Music Video Analysis : Alicia Keys Fallin

Music Video Analysis : Alicia Keys Fallin

Relationship between Lyrics and Visuals

• Illustrative : She is singing about how she feels about her love life, and the visuals show us her story of her lovelife
• Amplification : We are shown the reasons behind how she feels, as she sings about her feelings towards her lovelife

Relationship between Music and Visuals

• Illustrative : Sound-vision editing and very slow paced. The visuals of the people's faces on the coach are cut to the beat of the music

Performance, Narrative or Concept Based

• Performance : We watch her playing the piano and also she frequently sing into the camera
• Narrative : We follow her story of her lovelife and learn about her past
• Concept : The difficulties of being in love with someone, especially when they are in prison

Visual Hooks

• There are lots of CU's and ECU's of her face as she sings
• There are lots of ECU's of her hands playing the piano, which she is extremely well-known for, as she is a song-writer as well.

Genre Characteristics (RnB)

• Music and Lyrics : Slow paced music, with the piano being the main instrument
• Editing : Slow editing, which mainly fits with the pace of the music
• Gesture Codes : Pouring her heart out about her feelings by singing emotionly to the camera
• Fashion : Urban hairstyle and clothing
• Artist : Well-known black female singer
• Mise-en-scene : Low-key lightings

References to the Notion of Looking

• She is singing to the camera, therefore leading us to look at her.
• She also looks at others, however, when she stares out of the coach at the workers and when she looks longingly through the glass at her boyfriend in prison, who stares back

Intertextual References

• To her other song 'Girlfriend', which is playing on the radio at the start of the video
• Prision life, by portraying prisoners in orange and blue jumpsuits and the interior of the prison