Music video analysis (James Blunt)

Beth Davies

James Blunt (Heart to Heart) Music Video Analysis

James Blunt’s music video for his very famous song, ‘Heart to Heart’, is a soft/pop Rock music video about a love story that has ended and is captured in a variety of different still images, as part of the background, combined together to demonstrate time passing by, with James as the main focus, lip singing.

This music video follows conventions of a soft/pop rock genre in several ways. Firstly, the video includes simple cuts to make a simple concept, thus keeping the audience focused on the narrative. This is because there is not really a strong relationship between the visuals and the lyrics. One of the three times that the visuals link with the lyrics is when he sings, ”There are times when you don’t give me a smile”, which is accompanied with the image presented directly to the right. This is also significant as it is an example of how the media text is actually contradicting rather than illustrative. This is because when he says, ‘Don’t give me a smile’, he smirks. This juxtaposes the visuals to the lyrics, thus confusing the audience. This can be seen to represent elements of disruption within relationships which can cause the people involved to be confused as well as sad.

This is done by keeping the cuts on the 4th and 8th beat. However, on one occasion, a shot ends on the third beat (25 seconds into the song). This un-nerves the audience cutting the shot early, and keeps them entertained and focused on the narrative throughout.

Another way that James Blunt’s music video follows conventions of a soft/pop rock video is by including several close ups of James Blunt lip singing, whilst engaging through the audience through the method of direct address. This is effective as it makes the audience feel as though he is singing to them, thus creating a desire effect for the target audience of females.

Additionally, a further way that this particular music video follows conventions is through the use of ‘notion looking’. This is when we are given an insight into a private moment in someone’s life. The

one and only example of this is a MCU of a homosexual couple taking a photograph, on their phone, of them both kissing. This creates an insight for the audience to see an intimate moment in the couple’s life, which they are capturing, to remember. This is effective as it creates a rebellious feeling for the audience as they feel like they shouldn’t be looking but it also helps the audience to see different social behaviours in a secretive way. An image of this is presented to the left.

However, the music video also challenges conventons of soft/pop rock music videos in a number of different ways.

Firstly, throughout the video, in the background, there are a number of still images which are played together in a sequence to give the effect of the background showing movement at a very fast pace. As well as this, the images have been editted by enhancing the exposure to give the effect that the images were took in an environment with high key lighting.This is one example of how the media is contradicting as the visuals imply a happy environment through the use of bright colours, but the lyrics juxtapose this by describing a love story that has ended.

Furthermore, as well as the media being contradicting, it is also amplifying on one occasion, where James sings; “You shine even on a rainy day” whilst the image to the right is displayed on the screen. The headlights on the cars can be speculated to represent the person in question ‘Shining’, thus amplifying the narrative by representing the lyrics not protraying them.

The final way that the music video challenges conventions is through the lack of the use of intertextual references. This is because, stereotypically, Goodwin states that media texts conventionally make intertextual references to other media texts. However, in this partcular music video, that is not evident.

Therefore, from this we can conclude that Goodwin’s theory is not accurate to compare to modern music videos generally, but works well when comparing them as it gives us a basis of similarities and differences. Furthermore, it is evident that every pice of crieteria in Goodwin’s theory does not need to be met to make a successful music video.