Research into chosen artist - Miss Miller

Research into chosen artist

My Chosen artist is Adele and the reason is because she interests me and my group because she is not a lot older than us which therefore makes it easier for me to relate to her and understand what she is singing about. Another reason she interests me is her tone of voice as i believe it is very unique compared to other artist. I was inspired by the this artist to make a music video because her songs can be upbeat but also dramatic and meaning full. Therefore i think by using Adele techniques in my music video it will lead to my music video having a big effect on the audience and being successful. Another reason why she has inspired me is because she is more narrative based than other soul artist such as Amy Winehouse, which makes the video easier for the audience to understand. Also giving a story to the audience through the video, is done so that they will be able to relate to.


Adele was born in 1988 which makes her 27. She was born in Tottenham, London, United Kingdom. The music genres she has done is pop, r&b, blue eyed soul and soul.  By the age of 21 Adele become worldwide, this was in the years 2011-2013. This was due to the album Adele released '21'  on January 24th 2011, she said that this album was inspired by her break up with her ex partner. Adele signed to the record label company XL recordings in June 2006 and has forever been singed to Xl. Adele mega selling album is '21' which sold 11 million sale in the U.S. Adele then released a James Bond song 'skilful' which stayed in the top ten charts for 24 weeks. Adele's third number one hit was 'Set fire to the rain'. Adele became the first ever artist to have an album, 21, and hold the number one position on billboard 200, concurrently with three number one singles. Therefore this all shows how popular and liked Adele has become through the use of her music being impactful and emotional has proven to capture the worlds attention.

A song that Adele has produced is 'rolling in the deep'. This song was released in 2011. Dyers star theory is used in this music video through the paradox of the artist being extraordinary and ordinary. The artist is seen to be ordinary through her hair costume and make up, as she is normally dressed for a singer, and looks professional but is then seen as extraordinary through the mes en scene of the setting and what is going on in the big empty house around here. The plates smashing and the drummer in the room of the house suggests to the audience that this is not normal, and it portrays her anger and how she feels towards what happened with her ex partner. Another extraordinary point of the music video is that the artist is on her own in the house which is odd because the house is so big. This suggests that adele has been left by her ex partner, and is feeling very lonely to be on her own in a old Victorian looking house, because the house is victorian looking it suggest to the audience that adele feels like she has gone back in time and that the time she spent with her ex partner was all a waste of time. The audience can get an understanding that the artist is depressed and has a lot of anger and frustration due to what has happened in her years that she spent with her ex partner.

Goodwins theory is used through their being a relationship between the lyrics and visuals. The lyrics say "we could of has it all" and the visuals of the music video at this point is shown in the screenshot of a city that she is relating to, and trying to portray that her and ex boyfriend could of had the whole city to themesleves. The use of the city suggests that the relationship Adele had was city based and means that their was a lot of city like activated taken place in her relationship. As the audience we can get an understanding that her ex partner may have been in a city job such as a broker or office job which tend to take up a lot of time. Therefore may have lead to the break up between Adele and this man.  The audience can then build up a relationship with adele because her target audience is in-between 17-40 which makes it relatable for them as they have more than likely gone through a relationship that has lead to breaking up. Which means that the audience with have some similarities with the artist and can therefore be relatable and understanding towards her emotions.

The artist is also represented as emotionally angry because she can not get her head round why her and her ex partner couldn't have had a fruit full relationship, because the target audience are between 17-40, the target audience would have probably had a relationship where one person has been hurt and forgotten about, therefore make Adele very relatable. The artist is also represented as confused because the lyrics used "you had my heart inside of your hand, and you played it to the beat" show that she was aware that she put all she had into the relationship and got played around by her partner. The audience then get an idea that the artist may have been cheated on which then leads to the audience feeling sympathetic and similar anger towards this man who has hurt emotionally.  The artist is also represented as weak due to the artist sitting down the whole music video, which suggests she doesn't have the strength to stand up. This is effective in getting the audiences attention as to how much pain the artist is in. The audience can now build a relationship with the artist knowing how much of a struggle her life is at the moment and can get an understanding of how she is emotionally drained. 

