Spike Jonze - the Music Video Director

Spike Jonze has accumulated much acclaim for his work in directing music videos, commercials and more recently, feature films. Jonze's list of work is much more extensive than I initially thought. Not only that, many of his commercials and music videos were favorites of mine, which made researching his work a lot more rewarding and interesting. One of the main reasons I am attracted to Spike Jonze's work is his use of humor. Through much of his work, one cannot help but laugh when watching his Ikea ad or video "Praise You" by Fatboy Slim. His name is widely synonymous with ingenuity and creativeness and is best known for his work as a director for music videos. He has worked with a number of very popular and mainstream artists as well as appealing to an underground music scene with bands such as "The Breeders."

Music video are essentially, short films. Short films are known for their artistic expression that deviates from the norm as opposed to the mainstream Hollywood regurgitation. However, moreso, the short film label includes many categories such as commercials, trailers and music videos. Spike Jonze reminds the American population that it is still possible to create these types of films without conforming to the expected outcome that everyone else around him has fallen prey to.

Although he has worked for a large variety of companies such as Nike and Adidas, I am going to focus on Jonze's influence on the music video industry and how he has achieved a successful and unique way of making the music video interesting to watch. His work is much more extensive and lengthy in this media outlet, thus, it makes the most sense to focus on what Jonze is most famous for and where I have found him to be the most artistic.