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Exploring the cinematic emotion, slow-mo horses and milkshakes in American pop-promo reshoots
Semi-professional comedian Lewis Capaldi’s bulletproof weepie Someone You Loved – a No 1 hit in the UK – finally crept into the US Top 10 this month. It is a success story assisted by one of pop’s oldest tricks: the song being boosted by a new, glossier US-focused video. While the original, with its 64m views, paired the song with an actually quite moving Peter Capaldi-starring visual promoting organ donation, it focused too much on the wrong Capaldi. The new version features much more Lewis, and is full of cinematic emotion; all sad glances, lonely walks and constipated looks to camera.
He is not the first artist to have a US video makeover. Dua Lipa’s original video for single Be the One – featuring the singer kneeling on a wooden floor in what looks like a Dalston loft conversion and walking around Soho – was eventually remade as a desert-based, flashy, Lexus-funded video/branded-content exercise co-starring Baby Driver star Ansel Elgort. Continue reading...