CS GENRE CONVENTIONS: Specific Characteristics

Possible Influences:

• Black and white in some of the shots
• Low key lighting/ naturalistic lighting
• Follow the typical Indie costume for the band 
• Have the performance reflect the Indie attitude with some members
• The narrative to be non linear/ abstract 

Performance

Playlist we put together with Indie/Alt Rock
...

...
The performance of a music video in the Indie genre is quite unique. Above is a playlist with all the music videos we have analysed. The most common is to have performance with the whole band and sometimes split up the band.

Black and White
This was a widely used convention when Indie was an emerging genre. As Indie is seen as quite sinister and dark at times black and white or monochrome footage would fit perfectly with the theme these bands where trying to create for the audience to interpret. Below are a few examples:
...

Joy Division - Atmosphere 

Oasis - Wonderwall

The Cranberries -  Zombie

...

The black and white footage is also an easy trick with low key lighting. Low key lighting is also commonly used as it brings out a more naturalistic look to the performers and doesn't glamorize the band in any way. This is the opposite of high key lighting used to glamorize in pop music videos.  The music videos aren't always black and white as seen with a couple of examples below:

...

BUZZCOCKS - Ever Fallen in Love

PIXIES - Bagboy

...

It could also be argued that the monochrome footage is to reflect upon the silent cinema era of the early 20's where it was only black and white. Indie stands for independent and this means there can be quite a lot of abstract meanings and reflecting on what once used to be modern. This is also seen with the record player in Oasis - Wonderwall. The record player was out of date and seen as old fashioned when this music video was made in 1995. This could link into the Stuart Hall's Preferred Reading where everyone has their own readings of a text and some will understand the intertextuality or the themes being produced whereas someone else will understand the text in another way. Nowadays, the record player seems to be the new 'hip' way to listen to music as it has made a huge comeback!

Oasis - Wonderwall (Record Player) 

Costume

...

Moodboard made by JC

...
As seen with this moodboard created by James, the Indie costume is quite distinctive.

The Verve - Bitter Sweet Symphony

 Here the costume is quite clearly:

• Dark
• Conservative
• Messy Hair 
• Leather Jacket
• Black trousers
• Dark Blue shirt (connotes seriousness)
• Black heavy boots

Another example of this is:

The Jesus and Mary Chain - Just Like Honey

 The costume here is:

• Dark
• Conservative
• All of the band members have messy hair
• Black t - shirt on lead singer
• Leather jacket on bass guitarist 
• All have black trousers/jeans 
• Black boots/ black sneakers

There is a noticeable trend in the costume for Indie. Generally quite dark clothing and more conservative than other genres such as Pop. The lead singer is also predominately a tall white skinny male.

Attitude:
There is an emphasis on the performance and how the instruments are played in Indie music videos. This is due to the audience wanting to see if the band can actually play these instruments as that is what can separate the good from the greats.
...

The Jesus and the Mary Chain - April Skies

...

• Shoegazing common for the guitarist
• where he looks at the floor
• Singer and guitarist are the more energetic part of the band 
• Show their meaning and emotion through expressing the lyrics
• Drummer also expresses beats 
• Generally the attitude used to be more moody and gothic/punk
• Has moved more towards a pop like attitude in recent years with band members showing more enthusiasm and emotion. 

Narrative
Even though most of the music videos contain most performance footage there is still some narrative in Indie/ Alt Rock music videos. 
...

Clothing: 

The clothing is similar to the performance but can be a bit more quirky. There is not much focus on glamour as this genre comes from punk and the lyrics have quite deep meanings. One of  Goodwin's theories of the lyrics and narrative linking also have an aspect in this. As seen with the example of Pixies - Bagboy the proppian archetype of the central protagonist is a teenage boy who has no glamour with a messy haircut and is wearing generally dull/dark clothes. 

Location/Setting:

Same as performance. In a rundown area or an area that is seen as more gloomy than others so and abandoned house, graveyard, underground carpark etc. It is also important that there is low key lighting as this helped generating the sinister mood as well as avoids glamorizing the characters. 

This is Arctic Monkeys When The Sun Goes Down. Notice how the area looks quite run down and again just in general not a very glamorous setting. Note how the costume is also quite conservative and dark in general. 

Props:

There are no specific props which are used in narrative as a common theme throughout the genre. However it can be a quirky item such as a mask or a colourful aspect of some sort but again in a quirky and sometimes sinister/moody way.

Nothing But Thieves - Sorry

PIXIES - Bagboy

Makeup: 

As with the other aspects of the narrative, the genre is not about glamour. Makeup can be quite limiting and in some cases there is none. However some females can have makeup such as purple lipstick and dark eyeliner to refuse and block out the stereotyping and male gaze of red lipstick and glamorous make up. There are some cases where there is makeup which glamorizes the female however this is rarely the case with the Indie/ Alt rock genre. 

Conservative, Not much make up, no glamour

Male gaze, glamorous, red lipstick