"Toxic Girl" is the song by the Norwegian Indie Rock group "The Kings of Convenience". This band creates very pleasant and insipiring (in some ways) music. This video shows how ordinary they are, that they also need sincere love etc. They don't use any special effects, they have only guitars which are their leading instrument in every song. There is lipsynching in the video, however, most of time is occupied by the narrative where one of the members of the band searches for a girl he likes. And the audience is supposed to sympathize to him.
The video as well as the song is very sincere and light and very pleasant to watch. "The Kings of Convenience" is one of my favourite bands.
"Fitzpleasure" is a song by an indie and experimental rock group Alt-J. In the video we don't see any lipsynching in any of the video by the group, however, in each video there is much of breathtaking narrative. Sometimes (in the case of "Breezeblocks") you watch the video itself rather listen to the track. "Fitzpleasure" opens with several shots of city jungle with some unrealistic elements e.g. some weird shape in the middle of a football pitch. The video consists of several stories of people with some kind of abnormality, in some cases not existing in the world.
The video tries to be very weird, unlike anything else, futuristic. This is the image Alt-J tries to create for itself: extremely unusual and rebellious. Perhaps, that's the reason why it doesn't include any kind of performance in the videos, because Alt-J doesn't want to ruin this image of different reality, which try to emphasize so persistently. It tries to appeal to young rebellious audience, who sees everything differently. And their symbol, ∆, reinforces this idea. They include in each of their videos as well. It usually appears in the top right corner. Alt-J is one of my favourite bands and "Fitzpleasure" is one of my favourite songs and the video also appeals to me very much.
"Suit and Tie" is the song by Justin Timberlake feat. Jay-Z. This implies that it will contain pop music (Justin Timberlake) and rap (Jay-Z). The video is black and white which immediately makes it very stylish and also makes some reference to old school videos and films. In the beginning there is much slow motion, the editing is quite slow paced, and that makes the video and the artists look very solid and presentable, creating an image of some kinds of the "kings of the world". The beginning also involves a narrative element including the preparation stage and the scene in Justin Timberlake's house, which makes huge emphasis on the artists further reinforcing the idea of the "kings of the world".
Then Justin Timberlake performs on the stage dancing in old-stylish way presumably creating an image of very mature, experienced and successful member of the industry, a huge pop star. So the video's target audience is not young teenagers, but more mature audience.
As soon as Jay-Z starts singing the music becomes slower, which shows that he is even more mature. He comes from the darkness, creating an image of the real "boss", also smoking a cigar. It's typical for rap music videos to objectify women and as soon as Jay-Z starts singing we see a bit where a woman acts expressively sexual, reinforcing the idea of the "king" or "boss" of the rap industry.
So Justin Timberlake gives some lightness to it and even comparative "immaturity", which helps to attract a slightly younger audience, whereas Jay-Z is presented as a boss who sets all the rules and helps to attract slightly older audience.
This video is directed by David Fincher, which is one of the best directors of our time. It is brilliantly shot and is probably my favourite music video.
