Music Video representations - Burn the Witch + Unfinished Sympathy

Firstly, i believe that representations of the artists in the videos can portray to the viewer and listener a whole different perspective on the song as a whole, aswell as the band/artist. Many different genres of music will represent the people in entirely different ways in videos, possibly to appeal to different target audiences and promote a side that that audience will appeal to. For example, with an artist such as Justin Bieber - who is very trendy and modern - in his videos we may see him appearing with girls and being intimate with them whilst showing the camera many topless shots. This therefore, would promote him in a good way as teenage girls are attracted to him and like seeing him being overtly sexual towards a woman. Another point, is that representations in music videos work well to reinforce the character that many may here simply from the words. When accompanied with a video you can work with what the artist sings/speaks about and so that promotes the type of musician that they are. The video also can help to truly describe the passion that many artists sing about and so add to the emotion that the person watching and listening will feel about the song and so in terms of representation, it can really allow the person watching to understand what the song is about. 

Upon looking at the videos of each and how the artists are represented, we once again see a major difference in both. To begin with, in Unfinished Sympathy we see the main vocal artist Shara Nelson going about daily life, walking along the streets of New York. In the video she is represented as an everyday person and interestingly not as a celebrity or anyone special. She walks among everyone else though is not hassled for photos and such like it may be in a real life scenario, which could be showing us how the artists are normal people, or want to be seen as 'normal people'.un An interesting point about this video though is that all 3 other band members appear throughout the video, simply walking in the background. We first see an out of focus image of Daddy G walking with his son behind Shara, which for those who don't know the band would look like normal person - possibly what they are trying to get across, that they don't care about fame. We then see Robert Del Naja come from a telephone box and start walking much the same though drops off, then finally 3D appears towards the end. Overall then, the artists in this video are all seen as so normal doing a normal everyday thing and wearing normal clothes - much unlike outlandish outfits worn by other celebrities in videos at the time. Another point, is the representation of street life in the video, as we see all forms of it ranging from bikers to the vibrant clothing of black females at the time. This representation highlights how the artist is centered around the street and so promotes what they believe in, and possibly where they came from. In contrast to this, Burn the witch doesn't feature any of their band members in the video, which for the band is rather different as we usually see the lead singer appearing in them all however bazar they my be. By doing this, it may be how they are tying to take the attention of themselves in order to let people understand the story, aswell as the seriousness of the message they are trying to get across. I believe the videos successfully represent the artists in the way they want to be, as with Unfinished Sympathy we see such a plain every day video which is what Massive Attack wanted, instead of the bold and stereotypical celebrity videos that we usually see. Also, with Burn the witch, by having no show of the artist we can very easily understand the story on its own and take the attention off who is making the music, and more to the message they are giving. Therefore, by not including the band members themselves, it relates to how the band are in themselves and how they don't focus on being noticed - only the music. How this is used could promote the artist as for the viewers they seem more down the earth, compared to many other musicians who are focused on fame and money.