Research: Diverse Music Videos

Introduction:

Diverse music videos are music videos that are targeted for a niche audience and are usually concept based with dancing and visual images. The music genre that tends to create diverse music videos is electronic, dance and alternative. They are suited for a unique taste, and only a certain type of established artist like Bjork does this type of video as she already has her loyal fellowship. At times, there have been mainstream artists like Madonna and Kyle Minogue who have done this, however their ideas were a lot more suitable to not offend their already established mainstream audience.

There are two main directors who are renowned for making this type of video, Chris Cunningham and Michael Gondry.

Chris Cunningham
Background:
Chris Cunningham as a child liked to listen to the music and to Imagine things occurring. This personality has influenced how he directs his music videos.

Credentials:
Chris Cunningham is a globally known music video director. Despite this, he isn't a mainstream music video director, even though he has worked with the likes of Madonna, who is a pop sensation.

Collaborations:

 Chris Cunningham usually works with artist who are not mainstream but at the same time have a independent and loyal fan base. One of these artist was the Aphex twin. This artist is not mainstream. But he does have a huge loyal fan base for his electronic genre.  Chris Cunningham has directed 3 of Aphex twin's  music videos. One of them he directed was for a song called 'Come to daddy'. This song contained Images that was surreal and scary for the mainstream audience. But as for the loyal fan base of Aphex Twin, they had enjoyed it.

Chris Cunningham, is mostly known for making music videos  that are bizarre for the mainstream audience to understand or relate to. This was again portrayed when he worked well known Icelandic female artist, Bjork. Cunningham directed her music video for her song 'All is full of love'. The video was confusing for the mainstream audience to relate to. Despite that, the music video won various awards including the mtv award for breakthrough video, also the music video was nominated for a Grammy as well as being rated among the best 100 music videos in MTV2.

Chris Cunningham in the year of 1998 worked with pop sensation Madonna. Even though Madonna was the best female pop artist at one time, her music video for her song 'Frozen' was weird and confusing for her loyal audience. This was mainly because her music video was directed by Chris Cunningham. Despite this fact, the music video was a international hit. The music video won a Mtv award for best special effects in 1998.

The conventions of Cunningham's work:

• surreal and confusing images
• targeted at niche audience
• works with niche artists/genres
• distorted human figures
• low-key lighting
• themes that are sensitive

Michael Gondry background: Michel Gondry has a personality that likes to emphasise on the  emotion of happiness. This clearly influences his directing of music videos. Usually his music videos contain dancing, repetition and bright colours.

Credentials: Gondry is mostly known as a music video director along with his writing and producing profession that does for his documentaries.

Collaborations: Gondry has worked with artists that are usually not part of the mainstream popular culture. Like Cunningham Gondry has worked with Bjork on her music videos. One of Bjork's music videos that he directed was for her song 'Human Behaviour'. The music video contains bright colours of a imaginary childlike themed jungle. The music video was nominated for various awards including 2 MTV awards for best video of a female artist and breakthrough video. Rolling Stones ranked the music video within the list of the top 100 music videos of all time.

Gondry has also worked with the Chemical Brothers, who are yet again globally known but not part of the mainstream pop culture. The music video that Gondry directed for them was for their song 'Let forever be'. The music video contains a female character dancing as well as bright colours among the background. The music video received critical praise and was rated by NME as 59 out of the 100 greatest music video.

Gondry worked with a major pop artist her name was Kylie Minogue. Gondry directed the music video for Kylie Minogue's song"Come into my world". As expected the music video contains repetition of Kylie Minogue. Every time she walks around the circuit of the street a new Kylie Minogue appears while people in the background are duplicated in different positions. This represents another convention of Gondry when he is directing music videos. The music video was well received. Pitchfork Media a well known internet publication for music ranked the music video  ranked it 14 out of their top 50 music videos of the 2000's.

The conventions of Gondry's work:
.Dancers
.Targeted for a niche audience (Usually)
.Repetition of a element within his music videos
.Works with niche but well known artists.
.Bright themes.


Advantages of diverse music videos:

Diverse music videos allows an artist to reinvent themselves. As it happened with Madonna when she did the song 'Frozen'. Diverse music videos also help people to remember the music videos for longer. This also can increase the popularity of the artist, as it shows their versatility. It also gives the artist an intellectual sense. This helps the artist to have a niche fan base.

Disadvantages of diverse music videos:

Diverse music videos could be censored by media platforms or banned. More money will have to be produced in editing because of the intention of the music video. More Importantly, the artist's reputation could be damaged by the diverse music video as it could be negatively criticised or have no relation to the target audience.

My opinion on whether diverse music videos should stay away from mainstream music culture:

Diverse music videos should not stay away from the mainstream culture every type of style has aright to be represented in the mainstream culture of music .

Conclusion:

I have learnt the music conventions of niche directors like Cunningham and Gondry. I may include features of diverse music videos when it comes to repetition and bright colours.