I went to go look at some animated music videos because it was part of the brief that we had to use sound effects, music or voice overs in our animation so I went to go and observe some to see how timing is effective between the animation and the music.
Gorillaz - 19-2000
The Gorillaz has always been a band that I've liked not only for their music but because all of their music videos are animated which fascinated me when I first saw their music video "Clint Eastwood" on tv in the 90's as a toddler. At that time I didn't pay much attention to the music but to the moving pictures as it was different to the usual cartoons a kid would watch since it had a dreary and dark theme. In the 90's animated music videos weren't very common and the Gorillaz ended up earning an entry in Guinness book of world records for most successful virtual band in 2001. The music videos in which the band appear in consists of an extensive fictional universe depicting this "virtual band" of cartoon characters. The band has four animated members: 2D (lead vocalist), Murdoc Niccals (bass guitar), Noodle (guitar and keyboard), and Russel Hobbs (drums and percussion).
The music video 19-2000 has a mixture of 2D and 3D animation elements which I think works to give scenes some depth, the characters are all 2D and things like the landscape and the car they're all driving in are 3D, I think the vehicle being a 3D animated object also gives the music video a sense of movement and action and make the animation look very smooth. The drawing style of these characters and the world they're in is unique and has a grim aspect as the characters all have a weird design such as crooked or missing teeth, bony hands and fingers with chipped nails and mis matched eye colours. These aspects of the characters make them seem like abnormal and insane or crazy looking which is suitable since the rest of the music video doesn't really use a bright or happy colour palette.
It doesn't seem like the lyrics relate much to whats actually going on in the music video except for some random imagery to a certain word. They've made a lot of use of sound effects to have the animation match well with the music and blend in to the beat of the song such as the car wheels skidding and sound of explosions, which I think works well but the timing of some of the actions in the animation works well with the beat of the music as well, such as in the beginning where Murdoc is flipping his tooth pick with his mouth to the beat of the bass sound or where 2D is snapping his fingers at the same beat as the drums.
Futuristic Imagination
This is a stop motion, paper animation for a japanese pop music video. Pretty much the whole colour scheme for the animation is just white since they haven't used any coloured paper but I think the one colour works because it emphasises the fact that it's all just paper. They've also put in some random desk objects which act as other things for example they've used pencils as missiles and an actual apple instead of a paper one. Unlike other paper-mations i've seen so far which were set against a flat surface this one focuses more on a 3d space by making the people and landscape stand up by folding the paper in a certain way. After looking up the translation of the lyrics I feel like they do relate to whats going on in the music video but might not be obvious or literal to the lyrics. At the end of the music video the lyrics translate to "I'd even cut the roots of our future, and I wouldn't mind" and accompanying it is a scene of the male and female paper figures holding hands after exploding the pencil missiles which could have been seen as the symbolism for their future in this music video. I think the timing of the music with the animation is really synced, there isn't a noticeable beat going through the music video which the animation keeps in time with but it just goes well together. They haven't used any sound effects for this music video but I think it works to put emphasis on the paper aspect of it because paper doesn't make a lot of noise, so I think if they used exploding sound effects for the missiles exploding it might sound out of place with the style of the music.
Daft Punk - Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger
Daft Punk is another band that started in the 90's and in 2003 they released a feature-length animated film called Interstella 5555: The 5tory of the 5ecret 5tar 5ystem. This series of animated videos accompanied an album list of songs and acted as music videos to each of the song's from Daft Punk's Discovery album but when the music videos are linked together in order of the song list on the album they merged into over an hour's long film. The narrative of Interstella 5555 also depict a virtual band of anime style characters in a fictional world in which the style is very electronic and techno-ish and the fashion of the characters is very early 2000's.
The animation goes extremely well with the music as the music has multiple beats in which the actions in the animation move purposely in time with and the tempo of the animation matches really precisely to the song. I think the music and the animation timing just compliments each other really well. It's also very sic-fi themed as the narrative revolves around a band from another planet with an alienated race which pretty much just look like humans with blue skin, and the theme of the cityscape is very futuristic, techy and spacey. The lyrics are very minimal and repetitive but I think it relates to the narrative and actions in the music video because the lyrics are pretty much just "Work it Harder, make it better, do it faster, makes us stronger" and in the animation the alien band have been kidnapped by a record company form earth who are altering and adapting the band members with machines and technology to be made into some kind of popular human band on earth so they can make money from their music and the memories of the band members have been wiped and they're being controlled with these micro chips that have been put on their glasses. So the whole scene is basically emphasising that they're making the band work harder and making them better, faster and stronger by altering them.
Junior Senior - Move your feet
Here is another band that released an animated music video in the 90's I also remember seeing this on tv when I was a kid. The style of this animation is unique in comparison to all of the one's i've seen so far as it's a very pixelated style which looks as if it was drawn in MS paint. This music video has a more hyperactive and energetic theme because the music is upbeat and dancy and the animation consists of a lot of random images of food with faces and people partying. It's also pretty Psychedelic because the colour scheme is bright and flashy and there's a lot of scenes with rainbows and flashing backgrounds. The way I would describe the imagery in this music video is that I imagine all of the scenes look like something someone would see if they were on drugs. The lyrics are highly related to what's going on in the music video since the song is about dancing and party and the whole music video contains relative imagery of people or things being hyperactive. The actions in the animation are also well synced with the beat in the music and the tempo as well as the lyrics and they've used creative typography in some places too such as jam forming a word on toast or bouncing text in the background which adds emphasis to the lyrics.
Here is another band that released an animated music video in the 90's I also remember seeing this on tv when I was a kid. The style of this animation is unique in comparison to all of the one's i've seen so far as it's a very pixelated style which looks as if it was drawn in MS paint. This music video has a more hyperactive and energetic theme because the music is upbeat and dancy and the animation consists of a lot of random images of food with faces and people partying. It's also pretty Psychedelic because the colour scheme is bright and flashy and there's a lot of scenes with rainbows and flashing backgrounds. The way I would describe the imagery in this music video is that I imagine all of the scenes look like something someone would see if they were on drugs. The lyrics are highly related to what's going on in the music video since the song is about dancing and party and the whole music video contains relative imagery of people or things being hyperactive. The actions in the animation are also well synced with the beat in the music and the tempo as well as the lyrics and they've used creative typography in some places too such as jam forming a word on toast or bouncing text in the background which adds emphasis to the lyrics.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4IUjtHf76wM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9896cYPaFf0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gAjR4_CbPpQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SPlQpGeTbIE
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