry. Frontwoman Heather Baron-Gracie [she/her] said of the song:
“You Don’t Own Me is a song for women about what it’s like to be a woman in this world. How society depicts, judges, and criticises women on a daily basis.” She added “This song is incredibly important to me and I wanted to represent my own experiences. I also wanted to say a big fuck you to everyone that plays by these fake delusional rules that women and gender need to fit inside a specific box.”
The song features punchy guitars in a song that heavily exhibits the band’s new pop-punk feel. The track marks a decidedly less dreamy indie pop second album, unlike previous record 2018’s My Mind Makes Noises. The music video features Baron-Gracie in her signature black and red goth-pop style. At first, she sits alone, teasing the viewer, undercutting the typical ‘sexy school girl act’ with her powerful lyrics. Baron-Gracie cuts her hair and pulls faces at the camera in defiance of the role she has been given, rejecting traditional womanhood through subversion, and rocking out in the process. She is then joined by bandmates Ciara Dornan [they/them], Hugo Silvani [he/him], and Charlie Wood [he/him] as they spin into a high-energy performance complete with spray paint and smashing cameras.
The video was co-directed by Baron-Gracie and her girlfriend, singer-songwriter Kelsi Luck. The video is inspired by early noughties emo and pop-punk. This is clear through the video’s styling. Baron-Gracie’s clothing especially provides nods to emo fashion essentials such as the studded belt, plaid skirt, or loose tie that was popularised by artists like Avril Lavigne. Colourful graffiti provides the band with their own Riot! background, Paramore style.
Heather Baron-Gracie took to Twitter to express her thanks to the rest of the band and share some behind the scenes shots:
YOU DON’T OWN ME VIDEO OUT NOW https://t.co/CKDnndFGzb
Thanks @kelsiluck for directing this video with me, styling me and the boys and doing a lot of the work also thanks to the band for trusting us this video was so fun to shoot
WOMEN ARE POWERFUL pic.twitter.com/6IhxU33gb4— HBG (@HBARONGRACIE) March 1, 2021
Listen to Who Am I? by Pale Waves here.