The common camera techniques used throughout the music video are close ups of the artist singing. But she doesn't look directly to the camera often which shows her weakness and fear of making the video direct to the man she is singing about. This helps the audience to relate in time if they have ever had a break up and found it difficult or embarrassing to try and re contact their ex partner. Another camera technique used is the long shot of Adele sitting in the chair in the middle of an empty room. The long shot highlights Adele being in a big old house all alone. This portrays the theme of loneliness which the audience feel sympathy towards as a young women like Adele should have a lot of friends and family around her at this age. This leads to the audience being able to relate to adele and feel sorry for the situation she is in and wonder what happened in her previous relationship.

The second song i will be analysing is the song 'someone like you'. Through out the music video Dyer's theory is evident because the artist being both ordinary and extraordinary. She is firstly portrayed as extraordinary in the sense that she is a celebrity and has hired out the location to film the music video which would have cost a large amount of money. But also ordinary as the location she has chosen is somewhere ordinary people would visit and use simply walking down or visiting locations, in paris. Which is where the video was filmed. In addition goodwins theory is present in the music video as, this is the frequent notion of looking where there are a lot of close ups of the artist. This helps the audience to be able to relate to the artist as it is easier to see the artists facial expression, which helps show emotion as her own person experiences that she sings about cause the audience to feel her emotions. This helps the audience build a relationship with the artist as it could be something the audience has similarly gone through or similar experiences overall making Adele very relatable and connective towards to target audience.
Another example of a goodwins theory that is present within the Adele music video, is the theory that the visuals match the lyrics. This is evident due to Adele singing about love whilst being in paris, which is known for being the city of love and romance. This will engage the audience as they can understand the connotation song title being 'someone like you' and being in paris on her own represents Adele as being lonely and lost. When she sings the words 'someone like you' Adele is looking around which suggests to the audience that the artist is having trouble getting over this person she has lost in her life. This makes the audience able to relate to the artist if they have been through heart breaks themselves.

There are many conventional mes en scene aspects through out the music video. This is the positioning of the artist. In convention with the soul genre the artist is in the middle of most of the shots, this is stereotypical and this is so the audience can focus on the artist and the lyrics which she is singing, without the audience being distracted. Another mes en scene element is aspect is the setting and location. The music video being filmed in paris is stereotypical to the soul genre, as the setting is kept very simplistic so the audience attention is not diverted anyone else. However the location is linked in with the theme of the song being love, because paris is the city of love. This allows the audience to build up a relationship with the artist as they are singing about a very relatable subject, love. Another conventional mes en scene used in the music video is the facial expression and body language from the artist herself. Which is portrayed through the us of main  camera technique which is used a lot, is the close up shot. This particular shot helps to convey the artists facial expression. Through the use of the close ups it shows the audience that the artist is upset and emotional. This helps the audience build up a relationship with the artist as the facial expression have an emphasis on the lyrics she is singing and make the audience more engaged and involved in the music video.

Camera shots are an important part of constructing a music video. In goodwins theory he mention to have a frequent notion of looking where there are several close ups of the artist, this enables the audience to sympathise for the artist because they will feel sorry for her. Also body language is used to help portray and represent Adele. She walks along a river side, the river side suggests that she is stressed, depressed and lost. Which is relatable for the audience as they might have gone on a walk down a river side when feeling down and upset.  Another mes en scene element is the lighting, which is low key which is conventional to the soul genre music videos. The dark low key sets the mood of the music video to straight away be quite sad and depressing which is stereotypical to a soul genre music video. Also soul genre artists music is nearly always done to try and convey a message across the the target audience. So by having a low key lighting it doesn't take any attention away from the lyrics and the meaning of the song. Furthermore the audience will be captured and engaged with the singers voice, which therefore keeps the artist focused on the song. Another conventional of this is the lighting and filters used to make the video black and white. This helps to show to the audience they she is singing about the past, and may be something that has happened a long time ago. This is also relatable to the target audience as they may have had a situation where they was stuck regretting the past, and dwelling on the past. Finally another mes en scene element is costume in which the artist is wearing. It is a conventional costume as soul artists tend to just wear basic clothing which will not take any attention away from the lyrics and the meaning of the song.

The music video 'Someone like you' is a narrative based and performance based music video. This sort of music video can usually have scenes in with other characters to help illustrate the story clear to the audience. But in this music video the narrative is purely displayed through the lyrics and facial expression Adele is using.  It is also seen as performance based as Adele is singing to the camera. Overall it is a simple music video but a very effective and engaging music video from Adele.