Genre Conventions

Indie Folk

The genre that the song ‘L.I.F.E.G.O.E.S.O.N.’ is from is indie folk. Popular bands and artists of the genre are Ben Howard, Bon Iver, Nick Cave and The Lumineers. Indie folk originated in the 90s and stemmed from indie rock. It involves a softer, more acoustic sound with instruments such as acoustic guitars and light percussion in place of electric instruments and heavy sound. Lyrically, indie folk music is very poetic and a lot more complex in comparison to rock or pop music.

Video conventions

The general concepts of indie folk music videos are based around unconventional narratives that stray from the typical love story or inspirational video. Sometimes they are abstract and so are an artistic representation of the song rather than made to explain the story behind it. This is interesting because abstract videos are another form of expression that allow the audience to see inside the creative mind of the artist rather than just watch a visual regurgitation of the song’s story.

I looked at three videos in my textual analysis:• Bon Iver – Towers• John Mayer – Queen of California• The Black Keys – Lonely Boy

The last video, ‘Lonely Boy’ was more indie rock than indie folk, but I did this so that I could compare the genres.

Comparing the videosWhen looking at all three videos, I noticed that the indie folk videos had more of a muted colour scheme and slow, gentle pace to the editing to match the song. In ‘Towers’, everything is very steady and soft whilst in ‘Queen of California’, Mayer walks throughout the scenes slowly and includes performance aspects that are laidback and easy going. The video by The Black Keys perfectly reflects the change of pace and tone in comparison to the indie folk videos, as it is much more upbeat and humorous. There is no editing because the video is all done in one take but there is a lot going on in the frame that is kept consistent throughout the song.

How I will use these conventions

When making the music video for my chosen song, I’m going to do include as many of the conventions as possible. My chosen idea is an offbeat narrative that is quirky and still expressive of the lyrics and message of the song. Although indie rock and folk music videos tend not to have lip-sync and not all of them have performance aspects, I’m going to try and include them so that I have general conventions in my work. This will allow the video to appeal to a mass audience rather than just a niche audience who like indie rock or folk music.