In indie rock music videos there are many conventions that
tend to stray away from the pop music genre videos, the most important and
obvious of these is the difference in the main focus of the video, in pop music
the videos generally consist of a performance from the artist, an example of
this being Beyonce’s ‘Single Ladies’ video. Whereas indie rock video tend to
concentrate on using multiple camera angles such as extreme close ups
pinpointed on the instruments played by the musicians examples of this being
when the guitarists strum or when a drummer hits the crash cymbal for instance.
These are used to show their talent as musicians rather than their talent as
showmen or performers. Opposed to my following point long shots and extreme
long shots are used, they are used in order to show the whole band as a whole
in one single shot to show the bands unity. Showing each of their importance in
the band in comparison to solo artists where the dancers are shown sparingly
and almost disposable and sometimes if instruments are used they are even shown
on occasion. Another common convention in indie rock videos is the fast paced
editing shown, example of this being jump cuts. Jump cuts are a prime example
of how to effectively portray speed in a music video as the jump cut itself is
sudden. Indie Rock music is notorious for its pleasant tone and uplifting
manners so fast paced editing suits one of the convention. However in relation to my previous point of
indie rock music videos tending to stray away from performance based music
videos, some artists choose to incorporate performance into their videos but
still appear to cast them to a side with the artists themselves being the focal
point of the video. An example of this being Two Door Cinema Club’s ‘What You
Know’. Indie Rock videos also use both high key and low key lighting, depending
of what kind of tone they are trying to set or what story they are trying to
tell. Once again using Two Door Cinema Club’s video as an example, obviously
this is an example of high key lighting, using bright colours to represent the
happy tone of the video. In comparison to Oasis’ ‘Wonderwall’ which is my
example of low key lighting which in my opinion is used more frequently in
indie rock music videos and is an example of the genre convention of using
contrasting colours. The colours in the Wonderwall video is a direct contrast to
What You Know mainly due to the two songs completely different tones and
messages. Oasis are addressing a much more serious matter meanwhile Two Door
Cinema Club are practically saying I told you so. Indie rock is also notorious
for their direct narratives shown in their music videos rather than abstract narratives.
More often than not the videos are portraying a certain moral or insight into
the songwriters life or a past event from their life. The two main styles of
music video to stem from indie rock are both direct narratives or montages of
live footage. Live footage is common as unlike most massive pop acts, bands are
usually involved in extensive and somewhat tedious live concert schedules. So
in a way showing live footage is an intelligent way of advertising your band by
showing your talent with montages involving snippets from different nights
showing a bands most exciting stage antics and more importantly these videos tend to show a lot of crowd activity
whether it be ‘mosh pitting’ or just general enjoyment from the crowd. If the
viewers at home see how much they crowd are enjoying themselves or how good a
showmen the band appear to be they will feel inclined to buy a ticket in order
to see it for themselves.
