Diversity Of Music Videos

All music videos have meanings and a purpose, however, some break the boundaries and even create controversy, possible containing hidden messages.  These are considered "diverse" music videos, they stray away from genre, doing this contains adavantages and disadvantages from the artist.  The audience may see a different side to the artist, they may find them interesting and like the fact they aren't "boring" and original which could lead them to selling more records, however, some viewers could also find it disturbing, weird and also be put off from listening to the artist if their first impression of them is that the artist seems odd, which could lose the artist fans and money.

The artist may also be limiting themselves and their song/music to a niche target audience as the unusual content may only appeal to a small group of people. In an extreme case, if fans do not like the change in music video style it may lead to an artist receiving hate campaigns wanting them to go back to their conventional style of music videos, leading to a mass loss of fans, and money and bad publicity. It is very risky for an artist to stray from the norm of their music genre and create a diverse music video, as simply, fans make not like it, which could therefore lead to an artist losing their fan loyalty. Also, the artist may struggle to compete if there are more and more new artists entering the same genre of music, who could be newer and better. Furthermore, there is the risk that an artist may achieve a bad reputation in the music industry if their diverse music video is too weird or unpopular, which could result in record labels not wanting to work with them. If an artist loses respect and their following, it could also lead to them losing money as they will not be able to sell their music and therefore they would turn to a failure.

Analysis of Madonna's "frozen" (pop)

Chris Cunningham was the music video director for the song. Madonna is well known for her songs chart topping songs in the pop genre and has sold millions, her best hits include Vogue, Papa don't preach and Material Girl. The music that Madonna produces shows and includes characteristics that fit into the pop genre. The pop genre when performed by females usually features a song about love or materialistic items, and videos are usually fun, girly and light-hearted and not taken too seriously. Pop girl bands wear revealing outfits and usually have dance routines.

In this music video, the audience can see Madonna standing in the middle of no where, seemingly in a desert, with her body completely covered in black clothing, her hair dyed black, and crows are seen flying around her, which are obviously all black animals. Her appearance is almost witch like, which the audience will not expect as they know her as a pop artist and comparing to her other music videos, the audience expect to see her wearing revealing, bright coloured clothing, like a "normal" pop artist. In this music video the audience will see Madonna in a different, scary kind of way. It could be perceived that the concept behind the music video for "Frozen" is that relationships can be consuming, manipulative, and dark. It could show Madonna's emotions, that everything in her life is black and miserable. The idea of relationships and a boy girl love story, suggested by the lyrics "we'd never be apart" and "give yourself to me", is conventional to the pop genre as a cheesy love story with catchy lyrics are often more engaging for the audience to watch. The audience will find it easier to relate to love based narratives/songs as they have often experienced these situations in real life. The music video for 'Frozen' is more likely to stand out and the audience are more likely to remember this video, as well as the song due to it being so different and extreme when compared to all of her other music videos. However, there is the risk that some of her fans may not like the change in style, and although they will still see her differently, it will be in a bad way which will make them less inclined to watch any of her future music videos.

As mentioned, the director responsible for this video was Chris Cunningham who has been responsible for two other "strange" music videos that I have analysed, both coming from the artist Aphex Twin, the songs being "Come to daddy" and "Windowlicker". These two music videos are very controversial, but they have also been watched nearly four million times combined on YouTube. The reason behind the success of these two videos was down to the fact that people are attracted to and buy into controversy, some like those who think outside of the box. Audiences want to see how far an artist is willing to go to push their creative boundaries.

The music video for the song 'Windowlicker' is very diverse and can be considered strange or odd by many. The video includes some of the seven elements from Goodwin's theory, even though it is unconventional. For example, there is a relationship between the music and the visuals which can be seen during the umbrella sequence, when each time the beat changes, the artist moves the umbrella. The umbrella segment also shows us that the music video incorporates performance as the artist is seen dancing by the side of the road with the umbrella. There is also a narrative within the story - which can be seen when the two guys talking in the car at the very beginning of the video.

The concept behind the music video for "Windowlicker" is the idea that women look for and are attracted to men with money. This can be seen in the video when the two women dismiss and argue with the men in the smaller car, and then when the richer man in the bigger car comes along, they happily get into the car with him. This conforms to the idea that music artist are rich and have expensive lifestyles, drive expensive cars and that lots of women are attracted to them. The audience may find it difficult to relate to this music video - they may live more of a simplistic lifestyle.

In the video there are also visuals of the artist. When the bigger car crashes into the smaller car, the artist is seen sitting in the back seat, on the faces of the girls too when they are in the car, which some may find disturbing and weird. It could connote that the artist is indeed obsessed with himself as he is attracted to women with his face on them, showing he is asexual.

