Diversity Of Music Videos - Miss Miller

Diverse music videos are music videos that do not follow the codes and conventions for their genre. Two famous directors that are known for their unique work when making music videos are Chris Cunningham and Michael Gondry. 

Chris Cunningham is a British video artist who primarily directs music videos for less popular ambient music and electronica acts such as Autechre and Aphex Twin. Chris has also created art installations,directed short movies and has too part in various film jobs such as model making, prosthetic make-up and concept illustrations for films such as Nightbreed, Dust Devil and Alien 3. The best known music videos directed by Cunningham are: Aphex Twin - 'Windowlicker(1999), Madonna - 'Frozen' and Björk - 'All is Full Of Love'. When referring to diversity of music video, Cunningham is quite extreme with this and his music videos are kind of known to be quite strange. 




Madonna - Frozen 

Dark costume

Birds flying away

Madonna came to work with Chris Cunningham after she watched the music video Aphex Twin "Come to daddy" in 1997. Madonna belongs to the pop genre , however this particular video is unconventional to it because of the dark and mystery involved within it. A convention that is see in the video is through mise en scene, costume and make up. We see Madonna dressed in a black dress and black wig to convey her mysterious character in the video. Black connotes mystery, darkness, evilness and powerful which could imply that she is all these things and is in power of the land she is in. This is unconventional to the pop genre, as costume and makeup are generally materialistic and they make an effort to look nice, whereas in Madonna's frozen video she is just dressed in black which may seem unattractive for the audience.

The element of Goodwin's Theory that is evident in this music video, is that the lyrics and visuals match. For example, the lyrics "Love is a bird, she needs to fly" mirror the visuals as we see crows fly away from her when this is said. The use of this could suggest that she is referring to herself as the crows and how she needs to fly away from love. This is conventional to the pop genre, as songs are usually about love or heart break which is shown in the lyrics above.

Black dog

The style of  the video is concept based, with the concept of love being negative, passive and consuming. This is shown through miss en scene;iconography and costume. We see the concept of love being negative through the setting and colours used in the video, which are isolated dark places and dark clothing. Also the iconography are animals such as crows and dogs represent how love can be dark, consuming and how partners can control you through the use of black dogs. This concept of love being negative is unconventional to the pop genre, as pop songs are usually happy and the relationships in them are fine, whereas in this video it is seen in a negative light. In this music video, the artist is represented as mysterious through the dark setting and costume as you can hardly see her face and everything looks quite dull. Also she is represented as possessed, through her body language as she floats around weirdly like she's some mystical dark force on the desert.Lastly, the artist is also represented as creative as she uses props such as animals to convey meaning to her song, which draws audiences attention as they figure what their use are. 

Men in the car

Aphex Twin - Windowlicker
Another music video directed by Chris Cunningham is 'Windowlicker' by Aphex Twin. Chris has worked with Aphex Twin many times and this is one of the most known music videos he has worked with. Aphex Twin belongs to the genres Electronic, acid techno, ambient, ambient techno and techno ambient dance genre. These genres are usually lively and what audience who like them can dance too. The song belongs to the electronic, techno ambient dance genre. The style of the video is narrative based as in the first 4 minutes we see scenes of two men driving in car then pulling up to chat to two women. This style of the music video is unconventional to the genres, this is because they often include a concept of a club scene as it portrays the beats included in the genres. However this music video involves a narrative which is unconventional because it does not make the audience want to dance straight away. However, the video is diversified by including a narrative, so that it takes a different introduction to the video and not starting off the song straight away so it grabs the audiences attention differently and gets the video talked about. A convention that is evident in the music video is that the artist is seen dancing around. This is conventional to the genres as dancing is a part of the genre because the up tempo. When referring to Goodwin's theory, we see the element of promotion of the label or artist in two different ways.

Label Logo

Firstly, the label is being promoted as we see the labels logo on the umbrella that the artist pulls out whilst dancing. The promotion of the artist is evident as we see the artists face photoshopped onto the females faces in the music video.
This is conventional to the genre as DJ's or electro artist may want to expand on their audiences so they advertise their label or themselves to attract more audiences.

Women with his face 

The artist is represented in many ways; he is charming through dancing (seem impressive to the female audiences and actors in video), promiscuous as we see clips of him with females touching him sexually, superior and flashy as we see his limo push over the men in front of him and also vain because of the photoshop of his face onto the women's faces. 

Artists face on tv 

Aphex Twin - Come to daddy
More videos that Cunningham has directed for Aphex Twin, is the music video for ' Come to daddy ' which includes weird themes that are unconventional to the genre. Firstly, Goodwin's theory is portrayed with the element of promotion of the artist which is evident in the video throughout. For example, like the windowlicker video, we see the artists face photoshopped onto the children's faces. This could link in to the representation of the artist as being quite vain as he frequently has his face photoshopped on other peoples faces in his videos. Also this is used to promote himself even more, as he stands out which makes him more rememberable because he is forced to be the centre of attention. Also, the artist promotes the label again, by having credits at the beginning of the music video and the logo seen then too. This gains more publicity for the label as people will remember the logo because they saw it at the start of the video. The style of video for this music video is primarily concept based. This is evident through the narrative of the children with the artists face on terrorising the old woman and man in the van because they were influenced to by the artist who is seen on the TV. The concept of this is how children are easily influenced by the media and also to show how children can be rebellious. A conventional convention seen in this music video, is through the editing in which we see flashing images within the video. This is conventional to the genre as it mirrors the club, dub step scene which grabs the audiences attention and makes the video more exciting. 

