Adele’s “Hello” Video – A Cell Phone Technology Flip Out

Adele’s new “Hello” Video has dialed up a cell phone technology flip out. She’s back!  Adele is back with her first single in three years. “Hello,” a soaring new ballad that serves a sample of the British singer’s highly anticipated third album, “25,” debuted in the early hours of October 23rd. But while fans were […]

Adele’s new “Hello” Video has dialed up a cell phone technology flip out.

She’s back!  Adele is back with her first single in three years. “Hello,” a soaring new ballad that serves a sample of the British singer’s highly anticipated third album, “25,” debuted in the early hours of October 23rd.

But while fans were understandably excited about hearing Adele’s first new song in three years, one detail about the video left them puzzled – the flip phone that appears at the start.  Sepia-toned tears, rain, wind-swept hair and high notes — complete with a flip-phone.

Adele’s new video has a lot of obsolete technology, which totally depicts its theme of connecting with the past.

Today, there certainly is a stigma attached to using a flip phone. However, celebrities such as Rihanna, Anna Wintour and Kate Beckinsale have all been photographed recently using one. Some people might prefer a flip phone since it is lightweight and smaller sized when compared to a smartphone.  And then there’s the avoidance of pocket-dialing too.

In the video, Adele’s boyfriend has a flip-phone too. He is seen carrying a Motorola V235, a flip phone that was popular in 2005-2006. That scene is a flashback, of course. If this is, in fact, a flashback to 2005, Adele would have been just 17.

The song, and the video, are about the past—mulling over the past, delving into a past relationship, and trying to resurrect it. The singer is emotionally trapped in the past, trying to call her ex over and over again, and wandering out into a psychological landscape of flashbacks and overgrown, abandoned buildings to illustrate what’s going on in her head. Director Xavier Dolan uses a sepia filter and progressively older communication technology to make a point.

“It drives me crazy,” he half-laughed. “I could see the GIFs on Twitter. I’m like,  ‘guys, get over it. It doesn’t matter.’ But the real explanation is that I never like filming modern phones or cars. They’re so implanted in our lives that when you see them in movies you’re reminded you’re in reality,” says Xavier Dolan, Adele’s Director.

He added, “If you see an iPhone or a Toyota in a movie, they’re anti-narrative, they take you out of the story. If I put an iPhone or a modern car in a movie it feels like I’m making a commercial.”

The phone booth, he said, was more resonant for him “It says she is stranded in nature, which has regained its rights. It’s an element of the past. It’s much more important,” he added sarcastically, “than the flip-flop and trying to identify whether it’s Samsung or an AE9 or whatever.”

“There hasn’t been much of a break,” he said. “But then I realized I don’t need a break. I’m not a slave at a factory in the Third World. It’s not a job; it’s a passion. Adele wants to make a video so I’m going to do it.” In other words, sometimes life just comes calling.

The irony however, is that the placement of the phone actually takes viewers out of the moment of the song and video, by causing users to wonder why in the world Adele would be using such a thing. Now, thanks to the flip phone, much of the focus on her latest release is not on the artist, the music, or the video, but on the device.

Technically speaking, it’s been a long and arduous journey to get from the back-breaking, heavy shoulder-strapped behemoths to the paper-thin cell phones of today.  But one thing remains static – the need for cell phone charging.  Companies such as Veloxity offer phone charging kiosks to rent or buy nationwide. Our charging stations offer multiple different charging cables that we hope will satisfy your phone.. maybe one will even fit a flip phone haha!