Adele - Someone Like You
Tuesday 22nd September
Released: 24th January 2011
Genre: Pop/Soul
Written by: Adele and Dan Wilson
Album: 21
Adele uses a performance style music video, to make the song more personal to her. By seeing her sing it, the song becomes more real to people, as you see the real emotion behind the lyrics. There is an illustrative element to the video, as it tells the story of heartbreak by being alone in the 'City of Love' - Paris. This amplifies her sadness as the symbolism behind Adele being shown alone and sad in a City where you would expect a couple to be together shows her vulnerability and sadness. This presents the heartbreak Adele is feeling and conveys the emotion within the song. This creates a more realistic feel for the viewer, and allows them to create a personal identity (Uses and Gratifications Theory) with the events being presented.
At 0:01, the scene fades from black, to show the setting in which the video is taking place. It shows a walkway that is later presented to us as a big city, which would usually be extremely busy and hectic. In the video however, Adele is the only visible person. This suggests to the viewers that she is feeling alone and sad which reflects the lyrics in the song. This is also emphasised by the use of low-key lighting due to the black and white effect. This lighting presents an eerie sadness to the viewers, allowing them to understand exactly
how Adele is feeling. The use of filming in Paris would usually present the feeling of love and romance. The fact that she is alone in the City of Love and shown in black and white suggests the opposite of love and romance but instead the sadness and heartbreak of the situation
city behind and around her. At 1:29, the camera pans away from Adele to show the Eiffel Tower and the empty street surrounding her. This emphasises her loneliness and shows she’s sad that the relationship is over and now has to do things alone.
At 2:07 she stops to look out over the River Seine. This suggests she is reflecting over events that have happened, and taking time to process her feelings. This is amplified at 4:10, when we see her ex lover walking away from her, showing her emotion as he leaves. The camera shows her looking in the mirror at 4:40 which potentially suggests she blames herself for the break up – she’s reflecting on things that have happened.
The scene is shown in black and white, which gives a gloomy, sad feeling and presents the hurt and sadness in the song to the viewer. The audience feels a connection to Adele in this video, due to being able to form a personal identity (Uses and Gratifications Theory) from what she’s saying and how the video is conveyed. People associate with the sadness of heartbreak that Adele is presenting.
Adele’s costume in the video is all black, highlighting the sad, depressing nature of the music video and song. Black clothing connotes mourning and death, signifying her loss of a relationship and the empty feeling of being alone. The blocking used in the video shows the focus on Adele and the feelings she is portraying with her emotions. The only time we don’t look at Adele is when the camera pans to show the
The opening long shot at 0:01 shows the empty surroundings and
creates the lonely feel of the music video straight away. By doing this,
it sets the feeling of sadness and loneliness, which reflects the lyrics that
Adele is now alone.
At 0:04 the camera begins panning away from the
deserted street, to show Adele walking by herself. This amplifies the
feeling of aloneness as she’s in a big empty city and is the only person around.
The close up used as Adele first enters the scene at 0:08 allows the viewers to clearly see the sad expression on her face, making us associate the other sad-feeling elements of the song with how she is feeling. Tracking is used, to follow Adele on her journey along the walkway. This shows the length of time she is alone for – suggesting no one is coming with her or joining her. This allows the viewer to understand her sadness, as they can see her expression for a longer period of time.
At 0:42, the camera begins zooming out, to reach a mid-shot at 0:50. This allows the viewers to see Adele’s all-black costume, which highlights her sorrow, as black is generally associated with loss of a loved one and mourning. By wearing black, Adele presents her grieving to the audience. The use of a mid-shot here also shows us how alone she is, as you can see more of her surroundings – there is no other person nearby.
At 1:26, the camera zooms in for an extreme close up on Adele’s face, to show her singing the chorus. She sings in a slightly louder voice, to present the importance of this part of the song. By using an extreme close-up here, the passion for this part can
be seen, as you can really see the emotion in her eyes and face. This makes the audience believe what she is singing and feel empathy for Adele.
