Diversity
A diverse music video is when a music video is perceived as controversial or often beyond the boundaries of a suitable or conventional music video of that artists particular genre. Diverse music videos are perceived as unique and tend to stand out from any ordinary video. In the past, the realm of music videos was a whole lot less democratic, however it has changed dramatically in recent years. Fans and audiences are now demanding a lot more out of the ordinary content from their favourite artists and the music industry, therefore creating a diverse and unique music video is am effective way to stand out and garner new fans and keep those who you already have loyal. One way of making a music video diverse and unique is by giving the video its own entity. The goal for artists is to create a video that enhances the song and can stand out on its own, a video that people are going to want to watch over and over again and having a video with its own entity and can stand out on his own means more views and more fans. Having a diverse and unique music video also takes a lot of fault and being frugal. This means being precise in making your video go far by thinking of every little convention and scene and having no limit in expense, promotion and distribution. Diverse and unique videos also know their target audiences and who to get their videos across to. This can depend on age, genre and other music related factors. With diverse and unique videos comes a lot of word from mouth advertising, when people spread their views and opinions on this video, telling people to go and watch it. This is ideal for artists as it gives them a lot of free advertising and views.
Chris Cunningham is a british video artist and director of music videos, famous for creating diverse and unique content. His music is described as a 'perfect mix of mystery and adrenaline. His style has a lot of sexual ambiguity, violence, inclusive technology and a general sense of creepiness and strange behaviour. He is famous for working with artists such as Madonna, Apex Twin, Bjork and has been nominated for a number of awards for his music video creations including a grammy for 'breakthrough director' and 'best music video award' for Madonnas 'Frozen' at the 2000 Brit Awards which became a international hit and won best special effects video at the 1998 MTV Music video awards. He is also famous and well known for creating video art, short films and commercials.
Madonna's video for 'Frozen' is widely recognised as one of the best music videos of it's generation for its diverse and unique style, winning a number of awards and being a good demonstration of pop culture and Chris Cunnighams work; one of his most famous videos. It follows many conventional factors that are expected of music videos, including genre conventions, goodwins theory, style and artist representation. The video demonstrates a number of both conventional and unconventional factors, including a dark, desolate location and setting of a desert. This is unconventional as we would expect a song of the pop genre and an artist like Madonna to follow the pop conventions more and have a conventional setting such as a beach or party scene. We would associate a dark, isolated setting with the rock genre. Cunningham also uses goodwins theory in his video where the visuals and music match. This is evident when the frames of the video change on beat, e.g the birds transformation at the start of the hook and chorus and a change on every beat. This demonstrates a good use of goodwins theory and a diverse music video as the changes and visuals are out of the ordinary and illustratively shows the micro elements, in a way that we would expect from an artist such as Madonna. Madonna and Cunningham also take a primarily performance and concept based theme towards their video as she is singing into the camera whilst preforming a number of actions during half the video and is showing a dark side to her as the concept where she is acting mysterious and possessed. It creates the whole idea that love can be negative, possessive and time consuming which she demonstrates through her clothing, the setting and other micro elements. One of the artist representations that Cunningham gives Madonna in this video is to create the feeling of death throughout the video and a dark side to the artist through this same representation.
Another music video that Cunningham is well known for and one and artist that created a lot of speculation and talk about his strange and unique style of video and genre of music is Aphex Twin and his video for 'Come to Daddy'. It is portrayed as highly diverse and does not demonstrate any genre conventions and only unusual, unconventional factors. These include the focus on an old women in a punk/rock, high tempo song and video and the little girls running around a block of flats rioting and torturing people. These are perceived as unconventional as we would expect the video to be male orientated with a more natural setting that does not take scenes that make very little sense in the world of music that suit the high tempo music and flashing images, an important factor in the video being highly diverse and unique. Cunningham and Aphex Twins also show Goodwins theory in the music video. This is evident when we see promotion of the artist on the girls face and logo on the walls and flats. This matches the demands of the record label and how they want close ups of the artist and their brand in a visual style to help create a relationship with the artist and audience. The style of the video takes aspects from narrative, performance and concept. It uses a narrative to show the man in the TV controlling the girls and the story of them terrorising the public while a the man in the TV is singing the lyrics on camera throughout the whole video for performance. Concept is also used to imply the idea that children are heavily influenced by TV and the media. Throughout the video, Cunningham gives Aphex a number of artist representations, the main ones being his creepy, unusual and rebellious character due to the actions on screen and to make the video diverse and unique.
