Research into diverse music videos

Many artists work with directors to create music videos which will attract a certain type of audience and promote them within their career. These music videos usually meet a certain criteria which usually follows the conventions of the genre or will relate to the audience they are aiming to target. However some artists and directors choose to be different and create diverse music videos which may not follow the conventions of the genre and possible attract a different audience with its originality. These diverse music videos may not be broadcasted by music channels like MTV and kiss as they tend to play mainstream videos which appeal to a wider audience. Examples of directors who helped artists create diverse music videos are Chris Cunningham and Michael Gondry.

Chris Cunningham
Chris Cunningham, a British music video film director was born in reading in 1970. Chris first started working in the music industry after directing short films, he started off with music production and album cover artwork. He then began to direct music videos. These music videos reflected Chris' imagination as they were very diverse and did not follow typical conventions of a music video, 'come to daddy' and 'window licker' being his most known although he also directed Madonna's 'Frozen' which became an international hit and won an award for best special affects at the 1998 MTV music video awards. As I wanted to find out more about diverse music videos I chose to watch and analyse 'come to daddy' one of Chris' more known videos.

Aphex Twin - Come to daddy
'Come to daddy' - Aphex Twin, is a song which belongs to the dance genre. The music video starts off in a derelict estate where an old lady is walking her dog. The music video then gets more intense throughout when the dog begins to pull the old lady aggressively and runs away after a face appearing on a broken tv. Once the beat kicks in young girls with male adult faces start running around after the estate searching for the face in the tv screaming 'come to daddy'. The beat is fast pace accompanying the pace of the freaky looking children running around. The children start to destroy the already rough looking estate until a straight cut shows a creature climbing out the tv screen as the old lady approaches. The creature then begins to scream into the old lady's face until another straight cut presents the creature evolving into a much bigger version of the little girls with male adult faces. The strong narrative makes the music video very diverse as music videos do not usually impact viewers when watching them, it is also diverse because it does not follow the conventions of a typical dance genre music video. The music video contains no scenes of happiness, dance, or lighting which is completely opposite to the typical club setting displaying people enjoying themselves. Instead these conventions are replaced with an old lady walking a dog which is stereotyped as being dangerous, freaky looking children who look like they could be in a thriller film and display of violent actions by the children and creature. However the fast pace visuals do stick to the conventions of a dance music video.

This music video only manages to follow one point of Goodwin's theory. As when the face in the tv screams 'come to daddy' the young girls search for the screen as if they are listening to him as their father. Although lyrics match the visuals, this music video would still not be shown on music channels such as MTV because of the thriller element added to it. It would not appeal to the younger or family audience of mtv as it may scare them.

The structure of this music video was narrative. Watching this music video in my opinion was more like watching a short thriller of an old lady being attacked as it made my heart race and had me anticipating what was happening next, this leads me to thinking that the narrative is very strong, despite the fact it does not make much sense, the behaviour, iconography and setting still have a strong affect on viewers watching it.

As the artist is not shown in the music video, there is no representation of him.

Madonna - Frozen
The next music video which I will be analysing is again directed by Chris Cunningham however is sang by a more popular artist, Madonna. The song is called 'Frozen' and belongs to the electronic music genre. The music video starts off with the camera panning across the floor towards Madonna who is floating above the ground wearing a black dress. Throughout the music video Madonna is swaying and making gestures with her hands towards the sky. She then falls to the ground transforming into a flock of birds. Madonna appears again while the birds are flying off and she continues with her swaying gestures. Later on in the music video Madonna appears to be tripled in the same shot. 3 of the same person are swaying around ending up on the floor and yet again Madonna turns into another animal except this time it is a black dog. After this the video becomes quite repetitive as again she is shown floating above the ground ans swaying and again appearing 3 times within a high angled camera shot. This is because the music video is performance based, there is no distinct narrative therefore the video does not really go anywhere or tell a story which can come to an end.

 I feel this music video connotes unusual vibes just like the previous 'come to daddy' music video i analysed. 'Frozen' similarly has a dark atmosphere and surrealism as she is morphing into animals and back into herself. The dark unknown setting, black clothing, and slow music all help portray this dark atmosphere which connotes to the audience and element of gothic, mysterious and majestic witchcraft. Chris Cunningham knows that this type of music video is not very popular there for adopting the style in order to create diverse music videos. Chris does not follow the conventions of a pop music video as himself and Madonna create a 90% performance based video and 10% narrative based video which is very different in contrast to the typical 60/40 ratio of performance and narrative. The music video also goes against pop conventions as the  video can be seen as more on the negative side with its dark atmosphere in contrast to a bright happy, fun loving video a typical pop song would go with.

