Diversity - Miss Miller.

"Why would an artist choose to create a diverse music video?"

1)What makes a music video diverse and unique

Many factors contribute to a diverse music video, the main way is to go against the regular conventions you would expect to see in that music genre. For example in pop music videos you expect to see glamorous settings, therefore a diverse music video would be shot in a very urban, grimy location. Furthermore a diverse music video could be created through the words and music not linking to the visuals, for example if there was an up beat happy song contrasted with a sad slow video, that would create diversity. Mise en scene can also play a huge roll in creating a diverse music video for example if we was to see an artist in an unusual costume, that would make he music video different. Artists that tend to make diverse music videos are Lady Gaga, Miley Cyrus and Robin Thicke.

Chris Cunningham is a diverse music video director who has worked with many different music artists who made his directional debut in 1997 with the music video for "Come to Daddy" by Aphex twin, which was instantly praised, banned, and raved about by many people in the business, other artists he worked with include Madonna and her diverse music video for her song "Frozen". The videos diversity allows the audience to remember the music videos which therefore can impact on the artist by gaining or losing their publicity and fans. Cunningham works predominantly with genres such as ambient music and electronica. Whilst working with pop artist Madonna Cunningham was able to reinvent her completely from her general pop genre based music videos to a more dark, gloomy video. 

Michel Gondry is another diverse music director who worked with Kylie Minogue and The White Stripes who both created obscure and ambiguous music videos. The music videos are out of the ordinary which makes them memorable through the use of repetition of the artists/characters within the videos. Gondry's success was achieved by the use of mise-en-scene in his videos. The elements he incorporated into his videos were very unique, and helped to attract and engage the audience. The settings he uses in the above music video of 'Hardest button to button' are interesting. The settings such as the train station and park that the band play in make the band seem more accessible to their fans which is important for their smaller fan base.

While Micheal Gondry and Chris Cunningham are both successful directors they both have contrasting directing styles. Chris Cunningham is more controversial, working on Madonna's work as well as promoting artists such as Aphex twin through his use of editing his face onto characters within the music video. His outlandish style of directing is effective as the music video  gains views through audiences talking about it and how strangest is or in madonna's case, how different it is. Gondry however works with music with a relatively smaller fan base in genres such as rock, where its more about the music and less about the artists. Therefore he adopt a more particular directing style where focus is on more the music and improving the fan base other than the artist themselves. The appeal with working with Chris Cunningham would be that he is obviously vary good at what he does and is no doubt able to get you publicity through the ambitious style of his directing however his style of directing makes it difficult for you as an artist to keep fans as they may become to confused of his music videos.

2)Cunningham and Gondry's music videos

Cunningham - Come to Daddy by Aphex Twin
 'Come to daddy' by 'Aphex Twin' is directed by Chris Cunningham. This music video can be seen as very controversial and strange due to the editing of the artist "Aphex Twin's" face onto the bodies of school girls. This is going to be memorable to the target audience as it is very unusual and not something that they would expect to see in the music video. The fact that Cunningham used the bodies of young girls for a male artists face could make the audience feel uncomfortable. The title 'Come to daddy' in itself can be seen as inappropriate to the audience as the video includes little girls who the artist seems to have a hold of which can bring about a negative message and can be taken the wrong way. The genre of the song is electro, however the music video contrasts this completely as it shows scary disturbing images which are more linked to the horror genre rather than electro music.

Cunningham - Frozen by Madonna
Chris Cunningham also directed the music video "Frozen" by pop star Madonna. At the time Madonna was a world famous artist who was strongly associated with the pop genre, making this diverse music video even more shocking as it completely went against the genre.  The music video portrays isolation of the artist 'Madonna' who is usually seen with many back-up dancers or glamorous scenery in her previous pop music videos. The pop genre is linked in with bright colors to tie in with the upbeat music, however this video of Madonna's completely contradicts this as it includes dark,dull coloring and lighting to match the deep lowbeat music. This diverse music video was to reinvent Madonna so that she could attract new fans to buy her product. The drastic change of her music video would get the audience talking and through word of mouth would again attract more attention.

Gondry - Come into my World by Kylie Manogue
Much like Madonna, Kylie Manogue was heavily related to the pop genre and producing flamboyant and glamorous music videos to match this. However when she teamed up with producer Michael Gondry she went for the more diverse approach. In the music video 'Come into my world' the artist is the only focus and she is repetitively shown. The repetition of the artist is unconventional for the pop genre which will draw the attention of the audience and engage them to watch more. Another factor that makes the music video so diverse is the fact that Kylie Minogue is wearing casual clothing which subverts typical pop and also has a normal everyday setting. We see her wearing a casual pink shirt which is not what you would expect to see a pop artist wearing as they usually wear clothing that stands out and is extravagant. The videos style is narrative and performance based - when Kylie sings in to the camera which links in with the title of the song as it shows a day to day routine and is the artist going through her own world doing the same thing over and over again.

Advantages and disadvantages of diverse music videos:

An artist may opt to choose to create a diverse music video for many different reasons. The main reason would be to get people talking and to create a 'buzz' for the video. This would get audiences talking about the artist and their video publicising them and their music. Furthermore the individuality of the music video is likely to make the artist stand out from other artists and makes them easier to remember. 

 However their are certain disadvantages to a diverse music video. One would be that in trying to gain views through making it somewhat controversial or changing it from what your original fans were used to, could loose you fans. Furthermore the artist could lose fans as the music video may not match the genre of the music. This means that there is a disconnect between the genre and the video. 

Conclusion:
Upon reviewing both Gondry and Cunningham's work i would argue that Gondry would be the best suited director for my work. The use of his inventive visual style and manipulation of mise-en-scene aswel as his particular style of directing would suit my rock genre music video as he already has allot of experience working in this genre, directing music videos for artists such as Radio head, The Chemical brothers. I will take inspiration from his directing on White stripes 'hardest button to button' in the hopes of replicating the same effect of making the artist appear accessible to fans into my work. However a disadvantage would be that no relationship will be built between artist and audience as this type of alternative music usually focus's on the artistry rather than the artist and so it maybe difficult to maintain a strong fan base.