Music Video Genre Research (Indie/Alternative)

Indie

·         The music videos usually contain no gimmicks – it is just the singer and the musicians. This keeps the focus on the artist and helps build their star image. This also keeps the focus solely on the music/sound not visuals and appearance.

·         Indie music videos have recently started to contain narratives. This is most likely done to keep up and stay relevant within the music industry.

·         The music videos tend to switch between the narratives to the artist singing. This helps the music have more emotion and meaning.

·         There tends to be less effects and visuals within indie music videos to focus solely on the singers’ voice.

·         The music videos tend to be a lot more creative, slow and peaceful that that of pop and rock. This is because the music is much slower and peaceful than that of pop and rock.

·         Many indie artists go against the conventions of what is considered mainstream. This means that the singers dress in an unusual or retro way. This helps give the signers their own identity, making them stand out as unique and further increasing their own star identity.

·         There are a lot of close-up camera shots within indie music videos. This is because the music tends to be emotional and the close-up shots allow the signers emotion to be captured.

·         Indie music videos feature unusual locations. For example, the cathedral in Born to Die by Lana Del Rey or the prison from Telephone by Lady Gaga.

·         Effects are used within indie music. However, they are not used as much as pop or rock music videos. This is because indie music takes pride in being more natural and raw.

·         The effects that are used a done to convey emotion not to make the video look more appealing.

·         Often the shorts are very slow. This is done to convey emotion and emphasise the meaning of the lyrics.

·         The music videos focus a lot on the musician’s as well. This is done for artistic effect while showing the product has more meaning than just the artist. For example, this can be seen throughout Young and Beautiful by Lana Del Rey.