At 1:30 , the camera begins to pan away from Adele, this time showing the places around her, such as the Eiffel Tower. This emphasises her loneliness in the City of Love, however at 1:35, we see an old couple walking on the other side of the street. By using a panning motion, we see the view that Adele can see – emptiness but also the jealousy of the old couple still being together, and walking as a couple. Being the only person in the street with a couple just across the road would amplify Adele’s heartbreak and sadness.
At 2:08, an over the shoulder shot is used to show Adele looking out over the River Seine. This shows her reflection of events that have happened, but also mirrors a shot used at the end of the video at 4:40 where Adele is looking into a mirror, again reflecting events that have happened, but also potentially blaming herself for the break up.
Throughout the video, Adele doesn’t look at the camera until 2:33. This creates a more personal connection to the audience, as she appears to look straight at us. This seems as though we are involved and can understand her feelings.
At 3:53, an extreme close up of her eyes is shown over the top of the city scene. This shows us the emotion in her eyes, but also her sadness of being alone in Paris. By doing this, the audience feels sad as she is alone in the City of Love. This fades at 4:12 to show Adele looking into a mirror, with her ex boyfriend walking away from her behind her. This tells the story of the lyrics, as it shows her despair at him leaving, and having to be alone.
The opening scene uses a fade to gradually bring the shot of the walkway in. The use of a fade makes it look as though you’re coming into reality, possibly from a dream. This reflects the song, as Adele is coming out of a relationship (the dream) and into the reality of single life and heartbreak.
The continued use of black and white throughout the video creates a serious, sad feeling, which reflects the lyrics in the song, by creating a monotonous image. This suits the Soul genre of the music. It does however contradict the usual upbeat-happy feeling of Pop music. If we were to use Soul/Pop as our genre, we would stick to the conventions used in this video, such as grey scale and slow-paced editing.
The use of slow-paced editing creates an emotional feeling to the music video, reflecting the lyrics perfectly. This fits the conventions of Soul music, as the music is generally slower paced and more emotional. Pop music generally uses fast-paced editing. The sadness of the song is shown easily by using slow-pace.
The video is made up of one continuous shot of Adele walking, until 3:52 when the shot changes to an extreme close-up, which eventually leads to superimposition at 3:58. The use of superimposition shows us the extreme feeling of loneliness that Adele is experiencing, as it shows just her, layered over the top of images of Paris. By doing this, we see the sadness in her expression, presented along with her feelings of being alone. The viewers can create a personal identity, by seeing themselves in the same situation as Adele. The superimposition also works as a smooth transition from one scene to the next, as it easily blends Adele's face from one scene into the next.
The tempo of the music is very slow and calm, which reflects the video, as the camera moves slowly, transitions are slow, and Adele is moving/walking in time with the music. This emphasises her solemn feeling, as she isn't walking quickly as though she's trying to get somewhere. By walking slow, it shows how sad she is and also how alone she is, as she has no one to be with or get to. This reflects the lyrics in the song, as she is singing about a breakup - this shows that walking slowly alone represents her new found loneliness. This could also show her lack of something to do - she's lost and unknowing of what to do now.
At 1:30, during a higher pitched part of the song, the camera pans much faster than it had been during the rest of the video. This shows the relationship between the tempo of the music and the camera - they generally move in the same way.
At 2:16, as the pitch of the singing increases, the volume of the piano also increases, to become more prominent. This makes the music more dramatic and intense. This entices the listener to continue watching to see what will happen next.
Throughout the music video, Adele's miming is perfectly in time with the music. This makes the music video and the song far more realistic for the viewer, as timing is important for the lip syncing to look real. Perfect lip syncing makes Adele's performance more entertaining, as it looks like she is performing the song in the video. Fans prefer for their idol to perform live, and so well-timed lip syncing is necessary for a music video.