Fateh Khaled

Textual Analysis
Textual Analysis of Love Me Again by John Newman - By Fateh Khaled

The video that I am analysing is Love Me Again which is sung by John Newman, the music video was
directed by Vaughan Arnell. The genre of this song is categorised as Pop/Northern Soul. Therefore
the main genre is Pop however it fits into the sub-genre of Northern Soul. Some would also say that
it fits into the Breakbeat a subgenre derived from electronic music

As regard to the visuals the music video is narrative driven but contains aspects of performance
based where you see John Newman singing with a microphone. The visual aspect of it is based on
Romeo and Juliet (but a more modernised version), running away from their enemies who are trying
to hunt them down with weapons. The visuals link to the lyrics in the sense that the main theme of
the song is about relationships and clearly the video shows two couple who love each other, trying
to protect each other whilst running away. In terms of Andrew Goodwins theory, this music video
would fit under Amplification this is because the video is a mix between performance based and
narrative based. For example performance based would be John Newman singing which is evident in
the video but then narrative based is the story behind the video such as why are the couple running
away? why are the bad guys chasing them?.

Now I will be talking about the relationship between the music and the visuals. The song cuts on the
beat this provides audience pleasure because as an audience you would expect the visual imagery to
coordinate with the song and its beat; this is a key convention of a music video. However the cuts
are not always in the same pattern, some are longer than others but they still cut on beat, otherwise
the music video would get very boring and predictable. An example of this is at 2:33 when the music
slows down with a solo instrumental, the cuts also gets longer, this adds a sense of drama because
during that time the couple see their enemies, adding an element of suspense. As well as this you
wouldnt expect fast cuts in a serious scene like this.

There a couple of close ups on John Newman whilst he is singing, this is evident at 0:24-0:27 seconds
in the video as well as 0:53 and 2:39 in the music video. The record album is looking to see this via
iTunes and popularise it by the power of social media sites. Love Me Again was also featured on
the soundtrack of Fifa 14; played by millions of people, this therefore had further popularised the
song. Moreover, the song was in the closing credits of the 2014 science fiction film Edge of
Tomorrow which stars Tom Cruise and Emily Blunt; in addition the song was featured on the USA TV
series Suits in the episode Buried Secrets, thus popularising the song overseas. The music video
prior to Love Me Again was Not Given In; the music video was focused on a child who has been
through a tough time; his brother/friend took the wrong path and gets shot at the end there is a
jump cut which shows his brother at a dance competition, this therefore has no correlation with
Love Me Again.

In this video there is no reference in notion of looking, John Newman has not been presented as a
sexual display in any shape or form, this is due to the fact that in music videos in todays society
women tend to be the ones who are sexualised/objectified such as Nicki Minaj and Iggy Azalea,
therefore John Newman being a male would not be pleasing to the audience in that sense. Neither
has the notion of looking been enforced by the camera. I think this was done intentionally because
the message of the video is important because at the end the couple get run over, suggesting that
people do anything for love and sometimes going too far can lead to death; which is ironic because
in the video they were running away from enemies with guns suggesting that they will soon be safe,
but getting run over by a vehicle at the end was just fate.

The music video does have an intertextual reference but not from an existing music video. It is based
on the famous love story by Shakespeare Romeo and Juliet, Romeo is played by British model
Fateh Khaled
Textual Analysis
Tommy-Lee Winkworth and Juliet is played by British Actress Margaux Billard, some interpret this
as a modern version of Romeo and Juliet, however there is a correlation because in both versions
they die at the end. As mentioned earlier the music video is both narrative and performance based,
however this music video is different in the sense that normally performance based and narrative
based music videos are filmed in two different locations so the performance based section would be
filmed elsewhere with the artist singing. However, in this video John Newman is part of the narrative
but playing as an artist who is seen as an actor in the film, this is evident because you can see both
Romeo (Tommy-Lee Winkworth) and John Newman in the same shot.

In conclusion, this music video is clever by mixing in the narrative and performance based aspects,
which is rather unconventional but worked very effectively. The music video has gotten over 200
million views up until this date (October 2014), which suggests that both the song and the music
video has been widely successful. I personally like the story video and during my first time watching
the video I didnt expect the plot twist that was at the very end, it actually gave me goose bumps
because as part of the audience I thought it would be a happy ending this clearly was not the case
as the both die at the last shot.

Textual Analysis - Analysed by Fateh Khaled (A2 MEDIA)