Indie music video analysis - 'Hold Me' by Tom Odell

In the music video for ‘Hold Me’ by Tom Odell, the entire duration is taken up by the performance element of him singing and playing the piano. This conforms to Andrew Goodwin’s music video theory as it demonstrates the indie genre of the artist, especially with the addition of the band in the background.

There is a strong relationship between the lyrics and the visuals as Tom Odell is lip-syncing throughout the music video. Furthermore, this relationship is amplified with more specific examples  such as when he keeps on singing ‘hold me’ as he moves around wildly and falls, and also when he sings ‘suddenly I’m standing’ after he gets up.

There is also a link between the music and the visuals. This is seen clearly as the entire video is cut to the beat of the song, conforming to the conventions of an indie music video and Andrew Goodwin’s theory. The piano playing and the band playing in the background is also in time with the music which emphasises this relationship.

This video also conforms to Andrew Goodwin’s music video theory as it meets the demands of the record label by including many close-ups of the artists’ face to promote him. Although he is an indie artist and image shouldn’t matter so much, it still matches indie conventions as indie artists need to be recognisable in order to compete in the industry.

There is no notion of looking in the music video to sexualise any characters. However, Andrew Goodwin’s theory states that this is mainly used for synthetic artists anyway and, as we can see, Tom Odell is clearly an organic indie artist who's video conforms to Andrew Goodwin’s music video theory.