Music Video Genre – Indie Pop/New Wave
The Genre of the song, which I am using to create my own music video, is a combination Indie pop/New wave. It has a mix of both new wave and indie pop conventions in the music video.
New wave emerged in the mid to late 1970's. It is described as an eccentric and quirky but also catchy and pop at heart. It is a mix of Punk rock, art rock, garage rock, glam rock, pub rock, ska, funk, electronic music, bubble-gum and disco. Such popular new wave bands include Blondie, Franz Ferdinand, Bloc Party and The Killers. The genre of a music video is shown through its conventions. Common characteristics in new wave include the usage of synthesizers and electronic productions. The typical instruments of a new wave band include Electric Guitar, bass guitar, drums, synthesisers, and sometimes auto tune on the vocals. Such sounds can be heard in a lot of 80's pop music such as Pet Shop Boys and The Eurhythmics. Another convention identified for new wave is the video effects. In many music videos, the songs which were new wave used many brightly coloured and eccentric effects similar to that in Rihanna's music video 'Rudeboy'. In her video she uses a lot of neon bright effects which gives off a club effect. For the setting, a lot of new wave music videos are set in a studio because of the huge usage of effects. If the artist needed a scene behind them they could add this on through using a green screen, if not actually shooting outside.
Looking at Duran Duran’s music video for ‘Rio’, I am aware of the new wave conventions already at the beginning of the song. There is a use of bright colours throughout the video and special effect which were highly popular in the 80’s. I can hear the use of synthesisers at the beginning of the song.
Indie pop has a variety of definitions. The most obvious would be that it is a genre of music for bands who are on individual labels but yet are very popular, however maybe not so popular in the same way as mainstream pop artists (“The mainstream of underground media.”) such as Arcade Fire, Paramore, Bat For Lashes, City and Colour and Ellie Goulding. They are the artists which are widely popular but are not always landing a strong place on the main UK top 40 charts unlike as Tinie Tempah and Adele. Another definition is that indie pop is a sub-genre of alternative/indie rock music, which includes music that is lighter and less depressing than most indie rock. It is usually the music which the commercial radio people will end up buying after hearing it a few times, because of its first-listen appeal.
The conventions of an indie-pop music video are shown through the lighting and effects. In most indie pop videos the effects used are mainly monochrome and sepia to create a vintage type of effect. If not there are no specific effects to the video just a little more brightness to make it seem less realistic and more dream looking. Some videos use a montage of shots from scenes which together suggest a collection of memories. In the videos they use a lot of long and close up shots of the artists and use many pan shots to show the setting. The use of close up shots creates focus on the artist and to attract the attention of the audience. From looking at examples, I have seen a big use of tracking shots as in a lot of indie pop music videos, there is a story used and the artist is moving around a lot. Costume colours are a big convention for indie pop as the colours are usual neutral and white rather than bright colours.
No comments:
Post a Comment