Alternative music videos: Cunningham and Gondry

Music video directors undoubtedly hold a very important role in music video production, but they arguably have a bigger role when it comes to more artistic alternative music videos.

These videos tend to have a reaction very different to mainstream ones due to how different they can be, and the audience they reach out to.

A main difference between a mainstream video and an alternative one is that the director's personal life can be reflected in the video.

Chris Cunningham  is a British video Artist/ Director.

As a video artist his music videos are viewed as very strange, and concept based. An example of this is shown in the music video Bjork – ‘all is full of love’.

In this music video the visuals that we see are all of a robot being manufactured but this is what is singing the lyrics. This music video is very much concept based as there is not many other music videos that include robots that are so technologically developed that they are almost human like. The music video is also made as an art form to invoke different feelings from different people unlike a regular mainstream video that is there to create a connection between the artist and audience.

This video is also an example on how the directors’ life gets reflected in a video since in an interview Chris stated that his inspiration came from his childhood love of robots and machinery.

Another example of Cunningham’s work is Aphex Twin – ‘Come to Daddy’.

This music video creates a creepy feeling by not revealing a face with a definitive emotion so the audience cannot make an emotional connection with the things in the song. This is very different to what music videos in the mainstream would try to do since the intention is very different hence why it's an alternative music video. This 'dark and disturbing' video only makes a visual link to the lyrics when the people are seen moving towards the screen to the lyrics 'come to daddy'.

Chris Cunningham's work in general is not set to a specific style, but his videos are usually viewed as weird to the public (most likely because a good number of Goodwin’s theories do not apply to the videos). His approach to music videos would not be very effective in pleasing or even attracting my target audience. The lack of performance, attractive visuals, and close ups that identify the artist would not be conventional in an everyday Pop/rock music and the visuals seen in these alternative music videos would perhaps not be enjoyed by my target audience.

Michel Gondry is a French film director, screenwriter, and producer. He is noted for his inventive visual style and manipulation of mise en scene.

Creator of the famous around the world by Daft Punk video Michel Gondry is known for using innovative performances to create impressive concept based videos.

Daft Punk – ‘Around the World’.

Chemical Brothers- ‘Let forever be’.

The two music videos by Michel Gondry use an impressive combination of props, costume, and choreography to create visually stunning effects. Even though the videos are not conventional to Pop/rock music videos, due to the lack of artist identification, it is not too unconventional that we would never view these types of visuals in music videos simply due to the impressive use of mise-en-scene. Both of these artist within the time that these music videos were released we quite popular and well known so for them to come out and have music videos like these was a high risk as it may off put some of their audience because of their weird use of camera shots and mise en scene. However, as McCracken states ‘people change with age and become part of different cultures’ I find applies well to today’s society because as we grow up we form different friendship groups and interests which highly influence what music we listen to and what types of music videos we like to watch.

In terms of Dyer’s star theory in which he believes that icons and celebrities are manufactured by institutions for financial gain. He states “A star is an image, not a real person, which is constructed out of a range of materials (media)”. This links with alternative music videos because the directors and artists are taking huge risks by deciding to make a concept based alternative music video because they may not be able to reach out to all of their target audience if they experiment with different styles of music video. As a result they may lose some of their audience by taking a risk with this style of music videos.