Adele - Someone Like You (2011)
In this video, Adele has really emphasised a more modern technique of music videos, where other than ideas such as performance or narrative, it is the emotion of the song that it is important to portray in a video to the audience. She uses this to connect with the audience, which is one of the main elements of this video. The majority of the video involves close up shots of Adele walking and singing into the camera, to create a close relationship to the audience through eye contact. This creates an effect that either she is singing the song to the audience, or that although she is trying to reach out to the person the song is about, she is asking for the audience to empathise with her. The close-ups also show Adele's expressions, which further show the emotions of the song - sadness and depression, because it is about a break-up, which is made obvious when the man walks away from Adele at the end, directly linking the video to the lyrics. The emotion is also shown by the establishing panning shots that identify the setting, which looks like the stereotypical film setting where romantic couples may take walks together, however here Adele is alone. The whole thing is in black and white, to represent the sadness of this situation, to further give across the message to the audience. The setting is also a normal every-day setting which the general public will be familiar with, and Adele is just in normal everyday clothes. This is important because it means the audience don't see her as a famous artist, but just as a normal person who they can associate with, especially if they also can relate to the song, and makes them more likely to sympathise with Adele's situation and feel empathetic. This connection gives Adele as an artist popularity, and promotes her album as well as just the song because each song on this particular album is about her break up. There isn't much editing because the majority of the video is done in one take with just a lot of panning involved. The shots of Adele are mostly straight and not angled, to make the audience feel like they are on the same level as her. The editing that is used, is an overlay of Adele's face over the background, to show her emotion of the setting without her boyfriend by her side, and to make it seem like the situation has made her feel like she is 'fading into the background' to make the audience feel sorry for her. The pace of Adele's walking fits with the pace of the song to keep it consistant, and because it is quite slow, represents the slow recovery from the break up, and the ability to slowly move on. The concept of 'moving on' from this circumstance, is where the whole point of the video comes from, where all of the way through it is she walking, as if walking into a new life, which mirrors the lyrics 'never mind I'll find someone like you, I wish nothing but the best for you too'.
Psy - Gangnam Style (2012)
'Gangnam Style', a Korean pop song by Psy, is by far one of the most famous videos worldwide of the modern era. It uses many of the modern day concepts involved with music videos including narrative, humour, dance routine and irony. It is a light hearted song, even if it does have sexual references, and this is represented by the bright colours that all of the figures in the video are wearing, as well as the colourful settings. The settings are materialistic, such as posh hotels, saunas, stables or car parks with expensive cars in, to show the wealth and fame Psy tries to portray his identity as. This is also shown in the beginning shot where he is laid on a beach with a cocktail, wearing shades, and the use of sexualised women in the yoga scene. The girl in the video plays his love interest, and together they have quite a cheesy relationship, shown by things like the slow motion walk towards each other, but this fits well with the lyrics and the overall comedy element of the song. A lot of the video is confusing and makes not a lot of sense as to why certain things happen, but this makes the video memorable for the audience and makes them want to watch it over and over again, as well as keeping to the comedy element. The editing pace is quite fast to keep with the energetic beat of the music, which means there are more sharp cuts for transitions as opposed to cross-fades. The most iconic part of the music video, is the dance routine. It is ironic because modern artists who create dance routines, like Beyonce, tend to be young females for sex appeal, but in this it is a slightly older male, trying to attract attention from a wider audience. The dance moves are unlike anything ever seen before in the music industry which makes the audience automatically associate the moves with the song, which has created many fans all over the world using these dance moves to dance to the song ever time they hear it, showing that dance routines as part of a music video still live on from their early appearances about 50 years previously.
One Direction - Kiss You (2013)
One Direction are the latest most famous boy band on the scene, and alike to many other boybands, this video is all about them in their early stages of being a boy band. The video has no reference to the song at all, other than the last line saying 'and let me kiss you' where one of the members kisses another in the video, which could imply something about their sexuality. This is also shown by one scene where they are all dressed as sailors with their arms around each other. There are a lot of scenes where it shows one direction having photoshoots and music videos filmed, to show that they are a rising success as a group, which is one of the reasons why the lyrics may not relate to the video - if you have a successful fanbase then it doesn't matter if the video has much relevance, just as long as you are continuing to promote yourself in it. There are a lot of close ups of the boys faces, to show their emotions of happiness at being famous, and also to give their young girl fanbase a chance of admiring them. There is the element of cross reference to film used in this video, by the title credits to the song at the beginning and end. There is also a reference to historical music videos - Elvis Presley's Jailhouse Rock, where the group are all dressed in prison uniforms outside a similar set, which could represent how previous music videos in the industry have still had a major impact on music videos today.
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