Diversity Of Music ideos - miss miller

Music videos can be very diverse, that in which it means understanding that each individual is unique, and recognises their individual differences. Music artist can have stereotypical conventions of their musical genre that in which they can try to push the boundaries and create a totally different image for themselves. Diverstity in a music video can be beneficial to the artist that in which people will remeber the music video and this can then develop into globalisation resulting in thr artist developing their new style all over the world to different types of audiences. It will be able to create more of a relationship with the audience as they are able to seen their artist in a different light.

There are two main directors that stand out to help create an artists diversity. Chris Cunningham and Michael Gondry create music videos that do not conform to stereotypical genre characteristics. They push the boundaries to possibly create a new image for an artist or to help them with publicity.   Cunningham has primarily directed music videos for ambient music and electronica acts such as Autechre and Aphex Twin. He has mainly worked with the videos for Aphex Twin's "Come to Daddy" and "Windowlicker" are perhaps his best known. His video for Björk's "All Is Full of Love" won multiple awards, including an MTV music video award for Breakthrough Video and was nominated for a Grammy for Best Short Form Music Video. Chris also directed Madonna’s 1998 video for “Frozen2 whilst also directing Light Aircraft On Fire – The Auteurs and many more.

One music video most popularly know by the director Cunningham is Frozen by Madonna. Stereotypically Madonna's main music genre is pop and has many popular videos and has a wide audience fan base due to her pop videos.The music videos that may host her music due to her stereotypical pop genere will be music channels such as  MTV & VIVA as they are pop music channels and can also have such a diverse range of music to suiote everybodys taste. This means thats Cunningham has had to follow some of the conventions of a pop genre in order for them to be able to reach their target audience without the music video resulting into a flop. The music video needed to be aired onto a well known/ well watched music channel as they needed to promote Madonna as being diverse and show her intellect within the music industry.
However, working with Cunningham she has been able to subvert all stereotypes about her music career and has been able to create a very diverse music video. In this music video she subverts the pop genre by mis-en-scene costumes. This is seen when she wears dark, gothic clothing and being completly covered from head to toe in drapes. The subverts the sterotypes of a pop genre and makes her diverse as she isn't showing any skin or brightly coloured clothing which is what you would expect to see in a pop video and this makes her look diverswe as she is showing her to be quite mysterious, and that despite her stereotypes she cant subvert them and is able to show how she can change herself to fit the genre of her music. The dark clothing can be percived to be very mysterious and dull but this can show that despite being a pop artist she can still act reserved.

When relating to Goodwins theory, we see lots of close ups of Madonna and this is used for the single purpose of the pormotion of the artist. This shws her performing and close ups let the music video create a relationship with the audience as they will feel that they can relate to her and this can lead to a wider audience and a better publicity for the artist creating a better image and better diversity as a whole.
In this music video her lyrics match the visulas. For example 'love is a bird' this particualr lyric shows the visuals of Madonna turning into a Blackbird/Sparrow. She trys to convey the meaning in the lyrics to match the visuals showing the blackbird could be a hidden metaphor for her spirit or to show that love isn't forever and that it can just fly away whenever it wants too. This visual also conveys a negative feel as the bird is black it can make the audience feel despair and mystery and this is what Madonna wants the music video to show that love is a burden and that it is dull and meaningless. This could represent a personal experience in Madonnas life and she wants to connect more with the audience and that the visuals matching the lyrics could be more realsitic rather than un-realistic.
In this particualr music video we see Madonna's diversity by her range of style. Here we see her perform with her singing her music and performing to the camera with camera shots such as close-ups, and then also the concept of the music video that in which she protrays love to be horrible and miserbale, not like in a typical pop genre where its portrayed to be unconditional yet complicated.

There are many adavantages to her music video being diverse. IAt can be memorable to the individual. This makes the audience remember her music video as being diverse and personal to her helping the audience realte more to the artist. It gives the artist an intellectual appeal, in this case it shows Madonna as being not only a pop genre but also different generes showing her ability in the music industry as a popualr fermale artist. Madonna can appeal to a niche audience, allowing her to appeal to a wider audience not only her pop music fans but also helping her create globalisation due to her diversity.
Unfortunatly with Madonna trying to be diverse it can lead to many complications with her career. It could possibly limit her target audience. She may not appeal to her niche audience that she already has as they may feel that she is changing her style, her music and may revolt and end up disliking her as a whole. Giving her bad publicity. They may find that her trying to be diverswe is bizarre and may lose some fans, resulting into again another bad reputation; and alternatively she may not create and build a relationship with her audience/fans as they may not like her diversity or her new image and this again can result into a loss of fans and also resulting into her music being a flop.


