“Hello, it’s me…”
Musical sensation Adele makes history with a simple salutation after three years in the dark.
I really hope you haven’t had this song ruined for you by one of the several existing parodies out there yet because we are about to delve right in to my favorite new pop song in terms of “the media.”
The crackling fire and the rain thundering outside the windows really added to the effect, but overall the song really did it for me. It made me feel something, and apparently, I’m not the only one.
I enjoy music from all different genres, from Cash to Skillet, to Chopin. I just want a song that can grab a hold of my soul and make me feel something. That’s exactly how my taste in art is. That's how it’s supposed to work, right?
Adele was raised in England, brought up by her mother after her father left them when she was just a toddler. While most children read, Adele sang. She claims that the last book she ever read was when she was six years old.
Adele was signed at only 16, after her friend posted one of her performances on MySpace, and it wasn't long before she became an international phenomenon. In an interview with Rolling Stone, she describes herself as being afraid of fame, but many argue that Adele is one of the few celebrities that has been able to stay grounded through their fame.
"Adele is one of those increasingly rare artists who has the talent and appeal to reach beyond her typical fanbase and connect with a much broader audience," HMV spokesman Gennaro Castaldo told The Guardian. "She's now enjoying a wonderful virtuous circle where her continuing success feeds in to more coverage and even greater word of mouth, which, in turn, keeps the sales clocking up."
“Hello” was born out of a three-year fester of creativity while Adele took a break from music to take care of her son, Angelo, born in October of 2012. She co-wrote the song with her producer, Greg Kurstin, after a long struggle with writer's block.
The real explosion came with the release of the song on Oct. 23. It quickly climbed to the top of the Billboard Hot 100 in the United States as well as number one in 26 other countries, becoming Adele’s fourth number-one hit. It is the first song to ever sell over a million digital copies in seven days.
After hearing the song I pulled myself out of the little puddle I’d melted into on the floor and scurried over to check out the music video. Like I hadn’t been wrecked enough… Ha!
The accompanying music video was directed by film-magician Xavier Dolan (The French-Canadian voice of Stan from South Park) in Montreal, and is the first of its kind to be shot with IMAX cameras. Adele and Tristan Wilds act out the the lyrics, showing snippets from the singer’s romance. Wilds, star from The Wire, is portrayed as real and relatable, showing everyday scenes -- cooking dinner, laughing. I think that really appealed to consumers because it was so "real." It wasn't like the other pop videos out there where the romance is all about the clubs and the fashion and the glamour. It was refreshing to see something so relatable.
Two things in the video that I really got a kick out of were:
1. She was making tea.
Heck yeah! The video was going to get almost 28 million views in 24 hours from all of the world, but the British lady was going to darn well drink her tea. Steryotypical? Maybe, but does it matter? The only thing that gets me is that she put the tea bag in AFTER the water. Who the hell does that? English folk were pretty freaked out by that too...
2. Adele is bringing the flip phone back.
Once more, the video was about to make history, and here’s Adele back in 2007 with her little flip phone. Because how do you look dramatic when you’re hanging up a smart phone? Scrunch up your nose and jab the red icon with your index finger? I think not! It’s so much more satisfying to snap a flip phone shut.
Apparently the dramatic effect isn't what director Xavier Dolan had in mind. His take is that the inclusion of new technology is distracting.
"If you see an iPhone or a Toyota in a movie, they're anti-narrative, they take you out of the story," Dolan told CNN. "If I put an iPhone or a modern car in a movie it feels like I'm making a commercial."
According to a YouTube trend report posted on Nov. 4, “Hello” was viewed 50 million times. Compared to Justin Bieber’s “Sorry” which had 20 million views, within the first 48 hours of its release, averaging 1.6 million views in an hour.
The six-minute video even blew Miley Cyrus’ “Wrecking Ball” video out of the water by being the fastest video to ever reach 100 million views -- that’s over 2,200 years of viewing time total.
The soul-influenced piano ballad’s lyrics create themes of nostalgia and regret.
"The track’s production is entrancing – jazzy flairs have been swapped for fuller, lusher atmospherics that wrap around you, swirling through her verses and lifting her vocal to its crescendo," as published in Entertainment Weekly.
The chorus haunts: “Hello from the outside / At least I can say that I’ve tried / To tell you I’m sorry for breaking your heart / But it don’t matter / It clearly doesn’t tear you apart anymore.”
