Adele "Set Fire to the Rain" LYRICS ANALYSIS

I let it fall, my heart,
And as it fell you rose to claim it
It was dark and I was over you
Until you kissed my lips and you saved me

My hands, they were strong
But my knees were far too weak
To stand in your arms
Without falling to your feet

But there's a side to you
That I never knew, never knew.
All the things you'd say
They were never true, never true,
And the games you play
You would always win, always win.

[Chorus:]
But I set fire to the rain,
Watched it pour as I touched your face,
Well, it burned while I cried
'Cause I heard it screaming out your name, your name!

When I lay with you
I could stay there
Close my eyes
Feel you here forever
You and me together
Nothing gets better

'Cause there's a side to you
That I never knew, never knew,
All the things you'd say,
They were never true, never true,
And the games you play
You would always win, always win.

[Chorus:]
But I set fire to the rain,
Watched it pour as I touched your face,
Well, it burned while I cried
'Cause I heard it screaming out your name, your name!

I set fire to the rain
And I threw us into the flames
Well, it felt something died
'Cause I knew that that was the last time, the last time!

Sometimes I wake up by the door,
That heart you caught must be waiting for you
Even now when we're already over
I can't help myself from looking for you.

[Chorus:]
I set fire to the rain,
Watched it pour as I touched your face,
Well, it burned while I cried
'Cause I heard it screaming out your name, your name

I set fire to the rain,
And I threw us into the flames
Well, it felt something died
'Cause I knew that was the last time, the last time, oh, oh!

Let it burn
Let it burn
Let it burn

Taking all of the lyrics into account, Adele has wrote about how she loved somebody and has now realised that he was not the person she thought he was. He has lied to her "All the things you'd say, They were never true, never true" and now she feels betrayed. "That heart you caught must be waiting for you" This suggests that the man she is writing about has betrayed her with another woman, we can promote these lyrics and this message through narrative in our music video by showing different clips of all three girls with the same male, showing that he has betrayed all three of them. All three girls need to out the right emotions across to go with the lyrics of the song, we need to look heartbroken and lost without their ex boyfriend "Even now when we're already over, I can't help myself from looking for you"; yet strong and willing to try and move on "I set fire to the rain and I threw us into the flames". This song is showing how she is trying to search for happiness by trying to move on by "Burning" her old relationship.

Adele "Set Fire To The Rain" VIDEO

Adele- Background Info

Adele is a British singer and songwriter born on the 5th of May, 1988.
She attended The BRIT School for Performing Art & Technology and graduated in May 2006.

Adele started singing at four years old, and became very obsessed with voices. She classes The Spice Girls as her major influence in the music industry in regards to her love and passion for music.
When Adele was only 16, she recorded her first song "Hometown Glory" after moving to West Norwood, South London when she was 11.

Hometown Glory became Adele's breakthrough song back in October 2007, and became the first recipient of the Brit Awards Critic's Choice, also she was named the number-one predicted breakthrough act of 2008.
Chasing Pavements was her second single, and was released on 14th January 2008, from her debut album, 19.

Adele then released her second studio album, 21, on 24th January 2011. The album hit number 1 in 18 countries, including America. She had sold 2.5 million copies and 992,000 digital copies of 21 in the United States alone. The first single "Rolling In The Deep" also reached number 1 in 8 countries and sold 4.825 million digital copies in the US by 21 August 2011, making it the most digital copies of a song ever sold in a single year in the US.

*Adele's voice is categorized as contralto
*Famous artist, Beyonce Knowles said that Adele was one of the influences for her fourth album
* "Adele is simply too magical to compare her to anyone."-AllMusic

Ideas for the song

We took a lot of time picking our song.
Mainly because we were picking songs that we personally like to listen to, however, we didn't take into account the original music video of the song, and how our own interpretation of the video should be.

We were mainly stuck between three artists, Adele, Selena Gomez and Rihanna.

Rihanna was one of our first ideas for the video. Because of the more up beat of the music (What's My Name), we thought it could be more fun to do and to edit, especially with fast cuts into different scenes. We also thought of popular locations to film it in, including Blackpool. Because of the fast beat of the song, and the story of the song, we thought filming it at the Blackpool Pier would be fun to do, and also it can be used for the narrative.

Selena Gomez was also in our list. We thought that her songs are also upbeat, however, just a little more "pop" than Rihanna's. We looked and liked a few of her songs, but we thought of doing Who Says after analyzing the songs. The music video to Who Says is more creative than What's My Name, and after thinking about it carefully, we realized that we might not be able to film and edit the video to perfection and to a similar standard than the original in the small amount of time that we have.

Because of our different music genres, it was harder for us to think of a song that we will all like. In our group we have a wide variety of genres, from Indie/ Rock to Pop to Dance and to Hip Hop.

We have finally chosen a song that we was all alright with. Set Fire To The Rain by Adele.
This song is more in the R & B/ Soul genre, and was in the top charts.
The song hasn't got an official music video that has been released yet, so it was easier for us to thing of a scenario. However, due to the lack of the original video, it was also harder for us to imagine scenes, scenarios and locations because there isn't any starting point or guidelines to take inspiration from.

