Diversity of a Music Video

Music videos stick to certain conventions within a genre. For example, within a rock music video, it is highly likely to see a band performing either on stage, or in a recluse location. So when someone watches a music channel that shows rock, i.e. Kerrang! they will expect to see this in most music videos.

However, when things break these conventions, it is known as diversity. For example, this could be something simple, like bright colours in a heavy metal video. Usually, a convention of heavy metal would be dark colours, and dark themes. However, a good example of this being broken, is in Marilyn Manson's version of 'Tainted Love'. We can see the gothic colours of the black on his completely pale white skin, showing the dark connotations, however, he finds himself in a bright pink coloured
bedroom.

Something that our class looked at together as a group was two different directors that both use diversity in their music videos, however they both use them differently. The first of these directors is a man called Chris Cunnigham. Cunnigham presents some sort of 'horror' aspect to the videos he produces. The other director we have looked at is Michel Gondry. Gondry is a french director that has done top films such as The Green Hornet. He has also produced music videos for bands such as Daft Punk, The Vines and Radiohead.

Aphex Twin - Come to Daddy

The music video to this is something that is completely diverse to any genre, as its theme acts as a nightmare/horror film. This sort of video does not conform to any of the music genre stereotypes, as the only genre that would come close to using this would be a heavy metal. This video shows midgets with photo-shopped faces. They have mens faces that are made up like womens, and have been digitally modified. There is also a slightly different start to the story line that involves an old women and her dog. She finds a TV on the council estate, and this is where the small characters are first introduced. Later on, we then see the old woman with a mutant being that is screaming at her, which again tries to add the element of fear.

When reviewing Cunninghams thoughts on the production and creation of this video, he displayed that although this was funny to create, it was also very tedious work and some of the prosthetics used in the videos could take hours to apply, and with such intense music having to fit the video, it took months to finish producing. The problem was also making sure everyone on set could make filming times as half of the crew were simply friends of Cunningham's, and had other jobs to hold down, so could not work full time on the short film.

Chris Cunningham also implied that the video has nothing to do with conventions. He believes that its people that make music such as this that allow him to continue making videos in the style in which he does. He feels that his videos push on the boundaries of short films/music videos, and in order for these videos and thoughts to be put into production, he needs artists such as this to keep producing brand new types of music. Therefore showing that he feels this is a genre of music that really does fit to his ideas, despite what society would generally say.



The White Stripes - The Hardest Button to Button

This is the 3rd of 4 music videos that Michel Gondry has directed for the alternative rock band the White Stripes.

The video utilizes pixilation animation to create the effect of dozens of drum kits and guitar amplifiers multiplying to the rhythm of the song as Jack and Meg perform. For example, in one sequence, Meg is seen playing the bass drum at a train station. On every beat, a new drum materializes just ahead of her and she instantly appears behind it to play that beat, leaving all the previous drums vacant. This effect was achieved by first setting up a trail of bass drums. Then, Meg would be filmed performing a single beat on the last drum in the line, which would then be removed; she would move back one drum, play another beat, and so on. The final video is edited to include the drum beats with the sequence reversed, making it appear as if the drums are being added to the beat, appearing out of thin air. Gondry used 32 identical Ludwig drum kits, 32 identical amplifiers, and 16 identical microphone stands during the shoot. The drum kits were donated to a music school after the shoot.

Gondry shows throughout this video that he prefers a simplistic type of music video, and that he finds this may be more effective than that of the style of Chris Cunningham.