videoclub discography
adèle et mattyeux, si vous lisez ce blog, merci beaucoup de votre existence.
I learn french for reasons that keep adding up through the years. however, if there was a reason that came before sartre and beauvoir, camus and saint-exupéry, even my grandpa, that must be videoclub. videoclub was not only the start, but also the reason why I keep doing french. I want to understand the lyrics and sing them. it's the same feeling when some people say they want to learn russian to read dostoevsky in the mother language.
I started listening to videoclub around october 2020 thanks to this and this playlist. that was also how I discovered therapie taxi and angèle. around that time, I also started my first relationship ever. we broke up about a year after the group ruptured. because of the co-occurence of these events, I relate to videoclub's music on a deeper level, and it's the sort of music that's travelled with me throughout my transition as a teenager to an adult. adèle's castillon's la fin de videoclub has helped me a ton when I was going through it 2 years ago.
a brief history of videoclub
both adèle castillon and matthieu reynaud come from nantes, the west of france. it's an hour of driving from the beach. this explains the beach scenes in most of their music videos.
both matthieu and adèle has family that in one way or another inspired them to make art. adèle's dad is a teacher and a writer, who would get up every morning to write before going to work. her mom was also a painter for a long time besides her job as a psychologist. matthieu's dad, régis reynaud, is a composer and also his manager. his sister, julie reynaud, also is the director behind en nuit and his singles like break up diaries and hônnete.
videoclub started out as early as 2018 may by matthieu reynaud. initially, it was only matthieu and his two friends. however, after matthieu met and dated adèle castillon, they released amour plastique 2018 september on adèle's youtube channel. at the beginning, adèle castillon had acting experience and had already has a youtube channel focused on comedy, but she didn't make music at the time. matthieu, however, already has some experience with music and composition as his dad régis reynaud (currently his manager) is also a composer. as matthieu said in an interview, the composition starts with matthieu making the music, send it to adèle, and then separately writing the lyrics. although the writing process was done in isolation, they ended up writing pretty similar things. you can see how in sync their minds are watching the making of amour plastique.
after amour plastique, they created a separate channel for videoclub and upload their content there. almost every song in euphories have a (very well-directed) music video a the behind-the-scenes for it. when it was videoclub's first concert, it was also both adèle and matthieu's first concert. in her initial concerts, adèle was very stressed and matthieu helped her through it. matthieu's family was very involved in his musical career, which can be seen by reading their music videos' credits.
fast forward 2021 march, the group separated after releasing sms and performing the last concert. although videoclub started out with matthieu, it ended with adèle. for the final concerts, adèle went through them solo, which is probably for the better as they looked very disconnected since 2021 january. the breakup was hard for adèle, as matthieu's family as also part of her support system. however, I'm pretty sure it's also during these solo tours that adèle understood more of herself and gave her more confidence in her solo career.
more than a year later, adèle uploaded a video explaining the ending and gave her fan closure for the end of videoclub and announced the start of her solo career. after videoclub, mattyeux also went on performing solo. both continue to make music until this date.
solo careers and lores
lots of people know videoclub from amour plastique and roi, then stop following the group as soon as they learned that they have splitted. some wished that they're still together or that the group would reconnect one day. everyone has their own take on this, but I believe that videoclub was a thing for both adèle and matthieu. without matthieu, adèle wouldn't be making music today, and also it's adèle that helped matthieu bring his music to the world. because they're good at different things, together they're unstoppable. whether you decide to follow their solo career or not, it's your choice, but I believe doing so is the best way to support artists' music careers after they disband, where drop in followers and listeners is oftentimes a direct result.
it's also after the separation that we can understand and see adèle's and matthieu's own colors in their music and in past videoclub songs. matthieu masters the music composition with complex sound layering and accounts for the visual aesthetics of the group. adèle kills the vocals and helped raised videoclub's popularity. both of them kill the lyrics, as the lyrics are still very good in their solo career. it's also during their solo career that you can see more of their own lores.
videoclub: "I don't understand french, but I'm still watching this because I love videoclub", sunset boulevard, and their own lores
mattyeux's lore: the 80s, pink-blue gradient, neon lights, sunset lamps, lava lamps, cigarettes, skateboards, fingerboards, chuck taylor converse, white nikes, vans, rains, lightnings, sunsets, beaches, orange, having a group of friends, penguins, frogs, churches, basketball, leonardo dicaprio
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| designed with canva broke edition photo that looks like hajime sorayama's artwork is taken from chìm sâu |
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| designed with canva broke edition |
the leo lore is very strong: his hair is styled after the young leo, the spitting scene in amour plastique was inspired by the one in titanic, and even breakup diaries is inspired by the basketball diaries (leo played in this), the walking scene with the notebook in the back pocket in sometimes is inspired by the movie, the playing basketball in the lightning rain scene in hônnete is an actual scene in basketball diaries
adèle's lore: satire (on beauty youtubers, gamers, pasta, french culture, stan smith shoes, etc.), inside jokes, nightclub (mostly seen in sensations and alabama), underwater filming, teal-black hue, video game console
videoclub's music through the ages
for the clean, annotated, and analysis of their discography, follow the hyperlinks.
