Music Video Analysis#3

Title Track

Shawn Mendes -   There's Nothing Holding Me Back

Track

Artist

"There's Nothing Holding' Me Back"

Single  by Shawn Mendes from the album /illuminate

Released    

Format

Recorde     

Genre

Length

Label

April 20,2017

Digital Download

August2016

Pop rock

3:19

Island . Universal

Songwriter(s)

Shawn Mendes .Teddy Geiger

  Geoff Warburton . Scott Harris

Producer(S)

Teddy Geiger . Andrew Maury

Shawn Mendes  singles chronology

"Mercy"

(2016)

"There's Nothing Holdin' Me Back"
(2017)

Video plot summary

At the venue, a young woman (Ellie Bamber) sits by the left side of the stage, waiting. In her sneakers, she walks on the railing and looks at the ceiling. Shawn Mendes walks up the stairs to the stage. Millions of people scream for him as he holds his guitar.

In Europe, he and the young woman ride the train through Amsterdam. He holds her hand, caressing her fingers.

Mendes performs on stage. She is in awe of the lights and watches the train as it goes by. She opens the window of the train and then leans her head out the window. While riding the escalator, she bends her face towards him, giving him a kiss. Mendes hands over his guitar and rests during intermission.

At night, she takes his hand and they run, racing the steps of the Viaduc De Passy. He looks over his shoulder. They take in the view of the Eiffel Tower. They dance among the columns and look at the stars. During the day, he drives a pickup through the fields. She gazes at him. Fans light up their cellphones and wave them as he performs another set.

They run and ride bicycles in the Amsterdam. She raises her arms in the air once they reach the top of the cliff. He jumps in celebration. They kayak across the ocean. At a cafe, she turns her head away, staring out the window, tired. They hold their hands over their coffee cups. She runs on the rock in the middle of the ocean. He hops from one to the other.  They hug. At the cliff, Mendes shouts, wanting to his voice echo.

It was absolutely crazy. Shawn Mendes thought the young woman was going to say no. They met during a meet-and-greet. They talked for nearly twenty minutes about school and their travels. His assistant had to remind him that other people were waiting to talk to him. He asked her if she wanted to stay after the show and gave her a backstage pass.

She recommended a restaurant in the city and they stopped to eat. They continued to talk more. With his manager telling him they have to leave now, he asked if he wanted to go on tour with him. She said yes.

On his days off, she took him to some of her favorite unseen places in Europe. He fell in love with her. In the front row of every show, he looks forward to seeing her face. His manager keeps telling her that she has to go, at some point. But he keeps fighting his manager on it, offering to pay the extra money to allow her to stay. She is the one thing that is keeping him from being disconnected from the world. He no longer feels hidden away.

Synopsis

The beginning line of the song is, “I want to follow where she goes, I think about her and she knows it.” Yup, that sets the tone for the sweet summer love affair that debuts in this relationship-driven video.

Love includes surrender - I wanna let her take control. You can't truly love if you hold back - there's nothing holdin' me back. But that's a risk. The person you love isn't perfect. They can make mistakes. Or worse, decide to hurt you - you take me places that tear up my reputation and manipulate my decisions. You can trust God to never hurt you when you let him take control, but your girl or your boy aren't perfect like God is.

Shawn Mendes acknowledges that with lyrics - maybe I should stop and start confessing - and with the minor chord behind those lines, a chord that warns of bad things in the works. But he also decides to ignore that warning vibe. In relationships, that can be a fatal error.

Apart from the allure of Mendes traveling all over the world to perform at big shows, holding his girl’s hand outside the Eiffel Tower (AKA in the most romantic city on Earth), and venturing out for a beautiful drive into nature, the message of the video is simple and powerful: Don’t hold back.

The video, which went live at midnight, stars the Canadian singer and English actress Ellie Bamber living their best lives while running around Europe. There are shots of them riding bikes, holding hands in a subway station, gazing into each other’s eyes, and checking out the Eiffel Tower at night. According to a few users on YouTube, it appears the music video was predominantly shot in Amsterdam and Paris. In short, it’s basically what dreams are made of. It’s sickly sweet, but we just can’t get enough of it.

Theme and Atmosphere 

Oh, I've been shaking

I love it when you go crazy

You take all my inhibitions

Baby, there's nothing holding me back

This girl makes Shawn feel so excited, especially when she's acting crazy, he stops feeling self-conscious and is willing to be taken to places he's never been.

The song's music video finds Shawn Mendes canoodling with a girl in a variety of romantic locations. His love interest is played by English actress Ellie Bamber, whose resumé also includes roles in the movies Pride and Prejudice and Zombies and Nocturnal Animals.

This song finds Shawn Mendes singing about a relationship that's helping him to feel free to be himself:

The song itself isn’t particularly cutting edge either.  Essentially, this girl has got Shawn Mendes completely crazy.  This is a familiar, oft cliché theme.  It all starts from the first line of the first verse of the song: “I wanna follow where she goes.”  There’s nothing to decode from that simple line, uttered an infinite amount of times from men worldwide.  On the chorus, Mendes – who is young to his credit – amps up the drama of the effect she has on him:

“Oh, I’ve been shaking / I love it when you go crazy / You take all my inhibitions / Baby, there’s nothing holding me back / You take me places that tear up my reputation / Manipulate my decisions / Baby there’s nothing holding me back.”

Analysis

“The song is about following someone that you love to the world’s end, and making decisions you wouldn’t ever have thought you would, because of someone you’re just that enamored with. We wanted to put a story together that shows this relationship between a guy and a girl and their travels together, in the purest way possible.”

Ideology

Technical Codes

Most scenes have been shot in the outdoors in a very casual and natural way and it looks like if it is a true story and not a directed and shot video. The video, which went live at midnight, stars the Canadian singer and English actress Ellie Bamber living their best lives while running around Europe. There are shots of them riding bikes, holding hands in a subway station, gazing into each other’s eyes, and checking out the Eiffel Tower at night. According to a few users on YouTube, it appears the music video was predominantly shot in Amsterdam and Paris. In short, it’s basically what dreams are made of. It’s sickly sweet, but we just can’t get enough of it.

Lighting

Vocals

Reminiscent of the high energy pop sensibilities of Mendes’ “Something Big,” the new track plays with lifts and falls throughout, allowing Mendes to show off the strength of his voice, launching into a chorus worthy of his rock star status.

Shawn combines his killer vocals with high-energy visuals to create a fast-paced and exciting musical experience. 

“There’s Nothing Holding Me Back” is a more of an upbeat song than Shawn’s early single  for “Illuminate.” It’s really catchy with a catchy beat. The song starts off with an acoustic guitar before then throwing in some rock that mixes with the beat that acoustic guitar is giving off. Like, it really really works so well. It blends so well and just makes you groove with the music. It’s kind of to the point where you will be carrying that beat for the rest of your day.

His vocals on the song are the same as they were before on the rest of his songs. There’s nothing wrong with his vocals to begin with. His vocals fit his style of music and they work extremely well with this song. The song is the perfect song for the summer because the lyrics are literally about what the media tell people what they need to do in order to have a bomb ass summer. The lyrics speak about going wild and letting a girl and the love you have control you. Pretty much, it’s getting high on love and letting yourself get lost in love. The lyrics help make the song even better. Like, I enjoyed this Shawn Mendes song because it’s a banger. Like this is song that you can hear at a club. If the remix of it is good, then it will only help the song.