Artists face on the childrens faces

The artist is represented in many ways for example he is represented as creepy and weird because of the use of children with his face on theirs and the way they were 'worshiping' him in a way and doing what he says. Furthermore, the artist is represented as scary as we see him on the TV in a weird form which it looked like he was masked with some sort of gunge. Also, he is represented as rebellious through the rebellion of the children in the video.  

Michael Gondry
Michael Gondry, born in Versailles, France started as a filmmaker by making a music video for the band Oui Oui, who he was the drummer for at the time. Now Michael makes films as well as music videos, which vary form different genres. Unlike Chris Cunningham, Gondry is quite mellow with his diversity with music videos, this is evident in the two music videos, "Come into my world" - Kylie Minogue and "The hardest button to button" - The White Stripes. 

moving in time with the beat 

The Hardest Button To Button - The White Stripes
The music video ' The Hardest Button To Button' is a unconventional music video that belongs to the rock genre and was directed by Michael Gondry. However, the style of the video is primarily performance based which is conventional to the rock genre. This is evident as we see the artist playing the guitar as well sing in font of a microphone stand. This showcases the artists talents and informs the audience with more of the talents the artist has. 
When referring to Goodwin's theory, the element of the music and visuals matching is evident in the music video. For example, we see as the artist and his companion play on their instruments, they mov forward in time with the new beat. This is unconventional to the rock genre as you don't expect them to be organised as the genre is known for being energetic especially when expressing yourself. A genre convention in the music video is the use of instruments, to be precise electric guitars and drums. These musical instruments are conventional to the rock genre as these are what makes the sounds for the genre to fit in because they are quite edgy and loud. The artist is represented as talented through the use of instruments, and also quite mysterious because of his dark clothing. But also mysterious because he seems to be quite laid back and chilled out as theres not much going on or insight into them and also because he is performing in public places such as the subway and park which makes him relatable to the audience. 

Come Into My World - Kylie Minogue
This music video belongs to the pop genre and is also directed by Michael Gondry. The style of the music video is narrative based as we see Kylie's and other characters daily routines and lives e.g the woman throwing stuff outside the window. This could also link into the concept of her world being repetitive in the music industry or having a normal life despite being famous, which creates a relationship with the audience as they can relate to her every day lifestyle within the video. The genre convention that is unconventional to the pop genre within the music video is Kylie's costume. This consists of jeans and a T-shirt which does not seem as glamorous or outgoing as costumes in the pop genre usually are. The use of the dull, normal clothing could support the explanation of how she wants to convey herself as normal so that the audience can relate to her within the video. However a convention that is conventional to the pop genre is the upbeat, repetitive music within the music video. This is conventional to the pop genre as they usually include music that is repetitive and upbeat so that audience can dance to and remember the song. There are several ways in which the artist is represented in the Come Into My world music video, for example Kylie is represented as girly through her costume of a pink t-shirt. Even though this is a regular top, the pink colour conveys the pop genre as costumes are usually in bright colours so that the artist stand out from everyone around them. Moreover, she is represented as confident and vain as we see her walking in the streets proudly and because there are 4 clones of her which may convey her as vain. Lastly, she is represented as creative through the clones, even though this is a sign of Michael Gondry's work. The element of Goodwin's theory that is evident in this video is when the lyrics and visuals match. This is evident when the lyrics 'come, come , come into my world' link in with the new replica of Kylie come out of the laundrette and go around the street again. This matches with the lyrics as we see the replica's coming out starting her day again, showing us her world by her going round in circles implies that its her cycle. 


In summary, Chris Cunnigham's diverse music videos from my research are portrayed as dark, mysterious and odd. This is because the settings are usually in low key lighting abandoned places, for example in the madonna video it was set in a desert and the Aphex Twin video Come to daddy it was set in a underground rough place. Whereas in Michael Gondry's music video, they are set in high key lighting places that are usually in public e.g Kylie's setting is of a busy street that looks local to her character in her video and in The Hardest Button To Button video they are seen at a park. This shows that Cunningham relies on making the audience not feel apart of the video but makes it interesting to watch, whereas Gondry adds elements of realism through the use of public settings so that the audience can some how relate to the video. Both videos promote their artists, but in different ways. In the Aphex Twin videos the artist is promoted through the use of CGI of his face on the characters involved for example the girls in the limo with him in windowlicker. In reference to Gondry he promotes the artist differently by replicating them within the video for example Kylie is seen doing her everyday things more than once and in the White Striped video they are replicated when performing around the park and subway. The ways in which both directors promoted the artists in their videos may differ, however they surely do make the music video look more interesting by introducing their artist more than once. 

The reason why some artist choose to make a diverse music video is because they want to: try new things to stand out, be creative, show a true representation of themselves, create a buzz around them to increase popularity, widen audiences and attract niche audiences and become more rememberable for trying something new. However the disadvantages to making a diverse music video are: due to the oddness to the artists usual stuff, it may decrease fans because they don't like or understand the new material, it could be a risk to take as it could become a flop due to the change, existing fans may lose interest and plus it might not get as much publicity. Out of the two diverse directors (Chris Cunningham and Michael Gondry), I think that if I were to make a diverse music video, I would ask Michael Gondry to direct it for me. This is because I believe with a diverse music video made by him, it wont be too crazy and wild that the fans would lose interest because they do not understand the video. Whereas, Cunningham's work is too creative and weird that may only attract a niche audience due to its craziness. However, I dont think Im going to make a diverse music video, because with the Indie Pop genre its important you have as many conventions, so that the target audience understand the song and visuals which may be a narrative.