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.