Spike Jonze is an American director known for his music videos from 1992 to 2010 for artists like Bjork, Beastie Boys, and Fat Boy Slim. His style typically involves using narrative themes over live performances. Many of his videos do not feature the artist and have an unconventional, postmodern style. He is known for giving meaning to songs through unique videos and helping to promote bands. Some of his techniques include using intertextual references, parody, and assembling elements from different sources to create new works.

1. MUSIC VIDEO DIRECTOR RESEARCH
SPIKE JONZE

2. • Spike Jonze is an American
director and producer, whose
work includes music videos,
commercials, film and
television.
• Spike's music videos range
from 1992-2010 with a wide
scope of artists and bands
such as Bjork, The Beastie
Boys, Tenacious D and Fat
Boy Slim.
• His first music video was
“High in High School” by
Chainsaw Kittens and his
latest video was “Drunk Girls”
by LCD Soundsystem.
INTRODUCTION
“High in High School” “Drunk Girls”

3. SPIKE’S STYLE
As a well known music video director, Spike Jonze has made plenty of
videos for comparison hence it is easier to see his style, from watching
his music videos I have come to the conclusion that his style consists of
the following things which I will establish more in later slides:
• Most of his videos do not use live performance but have a narrative
theme, some also use intertextual references.
• His music videos give some songs meaning, and in some cases give
an ‘OK’ song a fantastic video which helps to promote the band.
• His videos are also stylistically unusual (No meta-narrative – doesn’t
conform with genre.), but not as unusual as Chris Cunningham's
Videos. They also use the postmodern terms Bricolage &
Parody/Pastiche.

4. SPIKE’S STYLE – NARRATIVE THEME & VISUAL STYLE
Most of his videos do not use live performance but have a narrative theme
• His first video (#1) “High in High School” does show a live performance in front
of an audience but it does also contain small narrative parts shown in (#2).
Although the narrative parts aren't massive or necessarily show any form of
story, they outline two of Spike’s themes which is his use of urban landscapes
and narrative. Mostly all of his videos do not contain rural landscapes, this
could suggest that Spike Jonze favours more underground music than
mainstream. This is enforced by (#3) which shows a similar shot but in the
Beastie Boys “Sabotage.”
• Back to the narrative/performance theme; most of his videos do have this
theme, (#4) “Elektrobank” by the Chemical Brothers is about a high school
gymnast competition, the video starts with a 1min:30secs clip of a small back
story where we follow a girl preparing for the competition, immediately we
empathise with her as she is the first character shown (a key theme in
stories/plots). Adding to the urban feeling of his videos, this one seems slightly
grey and based in a high school, showing more of his visual style. Some of his
videos do not actually contain the band/artist and most do not contain close
ups either, this could show that Spike Jonze is an exceptional director meaning
that he works with big bands that already have recognition amongst viewers.
• “Da funk” by Daft Punk (#5) also uses a narrative theme in the video, the story
follows a human/dog and his encounters with different people. Again he is
introduced as one of the first characters and in shot throughout the video; we
immediately empathise with him, again linking to the narrative theme and
enforcing one of Spike’s visual styles. Also within this video is the use of urban
landscape, this shot shows a wooden structure and a poster covered wall, it is
clear to see that this place is within a city; this allows the viewer to sympathise
with the character as they are likely to understand that big cities are daunting.
This is shown throughout the sequence as the main character has lived there
for only a month and he is segregated from other people; an example of this
would be when he is asked to take a survey, the woman says that he hasn’t
lived there long enough and cannot participate in the survey.
#1
#2
#3 #4 #5

5. Spike’s use of intertextual references
• Another one of Spike Jonze’s styles is
his use of intertextual references. In
“Weapon of Choice” by Fat Boy Slim
(#1), we can see from this shot that it
uses a reference from the first Matrix
film (made a year before the video),
the reference is the famous levitating
kick from the first scene.
• Another use of intertextual reference is
in “Sabotage” (#2), this video uses 80s
cop shows as a major point of
reference. This shot is similar to most
opening credit sequences used in 80s
cop shows and uses parody which I
will talk about in a later slide.
SPIKE’S STYLE – NARRATIVE THEME
#1
#2

