




The music video “Somebody that I Used to Know” by Gotye tells anyone who listens, a story. The song is about a dysfunctional relationship and the way it’s broken apart. It also demonstrates different points of view and what each partner believes happened. The video describes the relationship through words, but it also explains it through the images and the colors that are used in the video. The way the affair is illustrated visually gives a better interpretation more than the words alone. The story of the two people visually shows us the different way they feel and illustrate how they see themselves and the significant other. The colors and the faces of the people in the video describe the relationship and how they felt after the breakup. By looking at the way the color is transferred from the female to the male speaker, we see the different emotions of the speakers throughout the relationship and how they were each affected by it.

The opening scene demonstrates how the man goes from muted emotions to extreme emotions through the use of colors. The beginning of “Somebody That I Used to Know” has a man that is completely naked shown. This gives a sense that the man is pure and has muted emotions with nothing tainted inside of him. As he begins talking about the relationship, a person can see how sad he is in his eyes and the emotions behind the words he is speaking. The man is talking quietly and calmly about the relationship and he seems completely fine that it ended since it was bad. Then he gets angry and loud about how this girl treated him after the relationship and that she didn’t talk to him again. Colors that have been forming around him throughout the beginning of the video now begin to get painted on him. The colors that get added on the man illustrates that he is affected by the way his partner treated him after the relationship. The more he sings about the way she treated him after the affair, the more the colors get painted on him. The paint is representing that extreme emotions are taking over his body by what she has done and now he can’t move on knowing that she is no longer his friend. The man is giving us a story through the colors and the face he is making when singing. 

When the woman gets put into the video, we now see a different point of view and how the colors illustrate how the relationship affects her. The camera goes back to a farther point of view to bring the girl into the song and tell her story. She starts off with color on her already and begins singing about how she remembers the relationship. Both of them think the two of them were dysfunctional and that they had to get out of the affair. The colors on her body represent when she was in the relationship, she felt that the man was blaming her for everything and she needed to cut it off. That’s why the colors are on her, signifying herself during the relationship and that she has the extreme emotions during this period. When the girl starts getting closer to the man, the song begins to show a controversy between them and they seem to fight, which represents their affair as a whole. While they are fighting it seems like the girl screams anytime the man tries to explain himself showing a sense that he is lying and she is right. She starts backing off from the guy and begins to ignore him, while he is still trying to reach out to her. This represents where they had problems in the relationship, that she was mad during the relationship and he was mad after the relationship. 

Now that we see that colors represent conflicted emotions, we can see how the woman transfers the colors/emotions to the man and the way each of them feel. Once the girl goes back the colors come off her body and she becomes naked like how the man was in the beginning. This image and color contrast is illustrating how the woman is moving on in her life, while the guy, who still has the colors on his body, can’t move on and keeps thinking about her. The woman is transferring the emotions she had to the man and now he begins to feel the extreme emotions she had during the relationship. The man and woman even look towards each other at the end and the song becomes quiet. The man looking at the woman is illustrating that he still wants her, but when the girl looks towards him it means something completely different. Since the song has been illustrating the story of this relationship and showing the way the girl thinks of the man, the way she looks at him is more of her saying she is done with the relationship. They were saying the same words at the end, but they were thinking of the relationship completely different. We can see the difference because of the video and how the images and colors correspond to the way they feel about each other. 

 “Somebody That I Used to Know” uses the visuals of the video to represent the dysfunctional relationship. The emotions through the opening scene are illustrated through the colors. The colors than show a contrast between the woman and the man throughout the song. Towards the end the colors transfer from the woman to the man representing the change in emotions between them. These visuals help us identify the story behind the lyrics. All of the visuals give us inside information on what is written and help illustrate the meaning to the relationship. Stories can always be expressed differently just by using different images and these images can add something that words can’t.


