John Newman - Love Me Again - Detailed Music Video Analysis

Introduction

The video I am analysing is Love Me Again. The song is sung by John Newman and written by John Newman and Steve Booker. The Producers of this song are Steve Booker and Mike Spencer.

The genre of this song is Pop. The main characteristics of Pop that are associated with this song include -
- Recorded Music (Not a live performance)
- Encourages Dancing
- Editing has been concentrated on
- Clear Storyline
- Consistent Rhythm

What is the relationship between lyrics and visuals?

The lyrics of this song have a strong relationship with the visuals. The lyrics of this song talk about love and somebody needing to get to somebody and the visuals show 2 main characters that look like they are in love and want to get to each other. At the start of the song, the lyrics are about a person apologising about something and then we see somebody walking up some stairs on their own looking around for something. We then hear John Newman singing about love and we see 2 people admiring each other across the room. Throughout the video we get a sense that the 2 characters are not allowed to be together even though they want to be, the lyrics also have a slight sense of some people not being allowed together. When the tempo of the music changes and the lyrics are not present as much, what we see in the visuals changes. We see the visuals get quite empty in a way that the 2 main characters go into a private room rather than being in a crowded dancing area. In conclusion, the relationship between the lyrics and visuals is very strong in a way that the lyrics tell the story of what is happening in the visuals.

What is the relationship between the music and visuals?

There is a very strong relationship between the music and the visuals. The main thing that is the same between the song and the visuals is the speed. The music is quite fast throughout most of the song and the acting in the visuals (dancing) is of a similar speed, giving us the impression that the dancers in the visuals are dancing to the music. When the music changes and gets slower, the action also gets slower and more tense in the visuals. Another noticeable thing is when the music slows down but starts to build up. This action helps to build tension and in the music video at this point, some action is about to happen as 4 people meet up with each other as if they are about to fight. In conclusion, we can see obvious cuts in the scenes when the music changes and we see tempo changes in both the song and the visuals at the same time.

Are there any close-ups of the artist and star image motifs?

Throughout the music video, we see a lot of close-ups of the 2 main characters to show their emotion towards one another. We also see the artist throughout the video as the singer on a stage in front of all of the people dancing. The contrast of the close-ups of the singer and the close-ups of the characters shows that they have roughly the same emotion, maybe caused by the song. We get the impression that the artist is very passionate about what he does because he shows a lot of emotion in his close-ups throughout the video. This video relates closely to the other videos by John Newman in a way that they all use the same types of angles/shots and are all fairly upbeat. This video also does not show a change of image or style from the singer.

Is there reference to the notion of looking?

Throughout this video we get the impression that we should be concentrating on the emotion of the 2 characters rather than looking at them in a sexual way. All of the dancers are in suitable clothing and we do not have anything in particular to look at apart from the way they dance. The camera angles throughout this video help us see the emotion surrounding the 2 main characters but it the camera shots are in no way used to show the characters sexually.

Are there any intertextual references?

In this music video, there are intertextual references. The main thing that we can notice throughout is the very similar storyline to Romeo and Juliet. We can tell this because we can see a clear physical barrier between the main 2 characters in the video and this is also the case in Romeo and Juliet. The mixture of a romantic scene and a physical barrier shows that two people are in love and cannot be together.

Is the music video performance-based, narrative-based or concept based?

The music video is heavily narrative based because it tells a story. The clear story of Romeo and Juliet in the video shows that the video is mainly narrative based.

Conclusion

In conclusion, this music video shows a clear relationship between lyrics and visuals, a clear relationship between the music and visuals, a reference to the notion of looking and some intertextual references. The music video is also heavily narrative based.