Diversity Of Music Videos

The primary purpose of a music video is to appeal to an audience and market an artist in order to make him or her successful. In order to do this the music video has to contain a strong narrative, striking iconography and an icon setting to make it memorable. The clothing an artist wears, or in some cases lack off needs to grab the audiences attention and make them view the artist as extraordinary. An artists products are usually displayed in the video also, this links in with advertising and selling the artists products or material items associated with an artist. Profanities and provocative risque material performed by the artist also attracts the audiences attention. When people are talking about a Music videos budget on social media, this makes a music video unique, for example artists such as Lady gaga frequently spend millions in order to produce blockbuster style music videos that are both unique and have a strong narrative in order to attract an audience and make them antisipate its release.

Chris Cunningham and Michael Codry produce big videos that are very diverse and in many cases unusual and unconventional.  They frequently go against Dyer and Goodwin theories. Cunningham over the years has produced music videos such as 'come to daddy' which is essensially a dance track however the music video and weird nature of the narrative makes the video completely different and difficult for the audience to relate to or for the music video to shown on mainstream music channels. However Chris Cunningham has also worked with Madonna and Aphex Twin these big stars have both had very different iconic music videos that unlike some of his work have both been shown on major music channels such as MTV music. 

The diverse nature of Cunningham's work is demonstrated with the two major videos of this career.  both are completely different and sell each artist as an individual.

The music video produced by cunningham called 'Frozen' comes from world famous and iconic artist Madonna who famously changes the way is represented to the audience every decade or so. This video appeared in the early 1990's when Madonna was going through a emotional grungey stage in her career, this is reflected by her overall appearence throughout the song with her dark hair and dark clothes. Madonna does this because she can attract a new audience who would be more interested in this genre of music. her unique gothic style also could mean she is setting a new trend for her fan base who would look up to her memorable performance and wish to immitate what she is wearing in the music video.

When looking at the first music video frozen by Madonna, she appears iconic and emotional. This is in keeping with the visual/lyric relationship, as she sings about being lost and frozen as she stands still in a barren landscape. Madonna appears grungey and gothic which is keeping with the trends of the early 1990's when this music video was produced. She is dressed in a dark long black gown and shape shifts into varies animals. Cunningham goes against typical pop conventions with the performance taking up 90% of the music compared to a minor 10% where as a conventional pop video would most likely be a 60/40 split between performance and narrative. Cunningham makes Madonna a success by displaying her as an extraordinary artist who rebels against traditional pop conventions and makes her appear iconic. The positives of doing this is that the artist gains alot of attention, and the video appears more memorable. Madonna is seen to be a trend setter and by trying a new type of video she can attract a new niche audience. The negatives of having such a diverse music video is that the audience may not be able to relate and or have no interest in the artist and that the video i saw at risk of being unpopular.

In cunnighams other video, 'come to daddy', the presentation of the music video is unlike anything conventional of mainstream music shown on music chan nels such as mtv or 4music. The video appears more to the audience to be a short thriller clip. with a strong narrative relating little to the lyrics other than keeping up with the pace of the music and the dark themes without relating to the dark underground style of music.
The characters appear scary, although a dance genre this music video has no conventions of this genre as there is no club setting or shots of people having a good time and being hedonistic. Goodwins theory is followed somewhat by the music becoming fast pace matching the fast paced movcements of the children which is part narrative of the video. 

However goodwins theory is completly broken by the narrative which takes place on an english coucil estate, highlighted by long shots which show the barren landscape and desolate surroundings. an old woman is also focused on by a mid shot just before the little girls dressed as old men appear on screen. This is both disturbing and unsual for any dance track, as it gives a horrific and disturbing feel to the song, with young girls dressed as old men terroising old women. The video appears as a fantasy nightmare with the young girls taking on a supernatural and frigtening role. The dark nature of Cunninghams work limits the showing of this video, as most music channels wouldnt even consider playing it as it doesnt appeal to a wide audience and is too explicit for younger audience. The mise en sceen with low key lighting also gives the video a dirty image and makes the video appear even more scary. There is also no conventions followed when it comes to showing a relationship between the artist as he doesnt appear in the video. 

