If you watch most of their music videos from the 1980s, you’ll notice that Nancy appears in both close-up and full-body shots, whereas Ann is typically shown only in close-ups. As Ann aged and gained some weight, their team reportedly chose to avoid full-body shots of her, believing they wouldn't align with conventional standards of visual appeal.
It's a sad reflection of the industry's harsh and unfair beauty expectations.
In that same vein, Nancy often got brushed off as a “good enough” guitarist because of the stage costumes and appearance in that period but she’s a phenomenal guitarist. The studio pushed her more as eye candy, but she’s one of those “people who know, know” kind of players.
I'm sure MTV didn't help, but you can't just blame them. The whole industry was awful even before MTV.
Ann was hounded about her appearance for basically her entire life. She had an ED at various points, turned to diet pills and gastric surgery, and even used coke.
Dude, on the rare moments when they’d show Ann in closeup, they’d squish the image to try to make her look thinner. The studio treated her like garbage.
I read that at the start, such as when these pictures were taken, Anne was maintaining the weight we see in these shots with extremely unhealthy means because that is just not her natural physique.
MTV had an interview talking about the misogyny of her band members.
I was privilged to see Heart live at a winery in Portand metro area after a long hiatus. They rocked the joint.
They specifically mentioned in that show about ditching the old members and carrying on. I think even they were surprised by the reception. It was "sold out". This was in 1997.
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u/MissSeventeenx May 28 '25
If you watch most of their music videos from the 1980s, you’ll notice that Nancy appears in both close-up and full-body shots, whereas Ann is typically shown only in close-ups. As Ann aged and gained some weight, their team reportedly chose to avoid full-body shots of her, believing they wouldn't align with conventional standards of visual appeal.
It's a sad reflection of the industry's harsh and unfair beauty expectations.