Music Video Analysis – ‘Impossible’ by James Arthur

Throughout the course of the song ‘Impossible’ by James Arthur the video rarely follows the narrative set by the lyrics. The video shows a variety of screen caps and short clips of James’s progression in ‘The X Factor’. The affect of this shows his hard work and dedication in the face of adversity. At times we see James singing using diegetic/synchronous techniques while at others the lyrics are not being mouthed whilst still being sung.

While the bulk of the video is footage from his X Factor victory there are additional scenes that adhere to the general feel of the video by displaying sadness. This would therefore cause conflicting emotions, the extremely positive nature in which we won the competition while still having the essence of a depressing song in which the artist has separated from someone. This has further pushed further using the black and white filter, a two-tone approach showing this juxtaposition.

“Tell them I was happy, and my heart is broken, all my scars are open, tell them what I hoped would be impossible”, this lyric gives the basic feel of the song’s lyrics, heartbreak and disbelief.

The reason for the shots to be recycled from the show ‘The X Factor’ is because this was the song selected to be James’s final attempt to win the sow, it has therefore become the soundtrack to his victory and when the single was released shortly after the show finished a music video

had to be made both quickly and cheaply. The original song by Shontelle provided James with the opportunity to create a more masculine edge when compared to the original more feminine appearance.

James was able to succeed where many thousands of others have failed and others would fear to attempt, this feat that he accomplished would therefore appear to be an unreachable point in most people’s lives, this is added to through the use of slow motion and freeze frame shots, making it seem fantastical and alien to the audience.

By using shots of James both with and without his guitar we are able to see that he has a larger input of the song than if he was just singing. If he had only seen him with his guitar there may have been a sense that James’s was hiding behind his instrument, however this is not the case and he can see that he is not a one trick pony.

The song follows a relatively chronological layout to the shots in which in the intro to the song we see James making his first stage appearance and culminating in his final win. However there are occasional jump cuts to James’s final performance of the song, which

breaks this layout. All of these flashbacks to the past are portrayed using a black and white filter; this shows the audience that this is the past. The pace at which the camera shots/scenes change follows the beat of the song to an extent, some shot changes using a very prominent beat while the next using a beat that is much less noticeable.

The key audio that is used is the song, however additional audio is used from the television presenter announcing James’s victory to the crowd cheering. From the start we can hear that the two key aspects of the audio are James’s voice and his guitar, then in the middle of the song the beat changes dramatically to a more electronic beat. This pace then continues until the closing stages of the song where James’s guitar can then be heard again. This could symbolize how James’s originally lead a humble life and despite his victory and all of the media attention he has remained his humble self.