Music Video Analysis/Research: Adele - 'Cold Shoulder'

In order to help us understand what is expected of a typical music video; and to see how codes and conventions are operated. I have chosen to analysis ‘Adele - Cold Shoulder’. The genre of this music video is Soul/Pop and as she is a female artist I thought it might bring inspiration to our music video as we also star a female artist.


Through analysing this music video, I will see how it fits in with Goodwin’s features of a music video. One of Goodwin’s features of a music video is the typical characteristics that run throughout. In Adele’s video I noticed that she is mostly shot from her upper torso and face; and that her voice in the song has a very powerful quality throughout, apart from when she admits how she feels for this man and her voice appears weaker. ‘Cold Shoulder’ is obviously a very emotional song, and it seems to me like it is about her revealing her all feelings to this guy that has hurt her.

Another one of Goodwin’s music video features is the correlation between the visuals, lyrics and music. I believe that in this case, the lyrics are amplified through the visuals of the video. The message in this song is about a girl who is realising how her partner has treated her and standing up for herself. The main reference to ‘Cold Shoulder’ is visualised in this video as there are two ice sculptures that are regularly filmed throughout the video in close ups and long shots. The visuals here are heightening the lyrics because it is literally referring to someone’s emotion of being ‘cold’ to another person. The ice sculptures are generally shown when Adele sings, ‘You grace me with your cold shoulder’, which corresponds with the lyrics. There is also an interesting relationship between the visuals and the actual music. It helps the audience to identify the genre of the video, I can see that this there is a Pop element to the video as there is just the artist singing with no shots of a band playing instruments; it is simply Adele and the narrative which relates to her song. However I spotted the Soul genre through the visuals of the artist in one outfit, same hair and makeup which is common in the Soul genre.

This music video represents the star through use of iconography; her style appears very elegant and mature with clean cut hair and makeup. I believe this helps the audience to focus on her music and represents her as a credited artist that young girls will aspire to.


One final feature of Goodwin’s is voyeurism of the artist. This occurs in the video as there is several extreme close ups of the artist showing emotion when not signing, this makes the audience feel like they are involved in how the artist is feeling and so will feel closer to her. There are also shots of a house environment; kitchen, living room and bedroom. This can make the audience feel like they are looking in at Adele’s home and gaining a taste of her life by being in that place with her. This is commonly used in most music videos so that the artist can keep the audience’s attention.

Aside from Goodwin’s Model, I have also noticed that lighting places a crucial part in this music video. It highlights the emotion of the song and the style of the artist, so she stands out from the background. Throughout the lighting is dark and looks as though it is edited with a blue filter, it continuingly changes as if blacking out the screen and the picking up on main images and artist. I believe that lighting is a very important aspect to the video as it helps to set the atmosphere and makes the video look professional.


In analysing this music video ‘Adele - Cold Shoulder’, through looking at Goodwin’s Model and aspects of Mise en Scene it has helped me to think about what we would consider in our music video project. For example I know realise how important the artist is to their audience members and how different shots can influence emotion of the song. I can also see how strongly genre needs to be represented in a music video so that the expectations of the target audience can be met.