7/30/2019 Music Video Textual Analysis- Tom Odell

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Genre characteristics Tom Odell s music can be seen as indie pop genre. Throughout the clip there arevarious props used to emphasise the genre of indie. An example of this can be theclothing worn by Tom Odell and the girl featuring in the video. For example he iswearing similar clothes to what you would expect from an indie audience, for example, a knitted jumper. Along with this his hairstyle matches a typicalconventional indie look, long and scruffy.

With the girl her look can be seen to match the genre of the music, clothing items likeoversized shirts and high-waist jeans/leggings are used which can be seen as arelatively indie look.

Relationship between lyrics and visuals? There is a significant relationship between the lyrics and the visuals we are exposedto, the lyrics explain that Tom Odell has tried with what seems a previous lover and

cared for her etc. but now his time has just been wasted with her, and she s justanother love . The visuals are quite unusual and go against common conventions of an indie pop video.

The relationship between the two can be seen as he is barely moving in his chair while the girl is all around him hugging and kissing him, also being aggressive andsmashing objects/props around him. T he lyrics quote all my tears have been usedup on another love can have a link with the video as he seems effortless and pastcaring even though he receives a lot of attention, I believe this is a unique way toexpose it in visuals.

Relationship between music and visuals?

7/30/2019 Music Video Textual Analysis- Tom Odell

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There isn t an overly obvious relationship between the music and the visuals; thepiano in the background at the beginning seems to have no official link with thevisuals. However as the song progresses more the instruments used increase incorrelation with the tempo of the song, and then the visuals become more exciting.This is shown by the girl smashing and throwing objects around him. Adding more tothe overall scenes and giving the audience something more interesting to watch.

Are there close ups of the artist and star image motifs? The video includes a few prolonged close ups of Tom Odell, during and non-duringlip-syncing. These seem to be used to emphasise specific facial expressions,however during the whole video his expression stays the same, it involves him beingsat on a chair with 3 or 4 long shots. The close ups used are affective in showing

expression and perfect lip syncing however the mid/long shots have the most affectin the video itself.

Is there reference to the notion of looking? There is slight reference to the notion of looking with the attractive girl used for thevideo, in certain shots in the background in the mirror you can see her in minimalclothing, this can make the video interesting for a male audience and certainly drawsattention to certain objects. This seems to be used to draw attention to the way shewas filmed through the mirror.

7/30/2019 Music Video Textual Analysis- Tom Odell

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Is the video category illustration, disjuncture or amplification? I believe the video seems to have elements to be an illustrative video andamplification video. It can be seen as illustrative because it is easy for the audienceto interpret the meaning of the lyrics by the visuals and the use of the mise en sceneetc. however also amplification could be seen to be applied due to the fact there areelements of creativity used throughout the video, for example to simple yet extremelyeffective use of using long slow shots. I believe the video is mainly illustrative as itcan be seen as a performance video where a message is trying to be put across viathe visuals.