videoclub released many singles that later became the album euphories. in their solo careers, both adèle and mattyeux released music singles almost in alternate order. in 2023, adèle released her debut album plaisir risque dépendance, with references to her struggle with addiction, which she shared openly in many interviews. mattyeux released many singles but haven't released an album.
euphories' musical influence and accolades
for euphories, mattyeux's musical influence can be found in his NID avant concert playlist and in the sms video. videoclub's debut songs are inspired by odezenne's bouche à lèvres and also hot sugar's beer cans and bubblegum (1, 2). the chords in amour plastique and the background sound layering of roi sound like bouche à lèvres. even the track suricate was annotated with odz, which probably stands for odezenne as both tracks have similar intstrumental. amour plastique translated to english is plastic love, a song by mariya takeuchi which is released in the 80s and have strong japanese citypop and electropop vibes in it. whether this has any connection to amour plastique remains a question, but there are strong parallels between these two songs. 808 is an instrumental track (808 is usually used to refer to the drum track) and also coincides with 80 as in the 80s.
amour plastique and roi are the two songs in the album that has been respectively awarded the platinum and gold snep in france.
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| the platinum snep is awarded to songs with > 30 millions streams |
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| the gold snep is awarded to songs with > 15 millions streams |
euphories' themes
on the surface, the theme of videoclub is mostly romantic love and bonafide happiness, which are mostly seen in their songs amour plastique, roi, en nuit, euphories, what are you so afraid of, and petit monde. however, in songs like mai, enfance 80, polaroïds, and 808, there's also this theme of adolescene and coming-of-age vibes. however, there's also a plastique (plastic) feeling to it: trust issues and doubts are shown in songs like suricate, trois jours, and especially sms. at the beginning of sms, as a comment pointed out, there was a morse code embedded in the instrumental, which reads as "perplexed". "perplexed" is a word that both adèle and mattyeux have used to describe the feeling of being in their past relationship.
solo after the breakup & the sHE'S brOKen lore
after the rupture, adèle takes on a darker teal color, which is seen in songs like alabama. her struggle with drug and alcohol addiction is also seen in songs like sensations, doliprane, and promis. since early 2023, she's been clean. in recent times, she's been featured on time square by spotify france and was also among the torch bearers for the 2024 olympics held in paris.
mattyeux remains loyal with his 80s pop color scheme, while leaning a bit more to orange. songs like breakup diaries, sometimes, honnête, ouragan, émotions saturées read like a sequel to mai after adèle has left to me. songs by mattyeux alone has an even stronger theme of adolescene, to such an extent that it reminds me of peter pan's neverland: never grow up.
the contrast between nous and breakup diaries (their first singles after the breakup) is like the stereotypical breakup phases memes where sHE'S brOKen (she's broken, he's ok). however, that's when you watch the music videos. reading the lyrics let you know that it's actually sHE'S BROKEN (he's broken too, duh). the contrast between impala and émotions saturées is the reverse, like SHE's brOKen (she's ok, he's broken). I don't know when we'll get a version where they're both ok.
amour plastique, reconstructed
adèle's c'est drôle is the remake of amour plastique in her pov. less than a year later, mattyeux releases émotions saturées, which is a direct response to c'est drôle: amour plastique in his pov. the video watches very fun and lighthearted, but the lyrics read very heartbroken. émotions saturées also sounds similar to st. graal's les dauphins to me. in these two songs, they gave each other questions and answers.
adèle's c'est drôle
c'est drôle comme le temps passe
comme je te lasse, comme je m'efface
c'est drôle comme je t'aimais
comme tu trompais
mattyeux's émotions saturées
et j'vois que toi
j't'ai toujours pas oublié
toi, tu m'aimes pas
est-ce vraiment la vérité?
adèle's c'est drôle
on s'est marré pour qu'ça s'arrête
mattyeux's émotions saturées
moi? arrêtes
and in classics like amour plastique and roi, there're also remakes.
videoclub's amour plastique
dans mon esprit tout divague, je me perds dans tes yeux
je me noie dans mes yeux
videoclub's roi
tu es ma femme iconique, tu es mon rubis saphir
je suis ta rose lyrique, je suis ces gens qui t'admirent
aime-moi dans la neige, aime-moi sous le soleil
aime-moi la peau beige dans les fleurs de vermeil
tu te rappelles ce mois d'août, c'est qu'une âme qui se dévoile
dans les fleurs de vermeille
dans tes yeux, j'vois des étoiles, tout amour inconditionné
epilogue
the videoclub journey is definitely a bumpy one of adolescene. however, their music has empowered me through dark times of my youth, and I look forward to seeing what they all have to offer in the future.
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