Chris Cunningham has a recognizable and consistent style in his work as a music video director. He often breaks conventions by using disturbing imagery and unconventional editing techniques matched to techno or electronic music. His videos do not usually follow clear narratives but instead prioritize visual style over substance and meaning.

1. Chris Cunningham often works with the
same type of artists and his work is very
recognisable as he uses the same style
throughout. Chris’s work very often breaks
the common forms and conventions of
nearly all of music videos today. Using
disturbing images and content which has
never been played with in these ways
before, keeping the audience watching.
The genres of music and artists usually directed
by Chris Cunningham tend to be the same
throughout his career. This genre being
techno/electronic/ ambient. With Chris’ style this
works very well as the alternative style of music
matches the alternative style of editing and
directing. Techno and other similar genres are
often associated with robotics and new
technology which, as mentioned before, is what
Chris Cunningham used to work with.
Before directing Chris worked with robotics
which is obvious in some videos for example
Björk - All is Full of Love video uses both
editing and actual robots. The music video
Chris Cunningham creates are very often
edited with the music in selected areas. An
example of this would be Square Pusher –
Come on My Selector where literally the
whole video is edited to the track.
Cunningham also breaks Andrew Goodwin’s
common forms and conventions in a music video
with Aphex Twin – “Windowlicker” which plays on
the representations of women and black males in
the media. The women seen in the beginning and
being harassed by two black males in their car
however they are getting nowhere. A man in a limo
turns up to pick the women up. Later the women
lure the men in but they turn extremely physically
ugly.
Chris very much goes for style over
substance, the visual effects and what
the audience sees is more important that
what they are hearing. Chris’ videos do
not follow a major narrative. They reject
the meta-narrative and what the viewer
is watching usually doesn’t make sense
or has a very deep meaning behind it.