We kept the same locations from the What's My Name idea to the chosen song, as it fits in, modern, urban and classy. However, going to Blackpool is still undecided.

List of songs that we were looking at:
●Rihanna- What's My Name
●Rihanna- Take A Bow
●Selana Gomez- Who Says
●Selna Gomez- Naturally
●Adele- Someone Like You
●Adele- Rolling In The Deep
●Adele- Set Fire To The Rain

Modern Hardcore- Asking Alexandria "To the Stage"

We are a all female group with the same taste in music expect for Kyle. He is into a different style of music and we thought it would be a good idea to have him analyze a music video in his genre and compare it to the style of music such as ‘Adele’. The music video he chose is a modern hardcore band called ‘Asking Alexandria’ with the song ‘To The Stage’.

This music video is set out as the band all making there way to preform at a concert. However they get distracted along the way by a bar. The video starts of with a black background with a single pill falling from the left hand side of the screen. The introduction also consists of opening credits and titles, such as the director and the name of the song. Over the background it is playing a piano tune, which is on a song on the same album as this one.Then there is a montage of clips from the video and audio from another song of the same album.

The main song then starts to play. It then cuts to the vocalist asleep and awoken by his phone, being told he has to play a set in 30 minuets. Then you see all the other members of the band being told about the set. They all meet up and walk past a bar. Then to get destracted and get drunk.The genre for the song will be a mixture of moden hardcore and moden metal.

The video is sending across the message that the band enjoy a life of getting drunk and doing concerts and having tattoos. They do this buy them all getting drunk in a bar and all showing of there tattoos throughout the video.

The use of camera is done in a certain way with many close up being used to show you what is important. The camera also shakes, like a earthquake effect for the effect of ‘hectic’ look. There are lots of locations used so there are many transitions, cutting from location to location and scene to scene.

The main use of props, in this video, is mainly beer bottles and a pill that one of them is spiked with. Another important prop used is there mobile phones, as all of the band are contacted via mobile phones as the song starts.

The use of graphics over the video are used very we. For example there are always lines of light coming on the the screen to show that there all in the light and famous now.

Also there are credits used in the video ether names or explaing whats going on. For example, when the band walk past the bar, a caption appears in the same style writing as the opening credits saying “ JUST ONE DRINK…”

There are many locations used in this video. At the beginning they are all in different areas of Hollywood. Such as tattoo studios, bedrooms and even street corners with friends. The they all go into a club and even in the club they are seen in many rooms.

The lighting is mainly indoors normal lighting. This being dim settings for a club standard. However it is not all filmed in the club there are bright tooms at the beginning for them all then they all meet in the streets where is is only lights from the shops and street lights being used for lights.

Hip Hop- Christina Millian "Say I"

Christina Millian - Say I is part of the Hip-hop/R&B genres. These genres are both very popular and the track Say I reached 4 in the UK charts and 21 in the US.
The music video suits the music genre and the feel of the track very well; it is very urban, the word "gangsta" is repeated in the song and is represented with Christina dancing and hanging around cars with "hard" and "gangster" looking men and women. The scenery is covered in graffiti, which also shows this. The main location is set in a bridge concrete underpass, this is a deserted area which also represents the feel of the music. The songs lyrics create a message of standing up for what you believe in and rebelling against the majority, this is portrayed with the group of people in the music videos (backing dancers and extras) in suitable locations that seem to look like a hide out. There is one scene for example under a bridge with a car, everybody is sitting in or standing around the car, this makes the viewer wonder why they are there- is this promoting trouble? or are they gathering in a hideout for a reason? The lyrics suggest that they may be gathering for a reason.
The video is original, however not completely. This is the type of music video is typical for a R&B style of music, with dancing and a narrative involving amplification, this means that the narrative takes something from the lyrics and the meaning of the song, but its not completely narrative and mostly performance. The dance scene is situated on an isolated road, it is also dark and must have been filmed during the night. This also reflects the lyrics and the message of the song.
Christina millians outfits are very suitable for this type of music video; they match up with the locations. She is wearing typical R&B pop video style clothes, with a twist though, as although she is wearing heels and accessories, she sticks to the urban theme and wears urban style clothes like the combat 3/4 length trousers and vest top she wears in one of the scenes. Her hair is made up in different styles as well as her outfits to create variety, and her make-up is fully done too, this is common within the music industry. There is a bright yellow car in one of the scenes that has extras hanging around it with her as she lip syncs. This prop doesn't necessarily mean anything or link to any of the lyrics, however it does add to the look of the video to help expand the urban feel for the viewer. The colour of the car adds something extra and brightens up the colour pallete of the scene, as there are no bright colours in most of the scenes, including what the extras and Christina Millian is wearing.
There are a variety of shots used in this music video. At the very beginning of the video there is a clip of christina over another clip this is called "super imposed" this is very effective and looks more effective than just two shots after eachother. There are a number of close up shots, showing that she is the main character. At the beginning, when the two shots are super imposed, it is followed by another super imposed shot, this is of a tracking shot of the main location (underneith the bridge) and a close up of her lip syncing from profile.
There is a flicker effect used to create a transition from two very different shots (a midshot of Christina lip synching in daylight to a longshot of her dancing with around 6 people at night) this adds something different to the video as well as creating a smooth transition.
There are several different filters used within this video; in the sunlight, there is a definate filter hint of sepia added to create more of a sunlit scene. There is a blue filter on the night scene, where she is dancing. There is high key lighting used throughout the music video, especially in the night time scenes, this creates a big contrast as well as the blue filter.