Nov. 20 is the official release date for Adele’s third album “25” where “Hello” sits as the lead single. In an open letter Adele tweeted, ”I'm sorry it took so long, but you know, life happened.” Rather than continue a line of break-up songs, the singer has decided to make “25” a composition of “make-up songs.”
"'Hello’ is as much about regrouping with myself, reconnecting with myself. As for the line ‘hello from the other side,’ it sounds a bit morbid, like I'm dead," she told Rolling Stone. "But it's actually just from the other side of becoming an adult, making it out alive from your late teens, early twenties.”
So far the song has been performed twice on TV, but it’s not promised that “25” will go on tour. For now the singer wants to focus on her son and try to keep her career as a hobby, lest it consume her life.
"If my music can heal anyone's heart, then that is, like, the most satisfying thing ever," she told Rolling Stone.
Critics are in love with “Hello,” calling it her best work. The hopeful sentiment of forgiveness she displays in 25, while noting that she hasn't given up her own style. The Independent and The Telegraph both appreciate the hopeful sentiment of forgiveness and honesty she displays in 25, while noting that she hasn't given up her own style.
Musician Damon Albarn isn't so sure about her work.
"The thing is, she's very insecure. And she doesn't need to be, she's still so young. I heard the work she did with my friend Brian, aka Danger Mouse. It's very middle of the road," he told Digital Spy.
Appearantly she gave a "middle of the hand" response to that...
Appearantly she gave a "middle of the hand" response to that...
All that to say, other than his little remark, the woman doesn't get much dirt. And rightly so if you've broken as many records as she has. People are obviously loving her stuff.
Personally I'd have really liked to get more story out of the lyrics, just because I was so curious, although I realize that doing so could had affected the reliability. Leaving a more general picture makes it easier for the listener to "mad lib" and fill in the gaps with their own meaning. I think that is a big part of what art is too. The music video definitely gave me a stronger sense of completion.
I like that it sounds so "Adele," but yet it has bigger music that is closer to modern pop than some of her more blues-y work, such as "Crazy for You." If you put this song next to Rhianna's "Stay," or Beyonce's "Halo," it really fits. The piano in the song reminded me a lot of "One Call Away" by Charlie Puth. I've been seeing more and more use of classical instruments in pop music today. Take Lindsay Stirling and her famous violin, for example.
I guess Adele had a "middle of the hand" response to that one...
So the song got great reviews, but why?
I think that the main thing people liked about "Hello" was how relatable it is. Most people have had a devistating "break up" of some sort that they have mixed feelings about -- even if it was a non-romantic relationship, or even how you feel about an old version of yourself.
Because the music is so classic, it could fit into many more genre's and pop up on more people's Pandora stations than a standard pop song like Wiz Khalifa's "See You Again," which has a really beautiful chorus, but the rapping in the rest of the song really narrowed its audience down.
Adele's audience is so broad. I think "Hello" could be as easily heard through the headphones of a teenage girl on the bus as a 45 year-old mother humming in the kitchen. It has musical qualities that appeal to teens that love pop, but also soul influences that may target older generations. The lyrics are so relatable that once more, demographically speaking, it seems to fit a huge audience.
Adele's audience is so broad. I think "Hello" could be as easily heard through the headphones of a teenage girl on the bus as a 45 year-old mother humming in the kitchen. It has musical qualities that appeal to teens that love pop, but also soul influences that may target older generations. The lyrics are so relatable that once more, demographically speaking, it seems to fit a huge audience.
Overall the song had a pretty original theme. It seems like when a song is being told by the point of view of "the heartbreaker" its them begging "the heartbreakee" to come back to them. In this song, she's mostly just apologizing and wanting to set things straight. I couldn't find anything that could offend anyone either.
I think that one of the song's weaknesses was it's similarity to Lionel Richie's song, "Hello" from 1983. The "crap" I've seen Adele receive from her song is mostly memes and parodies that are centered around this. One spoof is a video where someone put the two songs together... it's so funny that Richie himself even co-signed the video on his Instagram.
More about Adele:
- She was signed at 16, after her friend posted one of her performances on MySpace
- Adele won six Grammy Awards in 2012 including Album of the Year, breaking the record for most Grammy Awards won by a female artist in one night.
- She is the first female in the history of the Billboard Hot 100 to have three singles in the top 10 at the same time
- She was the first artist to ever to sell more than 3 million copies of an album in a year in the UK.
- Her Album, 21, is the longest running number-one album by a female solo artist in the history of the UK and U.S. album charts
- In 2012 Time Magazine named her one of the top five influential people in the world
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