Playlist: Johanna Cranitch

What’s the best music video you’ve seen recently and why?

It is impossible to choose just one, I will do the most recent ones I saw that captured my attention.

What makes the video for Dijon - Big Mike’s so incredible to me is the tension between spontaneity and intention. The performance peels back the veil on the “writing” and recording processes that some of us are lucky to have. It invites the audience into the experience of music creation, collaboration, and the joy of music.

The video reflects that same idea of voyeurism, but it has a twist. It feels like a loose rehearsal space full of friends making music together, but the set slowly reveals itself to be a soundstage, blurring the line between documentary and constructed performance. Recording and songwriting happened simultaneously, and the performances were captured largely live, which gives everything this incredible sense of immediacy.

When I first saw the video, I didn’t know much about Dijon. But as an artist and collaborator myself, I was instantly drawn into the atmosphere. It captures something so specific and true: the energy in a room when a group of musicians is locked in, vibing, and creating together in real time. Music is about feeling, and this video captures that magic in the room when musicians are truly creating together.

I’m a huge fan of C Prinz as a director, and the video for Charli XCX - Chains of Love, really shows why. The use of space and choreography is incredible, not to mention the stunts and visual effects.

There’s a moment when the camera pulls back to reveal Charli hanging off the edge of a long banquet table, in a state of suspended desire that beautifully echoes the song's themes. I love how eloquently the narrative is reflected in the visuals.
The video is full of layers. It juxtaposes harsh, almost brutalist imagery with intimate, delicate gestures. One of my favourite moments is a slow-motion shot of Charli doing a pirouette, her hair trailing behind her in this incredibly elegant way. It’s completely mesmerising.

What’s the first music video you remember being impressed by?

As a longtime fan of Kate Bush, she was probably my very first singer crush as a vocalist. There was something about her voice and presence that felt completely singular to me from the beginning. When I first saw the video for Cloudbusting, it left a real impression. It didn’t feel like a typical music video. It felt like stepping into a small, emotional film.

The story of the boy and his father, played by Donald Sutherland, unfolds with this quiet intensity, and the imagery of the cloud machine gives the whole piece a sense of wonder and myth. Even as a young viewer, it made me realize that a music video could carry real emotional weight and narrative depth.

Looking back, I think that’s why it stuck with me. Kate Bush had this way of making music feel theatrical, cinematic, and deeply human all at once. Cloudbusting captured that perfectly, and it was probably the first time a music video made me feel like I was watching something closer to storytelling than promotion.

And what’s your all-time favourite music video?

The video for Peter Gabriel - Sledgehammer still feels astonishing today, but in 1986, it was truly radical. At a time when most music videos leaned on straightforward performance or narrative, Sledgehammer treated the format as a playground for visual experimentation. The result was a constantly transforming world where Peter Gabriel’s face morphs, fruit dances across the frame, and everyday objects take on a strange, surreal life of their own.

Much of that magic came from the painstaking stop-motion work created by Aardman Animations alongside the Brothers Quay. Gabriel famously spent long hours lying beneath a sheet of glass while animators moved objects and facial elements frame by frame, photographing each tiny adjustment. The process was slow and laborious, but it produced an uncanny visual language that blended claymation, pixilation, collage, and live performance in ways that hadn’t really been seen in mainstream pop.

What makes the video so enduring is how perfectly those techniques serve the song's spirit. The visuals mirror the music’s themes of transformation, energy, and desire, constantly shifting and reinventing themselves with each beat. Rather than illustrating the lyrics literally, the video creates a kind of visual rhythm that feels inseparable from the track itself.

In doing so, Sledgehammer helped redefine what a music video could be. It became one of the most celebrated pieces in the history of MTV, sweeping the 1987 MTV Video Music Awards and influencing generations of directors, animators, and artists. Decades later, it still feels inventive and alive, a reminder of how bold experimentation can turn a simple song into a piece of cultural history.

What other directors/artists do you look to for inspiration?

I’m going to stick with Directors and list a few I've worked with, some I am inspired by, and some I would love to work with.

Jaron Albertin, Zack Dov Weisel, Amy Berg, Heidi Ewing, Rachel Fleit, and Nina Meredith.

What are you listening to at the moment?

I’ve been on a classical kick lately. Satie, Rachmaninov, Stravinsky, and Ravel.

What’s your favourite bit of tech, whether for professional or personal use?

My Apollo x4, my upright piano, and good old Logic Pro x.

What artist(s) would you most like to work with and why?

I would love to work with Kate Bush or Brian Eno.

How do you feel the promo industry has changed since you started in it?

Since 2004, the promo industry has shifted from a broadcast-driven model to a digital, social, and data-driven ecosystem. Campaigns used to revolve around TV spots, theatrical trailers, and tightly timed release windows. Now they live across a constant stream of platforms, with dozens of tailored assets such as short-form video, influencer collaborations, memes, and platform-specific edits built to grab attention quickly and move organically through audiences. In a visually saturated, endlessly scrolling landscape, sonic-driven storytelling has become more important than ever. 

Sound is often the first thing to cut through and create an emotional memory. Because of that shift, my work in sonic branding and vocal identity has easily doubled, if not tripled, as brands increasingly recognise that a distinctive sonic voice helps a campaign feel cohesive and memorable across so many touch-points. At the same time, cultural cache is increasingly tied to real human collaboration, with brands partnering with artists and bands in ways that feel authentic and culturally grounded, a powerful counterpoint to the rise of AI-generated content.