Analysis of Sam Smith - "Writing's on the Wall", Wiley - "Can You Hear Me" and Coldplay - "Adventure of a Lifetime"

1. Analysis of 3 Music Videos

2. Sam Smith – “Writing’s on the Wall”
• The genre of this song is Orchestral Pop, and the song was made for the latest James
Bond movie “Spectre”. The video shows parts of the film, while showing Sam Smith lip-
syncing to the song in some of the film’s locations.
• There are a lot of close-ups of Sam Smith in the video. We also see parts where Bond is
flirting with women which he tends to do a lot in the films. This could be a reference to
Laura Mulvey and her theory about the male gaze.
• The video is presented as a narrative for the new James Bond film, showing different
parts of the movie, help to sell it to the audience that likes Sam Smith songs who may be
more interested in seeing the movie in the cinema.
https://www.youtube.com/
watch?v=8jzDnsjYv9A

3. Wiley – “Can You Hear Me”
ft Skepta, JME and Ms D
• The genre for this song is grime and dance. The video is presented to us in a
performance format.
• There are some references to other songs, for example, Skepta references Wiley’s last
song before this “Heatwave”.
• The video appears to be set in an underground club, which is mainly where this kind of
music is performed and also how artists like Wiley and Skepta started out.
https://www.yout
ube.com/watch?v
=TbQaCCb_Gzc

4. Coldplay – Adventure of a Lifetime
• The genre for this song is dance-pop/funk, and the video is done using animation and
motion-capture techniques.
• In the video, there are a group of chimpanzees who find a Beats Pill Speaker, which
supposedly starts playing the song. The chimps the start dancing to the music, with 4
chimps resembling each member of the band.
• There are numerous close-ups on one chimp who is interpreting the lyrics; this may
suggest he resembles the lead singer of Coldplay ‘Chris Martin’.
https://ww
w.youtube.c
om/watch?v
=QtXby3tw
MmI