Music
videos are made up of many elements, the main ones being whether its narrative
or performance based, however it is possible to be a mixture of both. Features
that are important to consider when creating a music video consist of the mise
en scene, camera shots/angles, editing techniques, budget, celebrities involved,
behaviour, censorship and so on. Diversity is the understanding of what makes
an individual artist unique and how they capture their individual target
audience. An artist is often defined by the genre they follow, however in order
to stand out and be unique, codes and conventions are challenged and often
broken to break the common trend, therefore shocking viewers. An artist does
this intentionally to stand out from artists which feature in the same genre,
this way getting ahead of current competition and portraying that their
different and not comparable to other artists. The fact that an artist will
include opposing codes and conventions makes the video more memorable as it is
stereotypical to the norm. Miley Cyrus is a prime example of a diverse artist
within the music industry; performing songs such as ‘Wrecking Ball’, a song
that comes under the synthpop genre, in comparison to her usual dance pop/county
genre. Within ‘Wrecking Ball’ she also portrays her diversity by wearing
minimal, and at times no clothing which is seen as extremely provocative and
shocking to an audience, as they remember Miley as the teenage idol to young
children in the Disney channel programme ‘Hannah Montana’.
Within this
post I will be analysing and comparing two music video directors to understand
what makes them so unique in comparison to others. The two I will be looking at
are Chris Cunningham and Michel Gondry; two music video directors that are seen
as very diverse within the music industry. They create music videos that do not
conform to the stereotypical genre characteristics, going against Dyer’s and
Goodwin’s theories. I will be analysing the presentation (music genre
characteristics), whether it follows Goodwin’s theory in any way or not, the
style and structure of the video itself, and lastly the representation of the
artist.
Chris
Cunningham is a strange but unique director who focuses on giving music videos
a very dark and unwelcoming theme. He is in fact well known for directing music
videos for ambient music and IDM groups of which are short movie, gothic,
thriller-like music videos. Although they are seen as unusual, his videos seem
to be extremely effective in the way that a trade-mark is produced which is
very memorable to an audience. Examples of artists that he has previously worked
with are Autechre and Aphex Twin. Aphex Twin with his song ‘Come to Daddy’ is
one video of Chris Cunningham’s I will be looking at, as well as ‘Frozen by
Madonna. I will then be comparing Cunningham to Michel Gondry. Michel Gondry is
also a unique director that is known for his inventive visual style and
manipulation of mise en scene. The few songs he’s directed; ‘Come into My
World’ by Kylie Minogue and ‘The Hardest Button to Button’ by the White Strips
are the specific songs I will be comparing to Cunningham’s work. By looking at
all 4 elements will help to understand what make them so diverse and unique.
To begin
with, I will be looking at Chris Cunningham’s and his works with Aphex Twin and
Madonna. In the song ‘Come to Daddy’ by Aphex Twin, the music video is
represented to be diverse as it doesn’t follow the typical dance conventions
and characteristics, considering the fact it’s up-tempo. It is in fact a short
film following typical film conventions, but not dance conventions, This is
shown in the way the video has no club
setting or strobe lights to suggest any form of a party, instead it portrays
strange and freaky characters that are unwelcoming to an audience and almost
represents a fantasy nightmare.
The video is set in an estate and shots a
vulnerable old lady walking her dog. Some elements of the video however are
conventional, such as fast paced editing. When listening and viewing the video,
diversity again shines through when the lyrics and visuals are seen not to
link, therefore not following Goodwin’s theory, with no artist to even be
portrayed. The fact that the video is seen as unsettling, this video would in
fact not be shown on TV music channels such as MTV, due to it
being censored.
The structure of the music video is 100% narrative based, with no performance
from the artist to be included. The narrative is in fact based on a dog
activating life when urinating on a televising, unleashing an evil spirit which
brings a crowd of children that all of which have James’ grinning face to cause
havoc. The video is almost seen as a thriller, creating no relationship between
the audience and artist, due to no artist being presented.
The second video of Chris Cunningham’s I looked
at was ‘Frozen’ by the artist Madonna. The music video has a very gothic theme,
in the way Madonna is dressed in purely black clothing, matching her dyed black
hair. This is also evident when she often shape shifts into a crow, a commonly
known bird to represent death and evil. The unknown and deserted setting gives
an unwelcoming feel to an audience. The conventions portrayed don’t follow
Mandonna’s typical pop artist conventions, therefore creating diversity.
Although most conventions are unstereotypical, she does however create a
relationship between the lyrics and visuals, following characteristics of
Goodwin’s theory. The video is in fact 90% performance, show when Madonna sings
and 10% narrative, shown when Madonna shape shifts into black animals, creating
a dark and unsettling atmosphere. In comparison to her other pop genre
songs a
lot of the conventions contrast making her stand out as a unique and diverse artist,
which can in fact shock an audience. Throughout the music video Madonna portrays
strong emotion and an audience can tell her image change is to keep with
younger artists within the industry, therefore rebelling against conventions of
typical pop characteristics to do so.