6. His music videos give some songs meaning, and in some cases give
an ‘OK’ song a fantastic video which helps to promote the band
• “Da funk” (#1) is a fairly plain dance track, but Spike Jonze has
given it meaning by making this music video. The song on it’s
own does not really create an image in the listener’s head
compared to a song that uses lyrics. Spike uses this video to
create meaning for the viewer, throughout most of it he uses
dialogue so the viewer can fully understand the story of the
main character. The unique selling point of this music video is
the use of the human/dog character, we remember this
because it is not often used in music videos, allowing us to
familiarise ourselves with the song. A good music video like
this also helps to promote the band as viewers are more likely
to remember it and promote it via word of mouth. This videos
heavy use of narrative actually makes it seem like a short film,
which could help to promote Spike Jonze more than the
band/artist.
• “Elektrobank” (#2) is very similar, the track is better than “Da
Funk” but it still doesn’t give an image to accompany the song
on its own. Again the video allows us to give the song meaning
and remember it for being a good video. This music video is
fantastic as the music matches the editing very well and isn’t
so much of a short film; especially at 4:38 (shown in shot)
where it goes into slow-motion, the tension rises as we want
her to win. This helps to add meaning and makes it more
memorable than songs that use conventional footage.
SPIKE’S STYLE – STYLE OVER SUBSTANCE
#1
#2

7. His videos are stylistically unusual and use the postmodern terms Bricolage &
Parody/Pastiche
• “Drop” by the Pharcyde (#1) is stylistically unusual compared to other
hip-hop music videos. The video itself appears to be going forwards, but
in fact it is backwards. The video is very well planned as the lip-syncing
seems flawless but their actions seem to be in reverse giving a really
good effect. This shows a rejection of meta-narrative which means it
does not follow a normal pattern, it also does not conform with the
genre. In hip-hop videos we generally see black men as being
pimps/players surrounded by women, but this video has its own style
showing that Spike Jonze’s videos are postmodern and have their own
conventions.
• Again in “Flashing Lights” by Kanye West (#2) we see a similar
occurrence. The video also doesn’t conform with the hip-hop genre,
although the women shown in it is half naked she is not objectified. In
fact she is in control of the situation much like the femme fatale of film
noir. After she burns her coat, we discover there is a man in the boot of
her car (#3) whom she kills. This shows that Spike Jonze does not
conform with the conventions of the genre.
• He also uses parody in some of his videos (Parody is an imitation of
creative work that is satirical or humorous.) In “Sabotage” the video is
clearly a reference to 80s cop shows (as stated earlier), this video is a
good example of parody as it imitates 80s cop shows humorously; this is
done by the ridiculous wigs/moustaches and the blatant use of
dummies. Spike also uses pastiche and bricolage (Pastiche uses
different creative sources to create one text; in this case a music video.
Whereas, Bricolage is the process of assembling artefacts from bits and
pieces of other things). “Wonderboy” by Tenacious D (#5) is an example
of pastiche, it uses various sources to create it, mainly 21st century
movies like lord of the rings but doesn’t use them humorously like the
Beastie Boys. It is also an example of bricolage because it uses sources
from movies and novels to create a music video.
SPIKE’S STYLE - POSTMODERN
#1
#2
#3 #4 #5

8. SPIKE JONZE
• As an exceptional director, Spike Jonze has worked with big bands, but
although these bands seem to be mainstream his music videos seem more
underground in terms of their style as they are unconventional and
postmodern which is why I like his work. His videos differentiate from other
directors such as Michael Gondry who uses more conventional videos
(although equally unusual), and Chris Cunningham’s videos which are the
least conventional. His use of narrative is a large part of his music videos and
a large part of his style.