Diversity of Music Video

Each music video that is created is uniquely. This is due to the different characteristics of the artist that is being displayed within the video and leads to the type of video that is made to be altered, the genre must also be considered. For example a music video for Justin Bieber will illustrate a fun nature in music and include the genre characteristics of his music and attract his audience. Contrastingly artist like trey songs will have narrative based music videos to go with his slow paced style of songs. Themes and concepts are also altered throughout different videos and depend on whether the video is concept, narrative or performance based. Other factors such as the mise-en-scene of the video, the genre, cencorship and contrast contribute to a music video becoming unique.

Directors such as Chris Cunningham and Michael Gondry are know for creating diverse music videos which subvert the stereotypical genre characteristics:

Chris Cunningham:  is a British music video film director and video artist. He was born in Reading, Berkshire in 1970 and grew up in Lakenheath, Suffolk. He has had close ties to Warp Records since his first production for Autechre. Videos for Aphex Twin's "Come to Daddy" and "Windowlicker" are perhaps his best known. His video for Björk's "All Is Full of Love" won multiple awards, including an MTV music video award for Breakthrough Video and was nominated for a Grammy for Best Short Form Music Video. It was also the first ever music video to win a Gold Pencil at the D&AD Awards.

The style that Madonna has gone for in this video is 'Gothic' which matches her song as it is about problems, love, depressions and emotions. Black is a shielding colour and represents a dark Austin, AmieeDiversity of music videos Why would an artist chose to create a diverse music video? To appeal to an audience a music video usually needs to contain a strong narrative, big celebrities and memorable settings. The type of clothing they wear or even the clothingSun 22:05. To appeal to an audience a music video usually needs to contain a strong narrative, big celebrities and memorable settings. The type of clothing they wear or even the clothing they don't wear needs to grab the audience's attention, the iconography in the video using has a part to play in the narrative and is usually linked to some sort of product for fans to purchase. Some artist miss behave or swear to gain viewers too. However Chris Cunningham and Michael Gondry go against these typical characteristic's and to create diverse and unique music videos instead.

In this music video 'Frozen' Madonna is not portrayed as the typical pop artist she is. The video is set in a desert and is breaking all the conventions of a pop video. This is to stand out from the crowd. The positive points about doing this is that Madonna is now being seen as different which is targeting a different type of fan base potentially increasing her fan base and the video is memorable which means that people are going to remember Madonna for doing this phase. Negatives can also become of this type of video as the target audience cannot relate to it. The current audience for Madonna will show no interest as it is not her typical type of music video this could mean that she would potentially loose a lot of fans also, in a way this video could make Madonna unpopular.

 The structure of the video consists of both performance and Narrative, with performance being vastly heavier weighted. He presents the song and the artist as being Gothic and mysterious and it portrayed through the use of dark colours and drab weather. These dark colours are evident in the iconography such as the dark cloak that Madonna is wearing and even down the black birds that fly behind her when she is performing to the camera. The use of the Black birds also link to Goodwin's theory as the lyrics and the visuals link. When Madonna sings the lyrics 'birds' the group of back birds appear and sly behind her. Her frozen and pale complexion also reflects the title of the song 'Frozen' and is a theme that is continued throughout the entirety of the video through factors such as: the cold and windy weather and isolated location. The video however does not represent the artist in a way that the audience is used too as she is known for creating more up tempo pop/dance songs. The video for the song 'Frozen' however, although linking with the title of the song and the representation of Madonna within the video, goes against all of the conventions that you would expect to see in one of her music videos.

The video for the song 'Come to daddy' by the Aphex twins was also created by Cunningham and is another great example of how his directing allows a diverse music video to be created. The video has been created to more accurately fit the connotations of a short film as it is predominantly narrative based and follows the structure of having a beginning, middle and end. The music belongs to the genre of Dance/Techno however the video contradicts this by going against the generic conventions of people dancing etc that you would normally see in a video for this genre of music. Instead, Cunningham has produced a video that would not feel out of place in a thriller film. The only aspect that links the lyrics with the visuals is the editing where the beat and cuts etc follows the music. The old woman at the beginning of the video is showing fear through her eyes to the audience to let them know that this video is a frightening piece of work. The dog barking allows the audience to know that there is paranormal activity present as the TV is not plugged in and yet turns on. The characters in this video really emphasis the horror theme as the audience will be frightened of their presents. There is a link between lyrics and visuals as it says 'Come to Daddy' the 'children' run.

 

Michael Gondry: Is an Academy-Award winning French filmmaker, whose work include being a commercial director, music video director, and a screenwriter. He is noted for his inventive visual style and manipulation of mise-en-scene.

The music video that we have studied that has been directed by Gondry is Kyle Minogue's 'Come into my world'. The video is set in Paris and is purely narrative and performance based. This is not conventional to the pop genre that the song belongs too as they usually contain more of a performance to compliment the upbeat type of song and lyrics as well as enticing the audience. This is one factor that has helped contribute to the video to become independent. The lyrics 'come into my world' introduce a new Kyle or aspect to the video which links the lyrics to the visuals and relates to Goodwins theory. The video also conforms to Dyers theory where he believes that the artist needs to appear accessible. This is shown through Gondry's decision to portray her as an ordinary person through the use of mise-en-scene and iconography. The setting for example shows an ordinary street in Paris and shows her walking around as if she is doing normal daily things. Her costume is also used in order to show her as being accessible as she is dressed in jeans and a top, just as a normal person would be when going about their daily activities.

Gondry's technique of incorporating a new edition to the video is replicated in the song 'The hardest button to button' by the White Stripes. In this music video the guitar and drums are used to highlight the genre 'Alternative Rock' the artists wore leather and dark colours such as red and black with leather this also highlights the fact that they are rock artists as that is a stereo type. The visuals match the beat throughout the entire song this is due to the fact that at every beat a new instrument or piece of stage set up appears on screen. The video as a whole was 100% performance. This video is a lot like his Kyle Minoge video in the effect that everything on set is increasing in amount when the beat hits or chorus is repeated. make up and costume shown is dark, this is evidence that the music video has some 'rock' characteristics. The lyrics to visuals have a slight relation as it says 'box' and a man with a red box appears (right hand photo).