Michel Gondry is a French Academy Award-winning filmmaker that also
directs commercials, music videos on top of being a screenwriter. When
comparing the two directors
Michel Gondry is extremely talented with the use of
editing styles and how much he uses within the music videos he directs. One
artist he has worked with is Kylie Minogue and her song ‘Come Into My World’.
Generally the characteristics of the video are stereotypical to the typical pop
genre, in terms of the location of Paris being realistic, the surrounding
extras, all characters dressed in everyday clothing, all of which is image
appropriate to the target audience. The song also has a relationship between
lyrics and visuals following Goodwin’s theory, this is shown when Kylie sings ‘”Come
into my world”’
followed by copies of herself appearing on screen. However only
following on dimension of Goodwin’s theory does not match what should to be
within the pop genre. The structure of the video is 90% performance and 10% narrative,
as the video portrays more of Kylie singing herself and little narrative;
walking around in circles which characters duplicating. Kylie herself is
represented throughout the whole music video as a normal person that blends in
with the crowd, which enable the audience to relate to her. The fact that the
location, clothing and the song are conventional to the pop genre, the video
itself is not. When comparing to Cunningham, Gondry is a lot more conventional,
however they both share the similarity of having limited elements that follow
Goodwin’s theory.
Another song of Michel Gondry’s I will be analysing is ‘The Hardest Button
to Button’ by the
band The White Stripes. The genre in which they fit into is
alternative rock, which was in fact portrayed throughout the music video. This
was shown through the use of clothing; the gothic red and black clothing,
consisting of skinny jeans and a tight t-shirt, the hair and makeup;
heavy eye
makeup, pale skinned, messy hair, the instruments; drums, an electric guitar, amplifiers
and so on, all of which are stereotypical. There were elements of Goodwin’s
theory shown with the lyrics matching the songs fast and up-tempo beat; with
every beat a duplicate of the instrument would appear. There is also a small
relationship between lyrics and visuals; this is evident when for example when he
mentions a red box, to which is then appears on screen. The video has a 100% performance
structure as there is no recognisable narrative or concept, just pure focus on
the music alone.
Within the video there is a clear representation of the artist
following typical rock conventions, aside from the artist not performing at a stereotypical
gig in front of a live audience. As a result, the focus stays purely on the
artist and the song itself, with nothing else around to detract from that. In
comparison to Cunningham’s work, Gondry shows variety in the way he
varies from
90% performance and 10% narrative to 100%
performance, and how many dimensions
of Goodwin’s theory he should include which contrasts to typical directors, which
use a higher narrative percentage and try to follow all the dimensions of
Goodwin’s theory.
Diversity is shown through music videos when
an artist/ director chooses to not follow stereotypical codes and conventions
to their typical music genre, and ‘Come to Daddy’ is a prime example in how the
music genre contrasts in comparison to the music video. Within the music
industry, the majority of artists follow their genre codes and conventions,
they do
so to try and get into the charts without receiving censorship on their
videos and bad reviews in general. However, a lot of artists such as Miley
Cyrus and Rihanna like to continue shocking their audience to gain viewers through
their music videos, but not all artists are able to pull it off and be successful
in the same way. Within the music industry, RnB is an extremely popular genre;
a genre in which songs follow the same codes and conventions in most music videos,
consisting of materialistic items, a trophy male of female by their side,
flashy cars, many friends and so on. Generally artists
within this genre don’t tend
to break conventions, as it such a popular genre with songs not going
unnoticed. An artist may choose to make a diverse video to either make it more
memorable or to make themselves as an artist stand out amongst competition.
Making a diverse/ unique video can have many negative effects on the artist and
their record label; often artists continue to be slated by the media, the
record label can develop a bad reputation, artists become hated from what they
used to be, their video is banned from major music channel such as MTV due to
censorship and so on. However there are not only negatives, but positives to diversity;
a positive being it attracts a large audience, as they enjoy watching rebellious
behaviour that captures heavy media attention. Diversity can also create a
greater understanding through emotions and builds a better relationship between
themselves and their audience, which again benefits the artist.
I feel that different elements of each director will help with my groups’ music
video on the song ‘Apple Tree’ by Nina Nesbitt. In terms of Cunningham I like
the way he uses a lot of narrative within certain music videos, which is
something that my group wish to include a lot of to connote an emotional story.
On the other hand I like the element of detail to editing and
mise en scene by
Gondy’s music videos, as well as the way they follow more typical codes and
conventions to a music genre, in which go by Goodwin’s theory. The similarities
within both directors, is that they both are diverse in their different ways. I
feel it is important to not follow all codes and conventions as, as a group we
want to make something different and unique when it comes to our music video,
however finding a balance is important.
