Stopmotion Wednesday - Strawberry Swing

Daniel Neville

The music industry has changed considerably over the last few years, not only has the internet enabled the rapid rise of music piracy but it has also made it easier for bands/artists to get their music out there and heard by more people than would have been possible five years ago.

All of this has made it even more important for artists to reach out to fans and market their wares (increasingly concert tickets and merchandise rather than the actual music) One of the trends I have noticed is the leading role music videos have taken in this process. Strawberry Swing by Coldplay is a very good example - the video has managed to grab the attention of fans and non fans alike. Now I dont think Coldplay have much trouble in selling their wears but this has not stopped them from proving how effective the music video can be in acquiring new fans and selling stuff to them.

Coldplay have done some awesome things with their music videos in the past - one that leaps to mind is the video for Life In Technicolor II which (unexpectedly) rendered the band members as puppets. Strawberry Swing picks up on the increasing trend of making use of the stopmotion animation technique that we are seeing more and more of in short films and ads. In my opinion the video pushes the creativity of the medium to new levels... for example the Strawberry Swing video almost exclusively makes use of chalk to bring the story to life, and with amazing results.

Personally I love the way the video encourages you to listen to the story been told and the images of Coldplay front man Chris Martin dressed as a super hero and fighting a giant squirrel is just brilliant. Strawberry Swing was directed by the Shynola art collective - I really hope we see more work from them in the future.