Another music video that Cunningham directed was Aphex Twin which music genre was house/eletric. 

In the video Aphex Twin subverts the stereotypes of a house/electric music genre by not including the conventions such as the editing including flashing light (strobe light etc). Stereotypically this would be in this particular type of music genre as it creates a ‘club’ scene and this generally is what makes the genre look lively and interesting and realistic of a club setting. They have subverted the stereotypes here as I believe Cunningham wanted to make the artist look like he is having more of a fun time rather than the people around him. This then therefore makes him centre of attention rather than the backup dancers/the extras around the artist themselves.   It is conventional to its genre in which it has fast editing that creates a more fast, upbeat tempo making the audience more connected to the beat of the song, giving the artist more diversity as it makes despite the contact he has himself with the camera and the audience we are able as the audience to see his surroundings and having more of a narrative based song instead of just your stereotypical house/electric club based setting. The narrative is used instead of a performance and concept in the video and this subverts the stereotypes as this makes the artist be portrayed as scary and you don’t necessarily see the artist as being scary due to the image they want to be portrayed. As Aphex Twin wants to be portrayed as being a scarier artist, this can make the audience see him as a threat and therefore could either give him a good reputation (gaining for gothic fans/wider audience) or losing fans (due to his scary persona).
Another subversion Cunningham has included into the music video is including children throughout the whole of the video. This creates an almost paedophilic aspect about the artist as you wouldn’t expect to see children in the context of a house/electric based genre music video. For example this particular aspect matches part of Goodwin’s theory that in which the lyrics match the visuals. ”Come to daddy” is suggestive that the artist is quite manipulative of children or that he is somewhat obsessive with children and loves the company of them with the references of paedophilic or sexual aspects.  Another convention in Goodwin’s theory is the promotion of the artist. Usually the promotion of the artist is seen through performance, in this case it is seen through narrative and his face is on all of the characters and the children throughout the music video. This makes all of the focus to be on the artist himself, that he is centre of attention is his music video. This also helps to create a relationship with the audience as they are able to create a better image of the artist as a whole including his personality giving them a more realistic relationship with the artist as they are able to possibly see his childlike personality (as his face is on a child’s body) and his grown up self.
The style being narrative based telling a story of children being manipulated by him as an artist (possibly a hidden message that his fans copy him in everything that he does)and performance as his face/head are on the bodies of children which again as stated before could possibly represent his immaturity and his personality being almost childlike. The style also conveys him to use the concept of children to subvert their innocence. This type of diversity, despite being almost too diverse can create him a bad image with older audiences such as parents as they may feel that he is abusing children and showing them not to be innocent when they are only small.
Hardest Button - Godnry - The presentation of the genre is rock and it is very conventional to this music genre as its use of mis-en-scene makeup/costume is very dark using dull/miserable colours such black and red based which gives of a patriarchal feel towards its music. It also makes their costumes and makeup more realistic and relatable to their niche audience giving them a more grungy appearance which is very unique and easy to manipulated letting people take inspiration from their ‘simple’ ‘realistic look’. In relation to Goodwin’s theory this is a very unique theory which will sell to a global audience. It is unique in the fact it is only based on performance, there is no narrative or concept involved and relies somonly on the performance of the artist and its drummer to create a better effect . 

Gondry has created music videos such as "Crystalline"- Björk (2011), Dance Tonight" – Paul McCartney (2007) and "Heard 'Em Say" – Kanye West (2005), which are only just a few he has directed.

Advantages of music videos (diversity)
-Memorable videos that are individual
-Give the artist an intellectual appeal
-Artist can appeal to a niche audiene
-Abstract comes to life (makes sense)

Disadvantages of music videos (diversity)
-Limited target audience
-No relationship built between artist and audience
-Some of the audience may find certain videos to bizarre and lose fans

You need to:
1) Finish this
2) Don't use slang (flop!)
3) Check spelling, grammar etc.
4) Conclusion