RnB- Keri Hilson "I Like"

Another music video we’re going to analyze is I like by Keri Hilson.

In this music video, we can say that it’s just performance, as Keri Hilson doesn’t seem to tell a story in the video, instead, she sings and dances through out to enhance “repeatability”.

It’s in the genre of R&B which stands for Rhythm and Blues, and was originated in the 1940’s.

I like is still in the R&B genre, however it’s technically under Contemporary R&B which developed over the years, and became more popular in the 1980’s.

The beat to this R&B music is in a moderate beat in which you can dance to. Keri Hilson seems to stay in a similar location throughout the video, which looks like an empty studio, which also fits perfectly with the song’s beat. Because of the simplicity of locations and mis –en- scene, she only uses one prop (chair) to add a little bit more to the video. Being an R&B artist, there is a way to dress like one. For example, Keri Hilson, dresses in a simple black outfit to emphasize the song lyrics “Sun down Friday night, up on city lights here I go start it out I like”. However, her black outfits have an edgy look to it, to represent the urban culture and the R&B culture e.g. knee high boots, short dress, big earrings etc…

The video doesn’t use graphics, however, it uses a lot of different light settings, mostly low key lighting. As well as make up, extreme artificial lighting is used to create the “bleaching” effect on the star’s face to make her look younger. The use of strobe lights and flashing lights is also used to stress out the point of being in a club partying until late.

The video includes a lot of close up shots of the main performer e.g. eyes rolling, and gesturing to the audience. It’s mostly close ups, however there are some scenes where it includes wide shots to show the scene. Extreme close ups are also used to show the performer’s actions, e.g. focusing on the lips for the lip syncing. Cut- In is another shot that this music video often uses to create some texture for the camera shots.

Pop- Selena Gomez "Who Says"

Analysing The Music Video “Who Says”- By Selena Gomez

This is a narrative music video, as it involves a combination of both a narrative illustration as well as the performance of the song which means that the words and meanings of the song is acted out in some way. Who Says’ By Selena Gomez is a ‘Pop’ genre to give the music video a certain kind of element as it features the usage of many bright colors within the video, flashing lights and a creative setting. The use of colour would appeal to a younger audience within the range of as many pop-artists are young and they would express themselves through their lyrics of the pop music, as well as their costumes that make the musician look innocent and relatable to their targeted audience.

The music video that I am analyzing is about a girl (the musician) who is trying to say that you should never make yourself feel below anyone else because we are all human and we all have flaws so we are all perfect the way we are, as it says in the song lyrics “Who says who says your not perfect who’s your not worth it who’s says you’re the one that’s hurting trust me that’s the price of beauty who says your not pretty who says your not beautiful who say!” This suggests that the director shows a direct link to the song. However as Goodwin says that the music video should demonstrate characteristics, by using his analysis I would say that there is a creative illustration with the lyrics of the song and the performance this connotes that this is a relationship between the lyrics and visuals this reinforces the fact that this is a ‘Pop’ music video.

The music video includes a diegetic sound at the start and at the end of the music video, to show there are scenes in the video to explain what is going on without the need for any music. There are also changes in the level of the musicians voice whilst singing as in certain parts of the song, it changes to show the effect, for narrative reason to show what is happening for example where to sings “Who Says” to emphasize on the meaning of the song lyrics.

The Mise en scene is important for the music video, however the location (establishing shot) being used when Selena Gomez (the performer) who is walking on the streets of America, in the studio and on the beach with other teenagers performing her song this then sets the scene immediately as is relates to the audience.

There are a variety of different types of camera shots/ angles that are used in the music video. The camera is jumping constantly between long shots, close ups and extreme close ups, however a close up being used to focus on the performers mouth movement to the lyrics (lip syncing) as well as being a close up on her to show her emotions at the start of the music video. A tracking shot being used when Selena was in a taxicab whilst singing to the lyrics, also when she is walking along the streets. The montage editing is used to cut from one location to another, in addition to this the beat or the rhythm of the song helps to provide the organizing principle to the editing movement to each location. The pace of the editing during the music video the performer changes her outfit twice, to reinforce the different locations and it also goes with the song lyrics therefore it goes with the narrative of the music video. The use of high key lighting is used at the beginning of the music video, there are also elements of naturalistic effects of her face is parts of the video, in addition to this there is use of filters being used which helps creates that dreamy quality, looks as though it is slightly out of focus.

Different Music Genres