What again makes the music video diverse is the fact is does not really follow Goodwin's theory showing that it is not the stereotypical song which can be categorised with the rest. The only point of Goodwin's theory which is followed within the music video is relation between lyrics and visuals. Madonna is singing about being 'Frozen' in which she is in an empty location with no growth or movement around her and everything seems 'frozen'. Visuals also relate to lyrics where Madonna sings about a melting heart and she begins to melt into a black liquid.

Chris Cunningham does a very good job at representing Madonna as mysterious and emotional within her music video. through the dark colours and lack of colours which would have connoted happiness if they had been included. 

Michael Gondry
Many others aim to create a diverse music video in order to gain success. Michael Gondry, a French director also famous for creating diverse music videos was born on the 8th May 1963 in Versailles, France. Gondry’s career and vision began with his emphasis on emotion, he started producing films after creating a music video for the rock band Oui Oui. Michael Gondry went on to create very diverse, films, music videos and even adverts. The music videos I will be analysing today are The White Stripes – The hardest button to button and Kylie Minogue – Come into my world.

The White Stripes - The hardest button to buttonThe music video which accompanies the song ‘The hardest button to button’ falls under the genre of alternative rock, it follows and goes against many conventions of its genre yet still manages to be diverse as it is different from many other alternative rock videos. The music video starts off with the band, (a girl drummer, and a male lead vocal and guitarists) in a park performing their song. There are no other people within the camera shots shown of them performing their song, just the 2 band members. This could equally go against or follow the conventions of alternative rock as many videos show fans at a gig with the band performing their music, enjoying themselves and many just show the band playing in order to focus on the band more. The band members are both wearing black and red, have dark hair, pale skin and dark eye make-up within the music video; this is a very stereotypical convention of alternative rock as black and red connote edginess, mystery, darkness and danger which are conventional to rock lifestyle and may be how the band members want to portray themselves to the audience. Conventions are also followed through the use of instruments. It is very common within a alternative rock music video for the artists to be playing their instruments, especially drums and the guitar. The use of these instruments are highlighted through Michael Gondry’s editing styles when in each new camera shot the image of the band repeats itself through the beat of the song. For example, each time there is a beat on the drum, the girl playing the drums repeats itself and each time the guitarist finishes its beat, that image also repeats itself. This is visually emphasising the use of the instruments as the visuals of the instruments link to the music playing and shows the audience when each instrument is played, allowing them to really feel the music. It is also these camera shots that make the music video diverse. Each straight cut makes the video very jumpy and it does not flow smoothly which is a common trait in a music video. The straight cuts allow for special affects to be used, with a duplicate of the band appearing in every new shot. Michael Gondry may have used this style of editing in order to match the lyrics to the visuals (Goodwin’s theory) which may keep the audience intrigued as it is uncommon to see. The audience may feel anticipated as to how long this editing style will go on for however they also may get bored as the music video is all performance and does not have a clear narrative or concept. Although this may get boring for a typical audience to view, audiences who like the genre may find it appealing as it is conventional for a band to play their instruments the whole way through a music video with no concept.

The music video for ‘The hardest button to button’ manages to follow some points of Goodwin’s theory of a typical music video yet still manages to be diverse. The music video follows the genre characteristics as analysed above. It also follows Goodwin’s point of the music matching the visuals, through the quick editing style and jumpy straight cuts of duplicating instruments which follows the beat. On the other hand the music video does not show a relationship between the lyrics and the visuals, there is no demand from the record label for close-ups to portray the artist, also there is no voyeuristic treatment of the female body and no intertexual references.

