Maroon 5 Deconstruction

Context
Maroon 5 is an American Rock Band, She Will be Loved is there 3rd single from their debut album in 2002 ‘Song’s About Jane’ Released in 2004 it peaked at #4 in the UK. The genre of rock that they produce typically uses guitars and solos, therefore as the audience will be expecting a mainly performance driven promo video, not necessarily giving equal time to all the band members – instead, more likely concentrating on the main musician.

Camera Work
The primary types of shots used in the video are mid shots and close shots of the lead vocalist, Adam Levine. These close up shots allow us to see his face and expression, which is particularly important in this video as the editing and colours used connote an emotional song about love. In terms of pace of the camera movement, it is typically quite slow, somewhat different from the traditional norm of fast paced rock videos. We could attribute this to the more sensitive nature of the video, it becomes a more heartfelt piece of music as opposed to adrenalin based performance. As the viewer we are placed at eye level with the characters, this is so we can try and relate to the people being portrayed. The aim of the video may be to make us feel for the male singer and the difficult decision he has to make.

Editing
The video does tend to cut to the beat however this does to appear to a definitive rule. At times it seems to miss the beat to prolong the shot; this is a reference to the video being almost entirely narrative based, as opposed to a more typical performance based rock promo. Instruments are not concentrated on at all, they do appear in the video during the short section where the band is seen to play however it is done entirely within the constraints of the story and as such, merely exists to further the narrative. We can tell this because the other band members have very little screen time, if any at all.

Mise-En-Scene
The video is set in what appears to be a holiday resort; the colours used are fairly washed out to give a summer feel and what is almost a dream-like landscape. The costumes that are used by the characters support this with their beach look. The main woman’s clothes are more colourful than the other characters, this connotes her importance and makes her stand out to the other people, specifically the man’s girlfriend.

Intertextuality
The main woman in red may be an intertextual reference to the stereotypical filmmaking process of putting a character in red specifically for the purposes of standing out.

Performance/Narrative/Concept Based
The promo video is particularly narrative based, there is a moment of performance but it is used within the context of the narrative. This is somewhat unstereotypical of the genre because, typically, rock promo’s make use of extensive performance shots to showcase the band and there ability with their instruments. Instead, this promo concentrates entirely the lead singer, his girlfriend and her mother.

Representation
The band are not really portrayed in this video due to the lack of real performance element however the lead singer is portrayed as a confused man, struggling to choose between his girlfriend and her mother. The women are not particularly sexualised as they are often are in music, they are shown as family people due to the other members of the family in the mise-en-scene.