I looked at three different digipaks, two from the indie genre and one from a pop genre to see the contrast and tried to notice common conventions and distinctive features on each.
Front Cover ...
Kasabian Empire (Indie)
Pixies Indie Cindy (Indie)
Sam Smith In The Lonely Hour (Pop)
The three front covers I looked at, these are the common conventions:
Front Cover image/design
Band name + Album title
Parental Advisory Sticker (if needed)
Stickers to highlight special edition or limited edition explaing whats in it
Not much different rather than a striking image on all of them which the audience will recognise. Also increases chances of being noticed in a CD store or another retailer such as US number 1 retailer Walmart. Possible Influences Sticker with limited edition Striking cover
Back Cover ...
Ariana Grande Yours Truly (Pop)
Arctic Monkeys AM (Indie)
Oasis Stop The Clocks (Indie/Pop)
These are the three back covers I looked at. Common Conventions are:
Track list
Barcode
Copyright statement
Copyright logos
All these will be on our digipak
The recipe is seems very similar just with different art styles, Indie being a bit more subtle sans serif bold font whereas Ariana Grande has a serif bold font and has colour coded where someone is featured. The font is also pink rather than white. Arctic Monkeys and Oasis have also gone for a design as a back cover rather than an image of the band or lead singer etc. Possible Influences Track list + copyright statement + barcode and copyright logos + record lable logos
Inside Cover ...
Coldplay Ghost Stories (Soft Rock/Pop)
Depeche Mode Violator (Dance/Indie)
Metallica, Metallica (Heavy Metal)
There are a few common conventions I can spot here but each seems to have a small difference.
Copyright logos
Compact disc logo
Band name on CD + Album Name
Tracklist on CD
Blank or minimal inside cover
I also noticed that Metallica has the track list on the inside as well as on the CD where Coldplay has the copyright statement on the CD and Depeche mode has both the copyright statement and tracklist. Depeche Mode inside cover on the left has the record company name and a P.O box for fans "Depeche Mode fanclub". Possible influences I think we might go for a minimalist design, maybe with the band being part of the both sides.
Spine ...
Queen Greatest Hits ll (Classic Rock) David Bowie Changesbowie (Dance/Pop) AQUA Aquarium (Electro/Dance)
Common conventions:
Band name/logo
Album Title
Serial Number (with letters)
Mainly formatted album title in middle with band name a bit to the left
There is also a universal logo for aqua album
Possible Influences
We will have both band name + album title and serial number, maybe even the band logo
Indie rock is a genre of rock music that originated in the United Kingdom in the 1970s. Originally used to describe independent record labels, the term became associated with the music they produced and was initially used interchangeably with alternative rock.
Origins:
"Indie" was the term used to describe the music produced by punk rock labels. The Buzzcocks revolutionised the music industry by producing their record independently.
... ...
The BBC documentary Music for Misfits: The Story of Indie pinpoints the birth of indie as the 1977 self-publication of the Spiral Scratch EP by Buzzcocks. Although Buzzcocks are often classified as a punk band, it has been argued that the publication of Spiral Scratch independently of a major label led to the coining of the name "indie."
Commercial Breakthrough:
The Smith's, an indie rock band active during the 80's are credited as being one of the most important bands to come through the British indie scene. They paved the way for bands such as Oasis, the libertines and Arctic Monkeys.
The Stone Roses are an English rock band formed in Manchester in 1983. They were one of the pioneering groups of the Madchester movement that was active during the late 1980s and early 1990s. The band's most successful line-up consists of vocalist Ian Brown, guitarist John Squire, bassist Gary "Mani" Mounfield, and drummer Alan "Reni" Wren. The band released their debut album, The Stone Roses, in 1989. The album was a breakthrough success for the band and garnered critical acclaim, with many critics regarding it as one of the greatest British albums ever recorded. A chart battle between Blur and Oasis dubbed "The Battle of Britpop" brought Britpop to the forefront of the British press in 1995.
The 1990's brought major changes to the indie rock scene. Bands such as Oasis and Blur broke into the main stream, away from the small-scale and political elements of the 80's indie scene.
Decline and rebirth in indie Music:
In 1996 Oasis played in a two night set too a combine audience of 250,000 people and was credited at that time as the last great Britpop performance as nothing after that would match the scale. With Oasis's third album "Be here by now," initially receiving positive reviews and selling strongly it started ti subject itself to string criticism, as the genre and movement started to slow down and falter many bands started breaking up. Then along with the success of pop groups such as the Spice Girls it was seen as if they had "snatched the spirit if the age of those responsible for Britpop."
The revival of Indie Music is credited mostly to The Libertines, the libertines were a British rock band, formed in London in 1997 by frontmen Carl Barât (vocals/guitar) and Pete Doherty (vocals/guitar). The band, centred on the song writing partnership of Barat and Doherty, also included John Hassall (bass) and Gary Powell (drums) for most of its recording career. The band was part of the indie rock revival and spearheaded the movement in the UK. The band were seen as saving Indie Rock and bringing it back to the attention of the media with often controversial circumstances such as Doherty’s drug abuse and there famous Guerilla gigs were they would invite fans around to there flat to play intimate gigs. The band gained some notoriety in the early 2000s. Although their mainstream success was initially limited, their profile soon grew, culminating in a No. 2 single and No. 1 album on the UK Charts. In December 2004, their self-titled second album was voted the second best album of the year by NME magazine.
...
...
Now more recently the Arctic Monkeys are regarded as one of the most prominent bands to be part of the Indie Rock revival in the UK, after achieving commercial success and spawning two number one singles with their debut album and reached the status of being one of the biggest bands in the world having headlined Glastonbury and having multiple best selling albums across the world.
Distribution / self - distribution:
Traditionally, distributors got records into stores and labels got people to go buy them (through promotion). Along the way, each of these middlemen took a percentage of the revenue.
This system still exists today. At least to some extent but the role of distributors and record labels has changed dramatically. Not to mention the changes the internet has brought in the way people consume music. People spend more time online, and less money on physical music.
The change initially stemmed from indie music, in which indie artists (independent,) would produce there music without a label and produce the record themselves, one of the earliest examples and credited for the initial change was the punk band, then coined indie, The Buzzcocks.
However more recently, the production of music independently has become much easier due to digitisation. Anyone can record and release their own music without the need for a record label.
...
...
Whilst the production and release of music has been made much easier to be done independently due to the digitisation and introduction of online music streaming platforms such as Spotify, Apple Music and Youtube, the monetisation of albums and music took a great hit.
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.
