Alternative music videos: Gondry and Cunningham

Music video directors undoubtedly hold a key role in the production of a music video, but they arguably have a major role when it comes to more artistic, alternative and concept based videos. These videos tend to reach out to different audiences due to their strange concepts/themes overall differentiating from a mainstream pop music video. Alternative music videos can reflect the personal life of the director onto the music video.

Chris Cunningham is a British video artist/director. As a video artist his music videos are very unusual and unique. An example of this is shown in the music video Bjork- "All is full of love" 

 This music video is an example on how the directors life gets reflected onto the video since in an interview Cunningham said that he received inspiration from his childhood love of machinery and robots The music video is also highly concept based and there aren't many other music videos that include robots that are so technologically developed that they're almost human like.The video is also made as an art form to invoke different emotions from different audiences unlike a regular mainstream music video.

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 are unable to make an emotional connection. Once again this is different from your usual, mainstream music video as it they both portray different intentions. This "dark and disturbing" only makes a visual connection to the lyrics when the people are seen moving towards the camera accompanied by the lyric "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 due to the fact that a good number of them don't apply to Goodwin's theories). His approach to music videos would not be very effective in pleasing or even appealing to my chosen target audience. The lack of performance, attractive visuals and close ups that identify the artist would not be conventional in an everyday R&B/Ballad music and the visuals seen in such alternative music videos would most likely not be enjoyed by my target audience.

Michael Gondry is a French film director, screenwriter and producer. He is noted for his inventive visual style and manipulation of mis en scene . Creator of the famous "Around the World" by Daft Punk music video Gondry is known for using innovative performances to create impressive concept based videos.

Chemical brothers - Let Forever Be 

The two music videos by Gondry use an impressive combination of props, costume and choreography to create visually stunning effects. Even though the videos aren't conventional to R&B/Ballad, due to the lack of artist identification it is not too unconventional that we would never view these types of videos in one simply due to the impressive use of mis en scene. 

As McCracken states; "people change with age and become part of different cultures" I find this applies well to today's society because as we grow up we form different interests and friendship groups which reflect what music we listen to and the styles of music videos we enjoy watching.

In terms of Richard Dyer's "Star Theory"in which he believes celebrities are manufactured by companies for financial gains. He states; "A star is an image, not a real person, which is constructed out of a range of mediums" This links with alternative music videos as directors are taking a risk by approaching a more unusual/ strange concept as they may not be able to appeal to a range of target audiences. As a result this could result in a loss of viewers.