analysis of music videos

1. Directors label music videos
Examining artists and producers

2. Mark Romanek – Red Hot Chili
peppers: Can’t Stop
 Mark Romanek’s creative style is well
known for being abstract, disjointed and
bizarre. His video for Can’t Stop
embodies all of these traits.
 The video itself features the band
members in a large room interacting with
a variety of objects e.g. large rubber
balls, masks, bins, lights and plastic
tubes.
 There is no narrative and the video uses
close ups and bright lighting to put
emphasis on the band members, on
whom the video is solely focused
 The video bears no relation whatsoever
to the lyrics of the song, however the fast
paced editing and constant movement of
the band throughout the video matches
very well with the theme “Can’t Stop”.
Steve Archer suggests the videos

3. Brendon Small – Soundgarden:
Black Rain
 Brendon Small is an animation artist
and incorporates vibrant and highly
stylistic work into his cartoons and
music videos.
 The music video for Soundgarden’s
Black Rain has a strong
narrative, although it doesn’t revolve
around the lyrics.
 The video features animated versions
of the band members as they battle
with celestial beasts that are attacking
earth.
 The video is presented as very dark
and this is emphasised by the
constant use of greens and reds to
highlight the monsters and other
features of the music video.

4. Michel Gondry – Bjork: Human
behaviour
 Michel Gondry is a well known
directors and has worked on many
films as well as collaborating with
many artists to work on music videos.
He is known for his inventive visuals
and eccentric style.
 The music video for Bjork’s human
behaviour uses manipulation of mise
en scene to reflect the unpredictable
nature of humans.
 The video has a very loose narrative
and demonstrates Bjork in the wild
surrounded by almost fairy tale like
creatures, using them to display the
wild part of human nature.
 Gondry uses very deep and dark
colours to emphasis the deep nature
of the track and innovative lighting to
highlight certain parts of the video
e.g. shots of Bjork are always well lit
to put emphasis on the fact that she
is the star.