Chris Cunningham also made another diverse and unique music video with Aphex Twin called 'Window Licker'. The genre conventions for this video are the heavy use of explicit language and sexual behaviour that you would expect from an highly controversial and unusual artist such as Aphex Twin when under the influence of Cunningham. The main purpose and concept of the video is also to show Aphex Twin as the alpha male compared to others and how he can appeal to women and influence them. Because of this, their is a lot of references of voyeuristic scenes to the female body to show Goodwins theory. This is evident when he is dancing vigorously to match the high tempo and in order to make himself sexually appealing to the women, making the audience and director look at the artist in a voyeuristic way, which the artist doesn't realise. The video is primarily narrative based with the opening 4-5 minutes of the video showing a short story about two gangsters trying to talk to two girls before Aphex is introduced in the video. This whole narrative helps to support the concept of the video that girls are gold diggers and the gangsters are voyeuristic to women. He also adds a performance element to the song by dancing throughout the video. These elements help to support Cunningham's representation of Aphex in the video, by portraying him as flashy and wealthy with his limo and talented and flirtatious when dancing and trying to appeal to the girls.
Michael Gondry is a French film and music director, screenplay writer and producer of all media and video related content. Much like Chris Cunningham, he is famous for working with some on the biggest names in the music industry and creating diverse and unique videos and is considered as 'the mad scientist of cinema'. He has created some ground-breaking and famous videos for the likes of Kylie Minogue, Kanye West and The White Stripes and his fans knew that each of his new works and music videos would deliver a bold pop-art statement of baffling origin with diverse concepts and narratives, putting him in the same bracket at Cunningham but on a more global level.
One of Gondrys most famous music videos is when he partnered with 'The white stripes' and created 'the hardest button to push'. Well known in the rock genre and the music industry as whole as diverse and unique, it includes a number of unconventional and conventional genre representations, including the high number of instruments used in the video. However the urban areas of street subways is something you would not consider with the punk/rock genre. It includes factors of Goodwins theory, including how there is a relationship between the music and visuals, as a new picture and visual appears on every beat in an illustrative way. There is no elements of narrative or concept in the video and it is all performance based with the tapping of his foot, the drums, guitar and his singing being seen and playing throughout the whole video. Gondry represents the artist in this video as very talented due to the constant music playing on different platforms and cool, laidback and relatable to fans of the rock genre.
Kylie Minogue is known as on of the faces of the pop genre and is one of the biggest artists that Gondry has worked with and her song 'Come into my world' is considered as one of the most unique music videos created of all time and is used as inspiration for many diverse and unique pop songs created today by some of the worlds biggest artists. There are many genre conventions of this video including the constant dancing in the background from the extras. This gives the whole video a performance based element and is conventional to the pop genre as audiences would expect the video to be fun, girly and laidback. It is a good example of Goodwins theory by using almost all of the 7 elements of his findings. An example of this is when the lyrics and visuals match when ever the chorus and hook begins and she sings 'come into my world' whilst skipping across the road with open arms to illustrate the high tempo and energy of the song. The video has a constant performance from Minogue as she is signing directly to the camera non stop and has a highly significant narrative which makes it diverse and unique. This is her walking through the streets in a repeat process, adding to the concept of her life and world being repetitive due to fame and this is her everyday life. Gondry gives Minogue an artist representation of being a stereotypical girly girl with her actions, costume and performance based video. We also perceive her as relatable with her doing everyday activities and confident by walking proudly.
