Codes and Conventions of Indie Pop music videos

What is Indie Pop?

• Indie pop is a genre of alternative rock, but it differs from rock because it is more melodic and less abrasive

Costume

• Most characters in these music videos tend to wear casual clothing, with dull colours such as khaki, olive, black, white and brown. Men tend to wear rolled up shirts, t shirts, jeans, coats and boots, whilst women tend to wear plain clothes such as hoodies and jeans. An example of this can be seen here in Imagine Dragon’s song Radioactive. This is the same as hair and makeup, generally plain.

What can I expect settings-wise in indie pop music videos

• Setting wise, indie pop videos are usually set in low budget locations such as urban areas, parks, and woods. Here this can be seen in Foster the People’s video for Pumped Up Kicks where it shows the band members walking through an urban area.

Filters and Lighting• The next aspect of mise en scene in these videos is lighting, and it

has been commonly found that in indie pop music video there is always a slight sepia effect to the videos, as well as some videos having a filter being put over the top of the video to create effect, an example of this can be seen here in The Smith’s music video for the song This Charming Man. The use of sepia can also be seen here in Tom O’Dell’s music video for his song Another Love

Performance alongside Narrative

• A common recurring theme in indie pop music videos are for the performer(s) to use a live performance alongside a narrative. This is done to showcase the talent of the performer(s) and it gives off a sense that they do this job as a passion rather than just money making.

• Live performance also promotes the artists too, it showcases what heir live performances are like and in turn can sell more tickets and make more money. A large proportion of indie pop music videos which have a performance element have a narrative running alongside them. A few examples of this include The Decemberists' song Make You Better and Foster The People's song Coming of Age

Camerawork• Handhelds to convey anarchy. Make the viewer feel uneasy. • Wide shots of the whole band to reinforce unity. • Close-ups on instruments to connote skill to the audience. Stewart “kick it”. • Low angle to reinforce superiority and reinforce proper hero character convention. • Arc shots to convey the sense of a full band and Stewert with the skill theory. • Usually fall within thirds framing guide. The lead singer in the middle, importance

heightened.• An example of this is a low angle, wide shot of a band performing. This is typically

seen in indie pop music videos

Editing• Black and white filters commonly

used to convey greyness and a non-tranquil world.

• Transition between short and long take durations. This establishes an equilibrium/disequilibrium within the video.

• Slow motion to emphasise band superiority, maybe rebellious nature, and appear “cool”.

• CGI in Foofighters to add dramatic point, more common with Big 3 backed bands.

Ideology• Rebelling societal norms. This can be

seen with Catfish and Foofighters all playing music that would be considered alternative and is not mainstream in its approach.

• Unity. Wide shots reinforce friendship in the videos.

• Love for music. The closeup of the instruments reinforce this concentration of music development and not just a computer generated hip hop track.

• Political. The foo fighters tackles the issue of police brutality and others tackle racial issues too for a niche audience

Iconography• Superior. This is often achieved with low angle shots, arc shots and wide

shots to reinforce unity with the lead singer being positioned in the middle. • Reckless. Handheld shots and the mise-en-scene of black clothing all

reinforces this sense of rebellion. The undignified location and black and white filter could all reinforce this too.

• Skill. Their skill of music is constantly ascertained within the music video reinforced by the amount of close-ups of the instruments themselves and synchronous music with playing. Stewart theory supported this, saying its in place to prove they can “kick it”.