The document analyzes the music video for "Somebody That I Used to Know" by GOTYE using various elements of analysis. It notes that the video has two main characters, a male and female, who seem to have had a strong past connection but now the male turns away when confronted by the female, creating mystery around their relationship history. The setting of the video shows the characters being painted onto a wall, possibly suggesting the male becoming invisible to the world or the person in the song. Various technical elements like saturated colors and different hairstyles create an eccentric, alternative genre-typical style.

1. AdvancedPortfolioHomeworktask.SubmissionFridayOctober3rd
In this essay I will analyse a music video while using Lacey’s repertoire of elements.
Characters, Narrative events, iconography, setting, technical and audio codes. The song I
chose to analyse was ‘Somebody that I used to know’ by GOTYE. The genre of the song is
very alternative while the video style is performance and conceptual with a slight narrative.
There are two characters within the music video, one male and the other female. I believe
that the characters had a strong connection in the past and that why the male turns away
when the female confronts him. This creates a slight mysterious narrative behind the video
making the watcher wonder what has happened between them in the past.
The setting of the video is just a wall that gets painted as the
video progresses the singer also gets painted to blend into the
wall. This could portray that he is slowly just being coming
invisible to the world or to the person he is singing about in
the song. The painting and style of the setting is also a
stereotype for the alternative genre which is seen as a bit
weird or eccentric. The sense of the video being eccentric
could be seen as iconic of the alternative genre for example
the colours used within the video are very saturated a main
example of this is his eyes this follows the iconic style of the
alternative genre of being eccentric as there is no real need to
make his eyes like this. The difference between hair styles in
the video creates bricolage this is because the female hairstyle
is very flat 60’s hair style whereas the male hairstyle could be
depicted as more of a rock style from the 80’s maybe even into
the 00’s.
The song beginning with the male being the main protagonist
showing his side of the story through the song. Until the
female comes in with strong body language towards the male
looking up and down while he cowers his face away from he
with a look of discomfort and the feeling that he is ashamed
of what he has done. This creates a dilemma that the audience doesn’t know who has hurt
who in there scenario, doing this establishes a narrative enigma. Towards the end of the
video the female starts to get the painting erased off her this suggest that she is in fact just
somebody he used to know and is now deleted from his life. At the start of the song ba ba
Black sheep is played on a xylophone, this could show that their argument, even though we
don't know clearly what it is about, is childish.
By Jordan Dale