Friday, 18 October 2013

The Indie Rock Genre

Not My Day

The track I chose to use for my video production, Not My Day, categorise themselves into the indie rock genre of msuci with a Pop-like twist. Indie rock is a sub-genre of the very diverse and ever-changing genre of alternative rock. This contemporary category originated from Britian and the US in the 1980's, catalysed by bands such as R.E.M. (US) and The Smiths (UK). Originally useed to describe the record labels. the term 'indie' soon became associated with the style of music they produce and as grunge and punk revival bands in the US and then Britpop bands in the UK broke into the mainstream in the 1990s, it came to be used to identify those acts that retained an outsider and underground perspective.

Genre relating to costume...
In the music industry, the indie genre is extremely diverse in that it does not conform to one specific style/type of music with various sub-genres that include rock, pop, house and alternative. The term 'indie' has come to be used to identify those acts that retained an outsider and underground position, away from the main stream chart music. This independence from the mainstream music became the basis for the alternative, ‘underground’ fashion style that is very much separate from mainstream trends.
This alternative style has evolved to become known as ‘indie’ and, similar to the music genre, acts as a heading above many different sub-genres of fashion. The indie rock sub-style is quite dark in colour in that most clothing can be seen to be black, grey or darker shades of green, red and blue; such as outfits similar to those worn by artists/bands such as Alice Glass or Green Day and characters similar to Woody from This Is England (2006) or Effy from popular TV series, Skins (2007). As the term ‘indie’ originated from the music industry, it is obvious that music and the artists producing this music play a large part in influencing the tone and style of the indie fashion. The indie rock style is largely influenced by the contrasting vintage and rock/grunge styles around, commonly featuring high necklines, shirts, denim and lots of black, altogether creating a grungy, distressed and unkempt look.

Stereotypes within the genre...

The idea behind the narrative of my music video is to embrace the stereotypes that are commonly referred to in the indie rock genre so as to adhere to theorists such as Andrew Goodwin who claim that a video should 'demonstrate genre characteristics' in order to make the production accessible and appealing to an audience.
Bands of the indie rock genre are considered to create heavier, more aggressive sounds compared to those created by the more mainstream genres of today such as pop or hiphop. The heavier, more masculine sounds of traditional instruments such as drums and guitar, are often seen to have more up-beat, busy music videos and tend to be more commonly related to the male gender. In order to comply with the generic conventions of the genre, I plan to make the focus of the narrative exclusive to the male gender and include stereotypical visuals that are so commonly pertained with this gender.

Furthermore, after researching into various different music videos for bands of this genre (such as Muse and Two Door Cinema Club) I have noticed that quite often humour is created by way of exaggeration and hyperbolic characters and actions, such as performed in the video for Changing of the Seasons by Two Door Cinema Club. I found this concept to be of interest to me as I wish to create a unique and significant video that I can say successfully represents the carefree nature of the genre whilst alos creating humour in over-exaggerating the stereotypical attitudes of young males.



Band:Two Door Cinema Club
Track: Changing of the Seasons
Genre: Indie Rock
Release Date: 27th Sep 2013
Label: Glassnote Records

This video creates humour by the way in which they have incorporated several stereotypical characters; the well dressed, rather pompous doorman, the over-weight, rude journalist and the seemingly arrogant, cavalier band members. I plan to use this as inspiration when creating the character profiles for my own music video by making the male character appear to be lazy and overtly laid-back in order to play up to the classic stereotypes of today and therefore create a light-hearted comedy to the production.

Friday, 11 October 2013

Track Choice



Not My Day - Stuey Morris's Isis

I found this track/band on the website unsigned.com under the genre of indie rock/power pop; the track is called Stuey Morris's Isis and was composed and recorded by an Oxford-based trio named Not My Day. I chose this track as I liked the upbeat, fast pace of the heavy instruments as it will allow me to create a fun, energetic and experimental video.
In order to reflect and emphasize this hyped, fast beat I may experiment and play with the idea of speeding the footage up to double time as I believe this would work well in accordance with the meaning and sound of the track; my interpretation of the lyrics was that they were commenting on and symbolic of a resistance and reluctance to grow and mature; a wish to stay forever young and carefree.

Whilst listening to this track I was lead to believe the lyrics and concept around the track to be predominately male; the lyrics are sung by a male and all 3 band members of Not My Day are male, this, along with the heavy beat and somewhat harsh, direct lyrics create a sense of power and aggression which is commonly connoted with the male gender. This male dominance can be seen on a wider spectrum regarding the indie rock genre as a whole; this genre is created by heavy drums and more hectic electronic sounds which are often related to the more aggressive gender of men. To ensure my music video is notable and different to other videos of the same genre I have chosen to sculpt the narrative of my production to be focused more on the rebellion and anger of a female character, rather than male, to challenge the common stereotypes of this genre and style.

Another reason for this choice was because I like the way in which the voice of the singer is very powerful and, although competing with a rather hectic array of sounds that form the track, the lyrics are not lost beneath the instrumental sounds and I will therefore be able to employ the relationship section of Goodwin's theory that states that a 'strong relationship between lyrics and visuals' within a music video is vital for audience appreciation, by creating my own visual interpretation of the lyrics.

I found it tricky to find a website that held the lyrics for this song as I suspect the band is no longer performing together and I was therefore forced to listen to the track and note down the lyrics myself. It is due to this that there appears to be gaps in the opening verse; I was unable to dicpher what the lyrics were, however I do not see this as a drastic problem as the lexical field can be assumed from the rest of the line/verse.



Passed out on the backseat on the ____ made on county town road
Saving all my best _______ for a time when they can be dressed up in gold
Fearing that my face is aging oh
Wandering round the top floor of a house that’s worried me for so long
Flaking walls like the ___weeping like the willow trees arms

Tears of black are falling without sound
Creating ripples on the puddles on the ground
Pent house a shit house
My house your house
Pent house a shit house baby, yeah


Laying on the bed and drifting in and out of listening to you
Least not you but I think it’s me
Thinking of the sound of that willow tree

Tears of black are falling without sound
Creating ripples on the puddles on the ground
Pent house a shit house
My house your house
Pent house a shit house baby, yeah