Reasearch- Diverse Music Videos

Diverse Music videos

What are diverse music videos?

Diverse music videos are music videos that include aspects that will not normally be included in mainstream music videos, they are mostly concept based. Diverse music videos are mostly used in the niche music genre as they are the ones that like to mostly experiment with their videos. It’s mostly understood by a specific niche audience who are loyal fans of the artists.

 

 

 

 

  Chris Cunningham

Chris Cunningham is a director, who works with artist and companies to create projects that will influence the audience. Cunningham is known for his divergent music videos he has worked with many artists and businesses in his career and has created many conflicting videos.

Examples of his works

He has worked with artist from Madonna to Apex Twins covering all kind of music genre

Video One

Madonna – Frozen
When Madonna released her comeback debut frozen in the early 2000, she decided that she wanted the world to see her differently she did not want to keep that same image that she had in her previous career. So she decided to work with Cunningham to create a video which will show a different side to her.

The editing in this video is spectacular. I believe that what this video is trying to portray is freedom as it’s a new era and new album Madonna was looking to free herself from all the criticism that she was getting before, also she was ready to express her inner spirit animal which is a mixture of all those animals used in the video.

 Video Two

Bjork - All is full of Love

Bjork and Cunningham have worked alongside each other, many times before together they created videos that inspired and confused people, such as all is full of love, a video that expresses the love of a robot couple. In an interview Bjork stated that she first started working with Cunningham because friends would encourage her because they believed that the two would create great things, which proved to be the case as later on the went on to win great awards.

 

I think that this video is so confusing and sexual, but executed in a smart way, the songs title is all is full of love, I believe that In the video Cunningham tried to show the audience that love is found everywhere even in something as ridiculous as Robots who are not meant to have feelings and emotions.

Video Three

Apex Twins – Come to Daddy

Cunningham is known for working with artist that is not mainstream such as the Apex Twins, who are a rock band. Due to the fact that they are not mainstream  Cunningham is able to experiment with his ideas and creativity, because the artist are less likely to get criticism or loose a following, as they will have loyal fans. Hence why he created ‘Come to daddy’ a very complex yet intriguing video in my opinion, I believe that this video Is not something that I would enjoy watching on tv or anywhere else.

 

 

                                                                  

     Michael Gundry

 

 

 

 

Michael Gundry is another well-known director, he is not as popular as Cunningham but has also worked alongside many mainstream artist, and worked on many videos, From Daft Punk to The White Stripes.

Video One

Daft Punk – Round the world

Daft Punk is a very well-known band who has worked with many popular people like Pharrell, Gundry executes his videos in a direct manner and also is very cleaver about what the video contains, unlike Cunningham, Gundry’s videos, have a lower budget and include more performance than narrative which is clear to see in this video.

 

 

I like this video because I think it Portrays the title of the song well as it’s called Round the world and the dancers are walking around in circles repetitively. It’s nice and simple and doesn’t confuse the audience, even though it might get a bit boring.

 Video Two

Gary Jules – Mad World

This video is very simple and low budge compare to all the other videos that have been mentioned, everything has been taken in one shot, which reflects the mood and tone of the song.

 

 

 

Video Three

The White Stripes- The hardest Button to Button

It’s clear to see that Gundry enjoys the effect of repetition, as he’s doing in this video, the concept around Star image motif is shown in this video as, the white stripes are not a very well-known band, and Gundry showcased their talent and them as artist in this video.

 

 

 

Advantages of diverse music video on the industry and audience
Diverse Music videos…

-          Create Hype around the artist, for example Madonna when she first did her comeback video everyone was shocked, surprised and excited.

-          Its unique,  and it shows individual element, in the mainstream category artist seem to have the same kind of videos which are glamourized for the audience, but diverse music videos allow the artist to show a different side to themselves that allows the audience and their fans to see that the artist is also an individual.

-          Very captivating, and memorable ‘Come to Daddy’ is a prime example even though it might make the viewer feel uncomfortable, they will still carry on watching it, just because of the fact that its different kind of video, the audience would be interested to see the ending. Because of that it can end up being very memorable and people will carry on watching it.

Disadvantage of diverse music videos on the industry and audience

-          It can be offensive and inappropriate; people might end up complaining and taking it to heart causing negative hype to be created around the artist.

-          Might not gain as much success, because it’s not something that people are used to watching they might not find enjoyment, in watching it.

-          It could eventually ruin your reputation; Madonna could have ruined her reputation by deciding to work with such a risky director.

Diverse Music Videos should stay away from mainstream music culture?

I believe that diverse music videos should stay away from mainstream music culture because if the main stream music culture then decides to pick up the concept of diverse music videos, then eventually there will be no diverse music videos to look at as everyone will have, that same style of music videos. But on the other hand artist are able to express themselves through diverse music videos they are able to showcase a side of themselves that the audience does  not usually see, diverse music videos on mainstream artist could draw the artist closer to their fans.

Conclusion

Studying diverse music videos, has opened up a new door of ideas for me, and has allowed me to see that I am able to exhibit my ideas in lots of other ways, I am thinking of using a bit of the repeating technique that Gundry used in my video also. I will definitely include one or two of the features that are shown in diverse music videos because I feel like it will give my music video that unique element that other videos won’t have.