What makes a music video Unique?

To recognise the diversity of music videos 

Chris Cunningham and Michael Gondry are two music directors which specifically create diverse music videos.

Chris Cunningham directed a video by Madonna named 'Frozen' which demonstrates evidence in the ways in which it simply challenges conventions and appears diverse. Firstly, Madonna appears to be singing about someone whom has broken her heart, however there is no evidence of this person throughout the video, the only character is a female actor. She sings and confronts this person through the use of the second person 'you', this therefore makes it seem like she is confronting and engaging us as an audience but appears unclear as there is no focus on this person. 

This music video challenges the genre and characteristics of Madonna as an artist herself, although her music videos may vary majorly in attempt to capture a demandingly vast audience,  the electronic ballad 'frozen' challenges her conventions as a pop artist. The music video is revealing heartbreak, therefore the dark, low key lighting emphasises this solemn effect, which allows her to strongly evoke her emotions which is further conveyed through the atmosphere and weather which is heavy and dull, as if unable to escape from this mood as she is constantly surrounded.

 This may fail to capture an audience as Goodwins theory is rarely evident, as the lyrics fail to distinctively match her actions. They appear to be conveyed through slow movement and black iconography in attempt to express hurt and perhaps desperation. There is some reference, however, for example 'Love is a bird she needs to fly', there are crows in this video which are flying, she is referring to herself, these birds can take off and are free but she feels trapped which is ironcically revealed through establishing shots of endless scenery in order to suggest isolation and vulnerability. However, crows are a bird which are often viewed negatively and to some extend foreshadow death, perhaps her love is dead. This expresses the diversity of her music video, generally if a bird was used to positively convey love or convey love in general there would perhaps be a white dove flying in order to clearly suggest to the audience that this bird is love and is a theme. It is not specifically made evident, which continues to portray the poignant, dark mood. 

The structure and style of the music video is a concept video which appears to be obscure as it lacks explanation or narration failing to explain or elaborate the reasons for why she is like this. This intensifies the abandonment, as her life doesn't appear to be what she wants it to be, lyrics such as 'waste your time with hate and regret' seem ambiguous as we would originally assume she is relating this to someone however her actions and dark mood expressed would suggest it is her who has thousands of regrets. The video consists of many close ups which do allow us to connect with the artist, revealing her emotional strain, there are also repetitive reflections of herself which appears spontaneous but is successful in revealing her entrapped mind and thoughts, which is supported by her laying on the floor or crouching she is physically and mentally weak. 'You only see what you want to see', here the artist stares intensively looking down slightly which disengages and removes her from the audience as if deep in thought, emphasising her desperation. 

The connotations of emptiness and darkness make it seem as if she is represented with no heart, this is the death of it, although she sings about her heart and emotions, emptiness remains, as if an insight into her dark soul. 
There are also specific close up shots and focus on her hands, revealing a tattoo of the sanskrit symbol of God which is believed to remove all despair, taking you closer to God, which adds religious context to her. Perhaps she turns to God in order to be heard because she is emotionally trapped an has no-one who will listen nor turn to, God allows her to gain strength and belief. She appears to be serious through the use of black and body language but perhaps she fails to be taken seriously and understood.  

The video is extremely unordinary and could disengage the audience as it does not follow the concepts or conventions of a music video which Madonna would create. This can be seen as a disadvantage as people may fail to see the deeper meaning and depth throughout this video as generally people just want to be entertained when watching a music video. However I think it is powerful in remaining basic in order to be emotive. 

Advantages of having a diverse music video 

• Makes a music video memorable, ability to stand out from the rest making it easily recognised.
• The artist appears individual and independent. 
• Artists can have a niche audience which this would conform to
• Abstract comes to life
• Frozen appears successful in conveying emotional hurt, isolation and desperation through a concept video! 

Disadvantages of having a diverse music video

• It may be difficult to build/form a relationship with the audience. 
• Doesn't always appeal to everybody, people may want something they can easily relate to and understand 
• Therefore a limited target audience could be formed

Gondry's music video-The White Stripes 'Seven Nation Army'
This music video lacks significance to lyrics however it does peculiarly have basic rock genre characteristics although it may appear less clearly. The duration of the music video consists of something similar to an optical illusion, as it presents the artists performing from a long shot to a mid shot, through reoccurring triangles showing movement as if travelling through an endless tunnel, could this be setting the pace of the song itself? The characters are emphasised through becoming larger as if projected, in order for the audience to remain focused on the characters however this is challenging due to the pace. Instruments are present as drums and electric guitars are revealed as they play them, this is rather specific to the rock genre. There are also movement of the characters, for example pointing, or when the lyrics say 'want to hear' the character covers his ears in order to engage us with what is being presented, this could be touching on elements of Goodwins theory but it appears to be extremely vague.  Instead we are distracted by the spontaneous  repetitive marching skeleton warriors which add to the aggression or negativity of this music video. The words used such as 'pounding', pleading, rip off and blood make this appear graphic, implying sufferance which is emphasised through the colour red perhaps suggesting seriousness or danger, he sings in an aggressive tone in order to elaborate perhaps anger or general aggression which is usually specific to rock artists.
This music video fails to captivate an emotional interest within the lyrics, however the genre must be considered as people who have an interest in rock wouldn't specifically be looking for a connection, as most rock videos are live footage/performance based and focus on the heavy base/ use of instruments and body language to connote aggression, similar to this as it also focuses on the beat with the flashing light. This could diverge a mainstream audience as the repetition may disengage people, but is successful in allowing the music video to be detected as a specific genre.

((Consider if Gondry's or Cunningham's style of video production would suit your chosen genre. Identify elements which would work well and wouldnt work well))

Gondry's style when analysing 'The White Stripes' could perhaps suit the conventions of a rock genre as it still focuses on elements of performance and would be appropriate when specifically focusing on this, elaborating and further engaging focus on the artists through mirrored effects. However as our selected song and traditional music video is mainstream  a diverse style would not suit our music video, artists which are extremely well established such as Madonna may decide to create a diverse video in order to differentiate herself and surprise her audience from a 'professional point' of view it would be challenging for us to do this as we have to consider ourselves as if 'new artists' therefore we would want to do all we can in order to familiarise and connect ourselves to our audience. New artists which are breaking into the pop industry usually follow a conventional, stereotypical video in order to familiarise themselves and attract this mainstream audience; examples of this would be with Rita Ora, Justin Bieber. We may be able to take features of these types of diverse videos forward such as the specific use of lighting to emphasise the beat and attention on colours but not to an extent where it may appear unordinary and peculiar as we want to avoid ambiguous effects which diverse videos create. I think diverse videos can be extremely effective as it portrays creativity and an element of the unknown, but seeing as our music video is a pop/dance/rnb type music genre this would not be appropriate.