“Nothing Breaks Like a Heart” – Humanities Portfolio

Analysis

Mark Ronson and Miley Cyrus released the politically charged music video for their song Nothing Breaks Like a Heart (watch it here) on November 29, 2018. In the music video, Ronson and Cyrus create a montage that explores different frames of brokenness of humanity as Cyrus has her “wild ride”. She plows her car into frames that we try to ignore and begs us to look at ourselves, our neighbors, and our community in a more honest light. The video depicts children in a shooting range, news media sensationalism, priests in a strip club, sexualized children, and the exploration of sexuality.

The video begins with a young girl playing with bullets in a gun range which is an unsubtle statement on youth innocence being broken in the face of gun violence. The chorus that lays over these lyrics set the intended statement of Ronson and Cyrus’s art piece as a desperate cry to acknowledge the broken state of humanity; it is a brokenness that has corrupted children.

Ranson, as the producer of Nothing Breaks Like a Heart explores news as a media and the sensationalism, glamorization, and fantasy that it contributes to the narrative. The graphic design used for the pseudo new channel “Wolf News” heavily resembles the conservative American news channel “Fox News”. This small nod at conservative TV both criticizes the channel and supports a different reference to the slow pursuit and media coverage of the O.J. Simpson case. The O.J. Simpson case was the first publicly viewed trial and became a spectacle in the media. The nature of the music video (and modern fame in general) deeply reflects the O.J. Simpson case, as the case completely revolutionized the public’s role in fame.

One of the first frames Cyrus explores is a strip club. The men who are being performed for are priests of all colors. This bold artistic choice addresses corruption and hypocrisy in the church—demanding a recognition and, possibly, an acceptance of sexuality. This reoccurring clip also could be interpreted as a call for a normalization perception of sex or modernization of the church to view sex more liberally. Additionally, as Cyrus is followed in slow pursuit down an interstate, the streets are lined with supporters of all socioeconomic groups. There are farmers, youth, rebels, nuns, kneeling football players (a reference to 2018’s NFL players’ protests), and others lining the roads; they hold signs in support—suggesting that everyone needs

Cyrus has always been an activist for healthy sexuality, whether it be by supporting the LGBTQ community or celebrating a positive outlook on sex. Ronson choses to depict Cyrus’s “wild ride” ripping through a perfect suburban neighborhood that is a model of uniformity. Her car breaks through the walls of one house to find what one would never expect in a perfect suburban home. Two older women—either good friends or lovers—are in a hot tub and kiss.

Ranson depicts adults fighting violently and acting like children over superficial, material objects. The objects the adults are fighting over—teddy bears, games, etc.–are symbols of innocence and purity. However, they are being tainted and degraded by the violence that surrounds them.

The targets in the shooting range are possibly the most potent and relevant symbolism of the video. An adult hand lays on the young girl’s shoulder—a guiding, supporting, and loving hand. Yet, the child holds a deadly weapon and is being taught to shoot. The adult in this image is faceless, suggesting that this adult could be any parent or guardian. Ronson takes the already disturbing image of an innocent child being taught by an anonymous parent figure and manipulates the form of the shooting targets to escalate its potency. The targets are children—young girls and boys—wearing backpacks, playing basketball, standing in the pose of black power, texting, reading, standing (hands down), and holding a balloon. They were once conceptually understood symbols of innocence and goodness, but now they are tainted by an epidemic of school shootings, racism, and police brutality. By having little girls shooting other little girls and boys creates a more impactful image. It reminds us that we—people who never truly grow up—are molded by our childhoods and lose our innocence so quickly.

In a sense, Cyrus’s life of fame is not her own. She, herself, is a product of the media; her image has been manipulated and idealized over time, and she can’t back down from the figure she has become. The world of eyes that she was given with her fame give her power. The messages she and Ronson portray in Nothing Breaks Like a Heart is not novel. It’s something that has been simmering under the As Cyrus’s car crashes with her in it, the camera focuses on her face and the debris that flies around her, and she is completely calm; she accepts her fate as a martyr. Cyrus’s “wild ride” ends with imagery placing her in a museum exhibit as a Jesus figure; she is Jesus and the car is her cross. This imagery states that, although Cyrus feels helpless in her fame, she is willing to die to help humanity see how helpless, injured, and corrupted it is. Her “wild ride” is a crusade to recognize humanities blemishes, pains, and secrets.

Lyrics

[Chorus]
This world can hurt you
It cuts you deep and leaves a scar
Things fall apart, but nothing breaks like a heart
And nothing breaks like a heart

[Verse 1]
I heard you on the phone last night
We live and die by pretty lies
You know it, oh, we both know it
These silver bullet cigarettes
This burning house, there’s nothing left
It’s smoking, we both know it
We got all night to fall in love
But just like that we fall apart
We’re broken, we’re broken

[Pre-Chorus]
Mmm, well nothing, nothing, nothing gon’ save us now

[Chorus]
Well, there’s broken silence
By thunder crashing in the dark (Crash in the dark)
And this broken record
Spin endless circles in the bar (Spin ’round in the bar)
This world can hurt you
It cuts you deep and leaves a scar
Things fall apart, but nothing breaks like a heart
Mhmm, and nothing breaks like a heart

[Verse 2]
We’ll leave each other cold as ice
And high and dry, the desert wind
Is blowin’, is blowin’
Remember what you said to me?
We were drunk in love in Tennessee
And I hold it, we both know it

[Pre-Chorus]
Mmm, nothing, nothing, nothing gon’ save us now
Nothing, nothing, nothing gon’ save us now

[Bridge]
My heart, my heart
Nothing, nothing, nothing gon’ save us now
My heart, my heart
Nothing, nothing, nothing gon’ save us now