We invited people from different age groups to come and film for the challenge. We then picked the best and decided to make an 'announcement'. These are the top five entries.
Mix of many bands but most mentioned are Buzzcocks, Pixies, Stone Roses and Wombats
Question 4 (what will be featured):
Most people all agreed that there would be a band featured (performance)
A few people went into more details with some having hit exactly what we have gathered from our research:
Question 5 (name specific band):
4 (15.4%) people said Welshly Arms
2 (7.7%) people said they recognise the band
20 (76.9%) people did not recognise the band
Question 6 (specific to music video):
People suggested the same things as the previous more general answer
There where many more who suggested a love/ relationship narrative to be featured
Question 7 (Name background music):
8 people said Buzzcocks - Ever Fallen In Love
6 people said they recognise the song
12 people didn't recognise the song
What can we gather from this audience research?
Indie/ Alt Rock is commonly known as a genre and people of all ages mostly recognise the genre for what it is. People defiantly knew the more mainstream bands compared to the less mainstream bands. One person even recognised every single band showed and gave feedback like we expected to have in our music video. This was an 18 year old female. People also picked up on the love/ relationship aspect of the lyrics for the song Locked by Welshly Arms which we are creating a music video/ digipak for.
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:
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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.
...
These are the gifs used for the "Intertextuality from saving private Ryan" slide, they are a comparison between the music video and the movie
...
My chemical romance's music video
Saving private Ryan
Music video
Movie
...
Christian - Katy Perry - Swish Swish
Possible Influences
Maybe intertextuality to other music videos
Intertextuality is part of Andrew Goodwin's 6 conventions to music video. "There are often intertextual references". The song I have chosen for intertextuality is Swish Swish from Katy Perry. The song features a large variety of intertextuality mainly with memes and other forms of existing media texts. Intertextuality also links into Stuart Hall's preferred readingtheory in which everyone sees a text differently and may find intertextuality to different things than others.
... The video is riddled with famous actresses, musicians (female only), models, sportswomen and female influencers such as Rita Ora, Millie Bobby Brown, Alex Morgan, Ellen DeGeneres ...
Alex Morgan - Professional soccer player from US, Women's WC champion
... ...
Ashley Graham - one of the most influential plus-sized models of this generation, has appeared on the front cover of Elle, Vogue and Glamour
... ...
Ellen DeGeneres - hosted one of the most popular talkshows in history, Producer, writer and LGTB activist
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Millie Bobby Brown - Youngest person to feature in Time's top 100 list, and earned an Emmy at only age 13