The advantages of this video is that is is extremly edgey and will get a small selection of people talking about it, however thie video has got no way of controling a large audience as it is too explicit to be shown on music channels meaning the song cannot be a huge success. this is in keeping with cunninghams work as he uses the motif of the changing face in o0ther videos he has produced primarily to shock and scare the audience.



French director Gondry has produced videos for world famous artists such as Kylie Minogue. Gondry's style is much more artistic and uses a variety of editing techniques which appeal to the audience as they show the artist in an interesting and different way. This compared to the style of Cunningham who's bizarre and strange concepts (even when toned down for madonnas video frozen) make him harder to relate to and the concept more difficult to understand.

Gondry produced the music video 'come into my world' for Australian artist Kylie in 2001. This video is an iconic pop song set in a simplistic setting of a busy hughstreet. This gives the artist an attractive but ordinary star quality meaning the audience can relate to her extremly well. During the video Kylie walks up and down the high road and drops items on the floor. when she passes under a lamp post she is cloned and there becomes two of her. This process repeats over and over again until finally there are several versions of the artist on set. This simplistic editing tool used by Gondry gives the video an interesting and fun edge which is typical for any pop video. Goodwin's theory is also achieved as the visual lyric link appears when she sings 'come into my world' another version of her self appears.

The performance is 90% performance and 10% narrative which is typical of a pop song and gives the audience an accurate representation of the artist who is seen in a normal setting and going about her normal day to day activities. This makes the video both diverse and different.  The artist would wish to portray herself in this way becomes it makes her more relatable to her fans and the ordinary high street clothing she wears allows her style within the video to be copied and if people like it they may start wanting to dress like her. This makes her a trendsetter and an iconic overall a more successful star in the music industry. The setting is bright and colourful and shown to be bursting with life, this image of a happy neighbourhood is being sold to the audience which matches with the positive and happy atmosphere of the song. This artist and iconic setting is typican for Gondry whereas Cunningham prefers to use darker emotional background which evokes fear and uneasiness within the audience.







The final video I analysed from Gondry was the song 'the hardest button to button' by Rock due The white stripes. This video features an ordinary setting around a busy city as well as on the subway, this typical setting has been chosen to give the stars ordinary qualities and make them as artists more relatable. However Gondry's typical artistic director skills make him have influenced the video by making the artists instruments appear mutiple times and follow both artists throughout the video.
The audience can relate to the song better because of this techchnique, as the instruments take the artists on a journey which also means the audience are taken on a journey by listening to the song.

Goodwins theory is also used as the rock genre typically shows artists using there instruments. This song does this therefor matching goodwins genre specific criteria. Dark clothing such as skinny jeans and long hair are also worn by the artist to show that they are alternative and part of the rock genre. The settings light and airy atmosphere gives the song a warmer feel thereford maybe attracting a new audience which will make the artists more of a success. The music industry would wish to play this song on music channels such as kerrang and sxuzz as the video isnt explict and safe for all audiences. The ration between peformance and narrative is around 98/2. The reason Gondry uses his techniques of repetition is to ultimatly make an otherwise boring video exciting which attracts the audience and makes the clever video more exciting to watch.

After looking at both directors I feel that Gondrys style of music video would better suit us as its more artistic and relatable. Whereas Cunninhams bizare style and narrative although dark and mysterious, would confuse the audience and not appeal to what they wished to see in a music video. Elements within Cunninghams work however could be incorperated such as the shape shifing use of artist and animals which make the video clerver and interesting to watch. Overall the style of our song would be better suited by Gondrys work as he has worked with indie artists such as whute stripes aswell as pop icons such as kylie, this is the vibe we wish to create with our pop/indie interpretation of Nina Nesbitt and therefore to incorperate his artistic elements would make our end result more successful.