The music video for the song Come To Daddy is very similar to Windowlicker in the way that it is diverse and can be seen by many as odd. The elements of Goodwin's theory that appear in this music video include intertextual references, such as the the TV. The audience can see an old woman silently screaming and petrified at the television sets which could imply that she is scared by the development of technology and modern society and what it beholds as it would not have been as popular or advanced when she was younger. This links in with the concept behind the music video for "Come to Daddy" which is the idea that media has a major influence on the youth and times have changed greatly. There are also visuals of the artist, as his face can be seen on the faces of the young kids in the video, possibly connoting that he is influencing the youth. Some may find this disturbing and odd, but it also entices the audience and makes them want to watch the rest of the video, as they are not used to seeing something so peculiar. This suggests that artists have a major influence on the media, and that young, impressionable children look up to and want to be like them and have the life and the money that they have.

Both of the Aphex Twin music videos that were directed by Chris Cunningham and appeared odd, dark and somewhat disturbing, but they also had strong concepts. This may benefit the artist as the audience may appreciate the artist's intellect and respect that the song has a deeper meaning and they aren't just trying to be "weird" on purpose.

Analysis of Michael Gondry videos:

Like Cunningham, Gondry has made some different and peculiar music videos, however they aren't considered to be as disturbing. He is responsible for directing the music video to the white stripes "hardest button to button" and also Kylie Minogue's "Come into my world".

The White Stripes are a duo band from the Rock genre, who also have a diverse music video called 'The hardest button to button' directed by Michael Gondry. Within this music video you would expect the artists to be playing instruments as it is the rock genre, a key component for rock artists as instruments such as drums and electric guitars are featured prominently in their songs, this is used in this example and therefore then making the music video conventional to the rock genre. There is constant repetition of the instruments to emphasize their use within the rock genre, the use of these instruments may be appealing for their target audience, as fans of this genre may like these instruments. There is also repetition of the white stripes themselves throughout the music video which, much like Kylie Minogue's video, is seen self promotion and also shows the music video as being primarily performance based. They are represented as stereotypical rock artists through black leather costumes, commonly seen worn by rock artists and the iconography of rock instruments such as a bass drum and electric guitar. The setting is constantly changing due to the constant continuous movements of the artists which would put different images in the audiences mind, making it more entertaining and memorable for them, the more memorable and interesting they find it, the more likely they are to tell friends and family about the video, therefore increasing the music videos popularity and therefore its' success. The constant repetition of the artists running throughout an average urban city could be seen to be comical and this is very unconventional to the rock genre, videos within this genre are often seen as being deep and serious with explicit language and containing references to drugs or alcohol and possibly footage of the artists doing this. The artists may have done this in order to again appeal to a wider audience, young and old who can relate to repetitive urban settings. It's unusual nature may attract new fans outside of the rock genre, however it's loyal fans may be disappointed, and the constant repetition seen in this video may be seen as some as quite boring. A peculiar unconventional video will stick in a viewers mind, the white stripes did not create any controversy with this and the video became very popular, meaning Gondry's work here was a success.


Another example of Gondry's work, is Kylie Minogue's music video "Come into my world" which from the pop genre. The genres videos are commonly associated with showvanistic iconography such as materialistic items, bright setting and co-ordinated dance routines which the audience would expect from an artist such as Kylie Minogue. However, in contrast, for her music video 'Come into my world' the artist is the only sole focus, meaning this video is also primarily performance based like my last example. It features bland, less extravagant and flashy setting and iconography she is repetitively shown throughout. The repetition of the artist is unconventional for the pop genre as this often consists of videos with a lot happening consisting of dancing and partying and the appearance of materialistic items, however the effect of this viewer/artist connection could consist of the audience becoming more engaged, being enticed by this peculiar video making them want to watch further and it also becoming more memorable for them. Another factor that makes the music video diverse is the fact that Kylie Minogue is wearing normal smart clothing, not materialistic or high fashion brands like most pop artists, she presents herself in this video as a "normal" girl which again subverts to the typical pop genre, the video itself also has a normal everyday setting to go with her clothing. In addition to this, the videos style is performance based, this is shown throughout, such as when Kylie sings to the camera whilst walking through an urban chaotic town, this links in with the title of the song as it shows a day to day routine and the artist going through her own " world" doing the same repetitive routine, and she welcomes the viewers to her world and the viewers therefore get to know more about the artist. The representation of Kylie within this music video shows sole focus on her as well as clones of herself, which is an example of self promotion. Overall the video was made by gondry in order to promote Kylie as being a relatable figure that fans can relate to. This was achieved through focusing on her at all times and showing her as going through a repetitive normal lifestyle, like many of her fans through the use of mis en scene with unconventional settings.



To conclude, the music industry nowadays is a very hard industry to build reputation in and stand out from the large amount of artists within it, therefore, an artist may feel the need to create a diverse music video in order to be memorable and gain fans. Gondry's idea would be less suitable for my potential genre in my production due to the use of repetition because as an artist within house/dance, the genre I may possible pursue, genre the music is already repetitive and you wouldn't want to bore the audience, you would want to be creative and vary the plot. A lack of audience means a lack of profit, popularity and publicity, therefore less fans and less money. As well as this, Cunningham’s style would also be unsuitable for my genre due to the use of explicit scenes and narrative used within the music videos he directs. The house/pop genre often has a large widespread, mainstream target audience and may lose viewings with an explicit video.