Genre Conventions

Indie Rock

• As part of my planning and preparation for my coursework I am researching the conventions of my selected genre of music (indie rock). • This will help me to fully understand

the genre I am using and therefore be able to appeal to my audience at a better level.

Origins of Indie Rock

• Originally used to describe independent record labels, the term ‘indie rock’, when referring to a genre of music, originated in the 1980s in both the UK and US.

• It is a wide ranging term which can be used to address a vast number of sub-genres including post punk revival, indie pop and dance punk.

Indie Rock Bands

Indie Rock Bands

Bands/Artists associated with this genre include:OasisArctic MonkeysKasabianJake BuggThe StrokesThe KooksAlt-JThe Killers

Mise-en-scene

Mise-en-scene

The clothing style of this particular genre is very popular and recognisable. It includes skinny jeans accompanied by either a band t-shirt, a baggy jumper, a checked shirt or a vest top. Plain hoodies with white cords are also very common. Boys who follow this fashion tend to wear green parka coats and Vans trainers.

Indie Rock Music VideosStereotypically, music videos of this genre are either narrative or performance based or both. They always feature the band whether they are simply performing or actually part of the on-going narrative. Occasionally the band can be seen performing in the background of the video as part of the narrative, something which is fairly common in music videos by The Killers (see ‘When You Were Young’ and ‘Mr Brightside’). The band can regularly be seen in normal, everyday clothes as opposed to being “glammed up”. This is a classic convention of this genre as Indie music stems from independent record labels who go against the type of music/image that major record labels represent and tend to be more about the music and talent of their signed artists as opposed to just caring about how much money they are going to make.

Indie Rock Music Videos

Indie Rock Music VideosThe Kooks – ‘Naïve’

This video is in a narrative structure

featuring the band as the main cast which allows performance

to also be incorporated into the

video.

Indie Rock Music VideosOasis – ‘Wonderwall’

This video is performance based and,

following the conventions of its genre,

shows the band doing what they do best wearing average, normal clothing.

Indie Rock Music VideosKasabian – ‘Fire’

Similar to The Kooks’ video, this video is also both performance and narrative

featuring the band members as the main cast. In this video they are playing bank robbers but instead of using guns they have guitars. This could be seen as a

reference to the genre of Indie and the belief that music is the weapon.

Indie Rock Music Videos

The Killers – ‘When You Were Young’

This video is both performance and narrative. The narrative

aspect of the video is performed by actors and The Killers can be seen playing the song in a bar in the background of some of the

shots in the video.