Music Video Textual Analysis

The video I have chosen to analyse, is "Someone like you" Performed By Adele. This music video was created By Jake Nava. The location of this particular video was Paris, France. The genre is pop/soul. It carries connotations and conventions from soul music, we know this because of the use of performance from the singer, she isn't really focusing on anything and seems to be staring off into the distance, looking deep in thought. The fact that it was filmed in Paris conveys connotations of romantic films. This has been filmed predominantly in a one-shot style to make the audience connect with the singer by creating a superficial relationship. The saturation is black and white which relates to the overall imagery of the lyrics. The lyrics convey negative feelings because she's singing about the loss of a loved one. The camera predominantly follows the main singer, Adele. The only times it isn't on her face is if they're setting the scene, spinning the camera around full circle, at her walking pace to show you where they are. At the beginning it is a close up of her on a path way, she lip syncs in time with the song in the music video, but doesn't display any other instruments apart from her singing ability. There is a correlation between the lyrics and the camera shot at the beginning because when she sings (0:35) "Old friend, why are you so shy?", And " Aint' like you to hold back", at this point the camera slowly pans out to a medium shot. The camera is displaying the action of her 'Old friend' she is singing about. This highlights him backing off, because she feels very hurt by this. It's possibly the moment of realization that she doesn't want to believe or acknowledge that he's moving on. "Don't forget me, I beg", this shows she is almost pleading for him to not move on and still be apart of her life. We know she's distressed by this because whilst she's singing those lyrics the camera starts to spin in full circle, at a walking pace, until it focus's on her again from the back at a long distance. During the music video the pace of the overall shots are increased. Most of Adele's music videos feature a close-up of her singing. Her usual outfit consists of something black that doesn't hug her lower half e.g. Dress, Skirt. In this particular music video it's mainly performance based but it does have some narrative features because the music video expresses what she is singing about in a subtle way. The lyrics suggest that she has broken up with a boyfriend.