Diverse music videos tend to be highly successful as they are able to be made by any artist if they wish to do so to create a particular image and character. This includes low key artists who are just starting up in order to stand out, become more memorable and gain more views and opportunities, proving why directors such as Cunningham and Gondry and artists such as Madonna and Kylie Minogue have been so successful. Creating a diverse and unique music video also appeals to a wider and different audience and gives artists a different perspective In the media and an intellectual appeal to newer, niche audiences. Despite this, diverse and unique music videos after all are not always perceived how the artist hoped and can flop considering they are not of a stereotypical song/video that is pictured and expected in the music industry. They can also come as a disadvantage as they can give the artist/director a bad reputation, controversy and a limited target audience. It Is also harder to maintain a certain level of expectancy as diverse music videos are harder to make and audiences and fans will constantly expect this and if they fail to deliver they could risk losing their unique fan base they created. I feel creating a diverse and unique music video will help me when creating my own music video as it gives me a lot more opportunities and ideas to work from, no matter what genre I am focusing on. It is also a good media platform to take inspiration from, ideas from Goodwins theory and both conventional and unconventional factors.
Another music video that Cunningham is well known for and one and artist that created a lot of speculation and talk about his strange and unique style of video and genre of music is Aphex Twin and his video for 'Come to Daddy'. It is portrayed as highly diverse and does not demonstrate any genre conventions and only unusual, unconventional factors. These include the focus on an old women in a punk/rock, high tempo song and video and the little girls running around a block of flats rioting and torturing people. These are perceived as unconventional as we would expect the video to be male orientated with a more natural setting that does not take scenes that make very little sense in the world of music that suit the high tempo music and flashing images, an important factor in the video being highly diverse and unique. Cunningham and Aphex Twins also show Goodwins theory in the music video. This is evident when we see promotion of the artist on the girls face and logo on the walls and flats. This matches the demands of the record label and how they want close ups of the artist and their brand in a visual style to help create a relationship with the artist and audience. The style of the video takes aspects from narrative, performance and concept. It uses a narrative to show the man in the TV controlling the girls and the story of them terrorising the public while a the man in the TV is singing the lyrics on camera throughout the whole video for performance. Concept is also used to imply the idea that children are heavily influenced by TV and the media. Throughout the video, Cunningham gives Aphex a number of artist representations, the main ones being his creepy, unusual and rebellious character due to the actions on screen and to make the video diverse and unique.
Chris Cunningham also made another diverse and unique music video with Aphex Twin called 'Window Licker'. The genre conventions for this video are the heavy use of explicit language and sexual behaviour that you would expect from an highly controversial and unusual artist such as Aphex Twin when under the influence of Cunningham. The main purpose and concept of the video is also to show Aphex Twin as the alpha male compared to others and how he can appeal to women and influence them. Because of this, their is a lot of references of voyeuristic scenes to the female body to show Goodwins theory. This is evident when he is dancing vigorously to match the high tempo and in order to make himself sexually appealing to the women, making the audience and director look at the artist in a voyeuristic way, which the artist doesn't realise. The video is primarily narrative based with the opening 4-5 minutes of the video showing a short story about two gangsters trying to talk to two girls before Aphex is introduced in the video. This whole narrative helps to support the concept of the video that girls are gold diggers and the gangsters are voyeuristic to women. He also adds a performance element to the song by dancing throughout the video. These elements help to support Cunningham's representation of Aphex in the video, by portraying him as flashy and wealthy with his limo and talented and flirtatious when dancing and trying to appeal to the girls.
Michael Gondry is a French film and music director, screenplay writer and producer of all media and video related content. Much like Chris Cunningham, he is famous for working with some on the biggest names in the music industry and creating diverse and unique videos and is considered as 'the mad scientist of cinema'. He has created some ground-breaking and famous videos for the likes of Kylie Minogue, Kanye West and The White Stripes and his fans knew that each of his new works and music videos would deliver a bold pop-art statement of baffling origin with diverse concepts and narratives, putting him in the same bracket at Cunningham but on a more global level.