This may come as a disadvantage to this music video as although Michael Gondry has managed to create an interesting and diverse music video for the band, there is no representation of the band members and also a lack of narrative and insight to the artist’s lifestyle fails to help the audience relate to the band members. Despite the lack of artists representation, audiences who enjoy the genre may still like the music video as mystery, and lack of emotion is a convention to alternative rock and seems to be what the band members where trying to portray themselves as, mysterious and emotionless as they live a rock lifestyle and must portray their hard image. 
Kylie Minogue - Come into my world
The next music video I will be analysing produced by Michael Gondry is Kylie Minogue's 'come into my world. The song comes under the pop genre however the music video does not follow many of the generic conventions a typical pop music video would. The music video is set in a town in Paris and starts off with Kylie coming out of a shop holding her dry cleaning. She is wearing casual clothing and blends in with the public surrounding her, this is not very conventional to the pop genre as usually the artists is seen wearing stylish clothes which other may admire and want after seeing the artist wearing them. Kylie’s hair and make-up is very simply and natural, although this does not conform with the conventions of recent pop, it would have followed the conventions of pop back when the music video was made as hair and make-up was kept very simply and stylish in those days. The video then progresses and shows Kylie walking around town with her dry cleaning, whilst other scenarios such as couples arguing and children playing are shown in the background. This again is unconventional to the pop genre as generally the camera shots are focused on the artist in order to build a relationship; however within this music video there are many things to distract the viewer in the background. Although this is unconventional to the pop genre, it is common to Michael Gondry’s style of editing. Gondry tend to manipulate mise-en-scene to create an unusual setting. In this music video he creates a very chaotic setting and makes it progressively more chaotic as the song goes on, as Kylie is walking around in circles and each time she passes the dry cleaners she is duplicates and the scene repeats itself. This repetitive style was also shown in the music video I earlier analysed by The White Stripes. Eventually there are many duplicates of Kylie and her surrounding become even busier, although a busy party scene could be a conventional pop genre setting, this busy town scene where there is lots going on is not as it is not connoting many positive vibes which a busy party scene would.

Kylie’s ‘Come into my world’ music video does follow some points of Goodwin’s theory. The music video is not very conventional to the pop genre which it falls under as shown above. The diverse style of the music video also fails to follow the convention as it is typical for pop to follow what is popular and is not usually known for being diverse, nevertheless Kylie may have wanted a diverse music video to attract more of an audience as she is doing something different for once. One convention the music video does follow is the style of music video. The music video consists of 80% performance and 20% narrative; it is common to have a more performance however some narrative as the fast beat of the song needs some performance however the relationship needed between the artist and audience can be built through the narrative that there is. The next point of Goodwin’s theory which the music video follows is the relationship between the lyric and visuals. Kylie repeating the lyrics ‘come into my world’ share a relationship with the visuals as the music video is showing her world, and how her world is very repetitive and boring whilst everyone else has some element of excitement to it, her lyrics appear to be asking someone, possibly a male to come into her world and make her life more exciting. There is not much of a relationship between the music and visuals however the fast editing does match the beat of the song. The rest of Goodwin’s points are not followed within this music video as there are not many close-up, no voyeuristic treatment of Kylie and no intertexual references.

Although there are not many close ups within the music video, Kylie is still represented as a normal girl within this music video as she is doing daily task any normal person would do, collecting her own dry cleaning etc. She is also represented as a normal girl as her lyrics connote that she is looking for someone to come in to her life, possibly meaning romance or perhaps someone to help her or bring some excitement. Both of these points help the audience build a relationship with Kylie as the audience feel they can relate to her ordinary daily routine. Her search for romance may also help them build a relationship with Kylie as typically they may feel that Kylie must be able to get a boyfriend because she is pretty and famous! However this representation of her lets the audience know that she is just the same as them and is looking for the right man.
There are many positives and negatives that may affect an artist’s decision on whether they should have a diverse music video for their song. Firstly a diverse music video would stand out from the rest of the current music video as it would break conventions and trends rather than most other music videos which would be aiming to follow them. This could either be positive or negative, if the target audience liked the music video, it would gain lots of positive publicity for being very creative and diverse. This could lead to the music video attracting more of an audience as they want to see what the fuss is about and if this audience to like the music video, then the artists may gain a larger fan base. However if the target audience did not like the music video and felt like they could not relate to it or did not understand it then it might gain negative publicity meaning the music video would have been a flop, wasting lots of money and time. This could also lead to the audience’s interest in the artist to fall. Releasing a diverse music video could also make it more memorable than a typical music video audience have seen and will see again gaining the artist a greater reputation making the audience anticipating for the next music video being released. I think an artist should decide on whether to create a diverse music video depending on what type of song they are going to use, if it was a very emotional song I feel that the artist should aim to portray those emotions within the song even if it means following all the conventions of a sad song, however if it is more of a fun song which audiences wont relate to much than it is a good idea to create a diverse music video. Also if an artist has a loyal fan base then there is less of a risk of their fan base not liking the music video there for it may be a good idea to build hype up within the fan base, on the other hand if I was a new artist entering the music industry I feel like it would be a better idea to stick to conventions of my genre so there was more chance for my target audience would like it. 
Although I do like the idea of a diverse music video I would not consider making my first music video diverse. This is because I feel more comfortable creating something I know that my target audience would like and I can ensure that I create my music video to their needs and wants. I also have chosen not to create a diverse music video as there is a concept I want to portray within my music video and I feel it would be much easier to portray through a narrative.