One of Gondrys most famous music videos is when he partnered with 'The white stripes' and created 'the hardest button to push'. Well known in the rock genre and the music industry as whole as diverse and unique, it includes a number of unconventional and conventional genre representations, including the high number of instruments used in the video. However the urban areas of street subways is something you would not consider with the punk/rock genre. It includes factors of Goodwins theory, including how there is a relationship between the music and visuals, as a new picture and visual appears on every beat in an illustrative way. There is no elements of narrative or concept in the video and it is all performance based with the tapping of his foot, the drums, guitar and his singing being seen and playing throughout the whole video. Gondry represents the artist in this video as very talented due to the constant music playing on different platforms and cool, laidback and relatable to fans of the rock genre.
Kylie Minogue is known as on of the faces of the pop genre and is one of the biggest artists that Gondry has worked with and her song 'Come into my world' is considered as one of the most unique music videos created of all time and is used as inspiration for many diverse and unique pop songs created today by some of the worlds biggest artists. There are many genre conventions of this video including the constant dancing in the background from the extras. This gives the whole video a performance based element and is conventional to the pop genre as audiences would expect the video to be fun, girly and laidback. It is a good example of Goodwins theory by using almost all of the 7 elements of his findings. An example of this is when the lyrics and visuals match when ever the chorus and hook begins and she sings 'come into my world' whilst skipping across the road with open arms to illustrate the high tempo and energy of the song. The video has a constant performance from Minogue as she is signing directly to the camera non stop and has a highly significant narrative which makes it diverse and unique. This is her walking through the streets in a repeat process, adding to the concept of her life and world being repetitive due to fame and this is her everyday life. Gondry gives Minogue an artist representation of being a stereotypical girly girl with her actions, costume and performance based video. We also perceive her as relatable with her doing everyday activities and confident by walking proudly.
Diverse music videos tend to be highly successful as they are able to be made by any artist if they wish to do so to create a particular image and character. This includes low key artists who are just starting up in order to stand out, become more memorable and gain more views and opportunities, proving why directors such as Cunningham and Gondry and artists such as Madonna and Kylie Minogue have been so successful. Creating a diverse and unique music video also appeals to a wider and different audience and gives artists a different perspective In the media and an intellectual appeal to newer, niche audiences. Despite this, diverse and unique music videos after all are not always perceived how the artist hoped and can flop considering they are not of a stereotypical song/video that is pictured and expected in the music industry. They can also come as a disadvantage as they can give the artist/director a bad reputation, controversy and a limited target audience. It Is also harder to maintain a certain level of expectancy as diverse music videos are harder to make and audiences and fans will constantly expect this and if they fail to deliver they could risk losing their unique fan base they created. I feel creating a diverse and unique music video will help me when creating my own music video as it gives me a lot more opportunities and ideas to work from, no matter what genre I am focusing on. It is also a good media platform to take inspiration from, ideas from Goodwins theory and both conventional and unconventional factors.
A well written, but overall basic analysis of the videos and directors discussed, briefly mentioning why an artist might wish to choose to create a diverse video, and a short recount of each of the videos mentioned.
ReplyDeleteYou need to:
1) State what the purpose of creating a diverse music video is in introduction
2) State the ‘original’ genre of the artist and explain how this video is different/diverse to that genre
3) Refer to specific examples for genre conventions, Goodwin's theory, style of video and artist rep
4) Use PEER analysis to give a more detailed explanation of the purpose of these different videos and the affect they may have on the audience.
5) Include paragraph comparing Cunningham to Gondry (how similar/different)
6) Include screen shots to support points made
7) Conclusion – state which director you might use to create your music video and why, also mentioning whether or not you would consider creating a diverse music video and why.
A very proficient analysis, as you have stated what the purpose of creating a diverse music video is, as well as referring to examples of conventions and Goodwin's theory used in the videos. You have included a conclusion mentioning what you have learnt from this research, as well as whether or not you would like to create a diverse music video and why. However, your analysis are still a bit vague and short, and need to consider more of the impact on the TA, as well as providing a comparison paragraph and screen shots to support points made.
ReplyDelete