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Showing posts from October, 2018

Representation in Indie Pop Music Videos

Since Indie as an umbrella genre provides artists with full creative liberty we see that Indie Pop music videos represent people from all walks of life. It is not limited to any one social group and will often represent multiple social groups in the same video. A good example of this is George Ezra's 'Budapest' music video. Age Group If there is one social group that Indie Pop represents more than others, it's young adults since the majority of the artists in this genre belong to that age group. Artists who emerge in the Indie Pop scene, usually do so when they're rather young so even if they make music for a long time it still falls withing that age group. This isn't to say that adults do not partake in the making of Indie Pop music videos or that children are not represented. Gender Indie pop is inclusive of all genders and is one of the genres where equal participation of males and females can be observed. Gender bending is not uncommon.

Indie Pop Albums

As important as the music videos are the album covers. It's important to take a look at the trends and the codes and conventions in indie pop albums covers so team SAD?? can make the final project digipack with these aspects in mind. Symbolic Codes Indie pop album covers seem to either be really bright and colourful or monochrome. Most of the albums utilising bold colours in their albums, mute the colours. However, popular exceptions to these conventions exist, Indie pop album covers frequent the use of caricatures, human subjects and even just scenic views. Album covers can also be a combination of any of the aforementioned. The album covers also seem to generally aid a narrative of the album more than focusing on the star image. Technical Codes There are no conventional shots and angles for indie pop albums. Shots range from close ups to long shots and all angles are deployed though there is a higher percentage of eye-level angle being used in these alb

Indie Pop Music Videos Codes and Convention

Mahnoor's avenue of research was Indie Pop music videos and their codes and conventions: Not many Indie artist decide to create Music videos based after releasing their music unlike Big record labels do for popular pop star in order to promote their work. Indie artists mostly make low budget with only a few dedicating time and money on a actual filming set. After sorting through and watching several prominent Indie pop Music videos I was able to distinguish the common Codes and Conventions they followed. MUSIC VIDEO STYLES: Surprisingly most indie pop Music videos are Conceptual with little to few Narrative based videos and others relying on performance along the side the conceptual imagery presented. Take for example a solely Conceptual Music video: Men I Trust - Seven Which is a Conceptual Music Video with elements of impressionism with no performance, it diverts drastically from conventionally music video tropes taking a relax approach with nothing much happening o

Instruments

Indie pop music, like all genres has certain instruments that are used often to create the feeling and sound of the genre. Mahum conducted the research regarding the associated instruments. 1. Elect ric Guitar  An electric guitar is a guitar that uses one or more pickups to convert the vibration of its strings into electrical signals. The vibration occurs when a guitar player strums, plucks, finger picks, or taps the strings. 2.Acoustic Guitar  An  acoustic guitar  is a  guitar  that produces sound acoustically by transmitting the vibration of the strings to the air as opposed to relying on electronic amplification. The sound waves from the strings of an acoustic guitar resonate through the guitar's body, creating sound. This typically involves the use of a  sound board  and a  sound box  to strengthen the vibrations of the strings. 3.Electronic Drum An electronic drum, also known as electric drums, digital drums, or electronic percussion, is a modern electronic mus

Prominent Indie Pop Artists

Team SAD?? divided avenues of research amongst themselves. While I'm heading research on Representation and Album covers of Indie Pop artists, Mahnoor is looking into Indie Pop music videos and their codes and conventions. Mahum is researching on prominent Indie Pop artists and the sound of Indie Pop as it evolves. This research should help us understand our genre better as a whole. Here is Mahum's research on prominent Indie Pop artists: 1975 The 1975 are an English indie band originating from Manchester. The group consists of lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist   Matthew "Matty" Healy,lead guitarist Adam Hann, bassist Ross MacDonald, and Drummer George Daniel.The band's origins trace to them attending Wilmslow High School and playing together as teenagers in 2002. Gigs organised by a council worker led the band to formally sign as the 1975. Their choice of name was inspired by a Jack Kerouac beat poetry book.They eventually signed a record deal after

Genre Selection

The genre my team has chosen for our final task, after a detailed discussion is Indie Pop. Indie (meaning independent) is a genre which originated post 70s punk mainly in Britain. Indie music is music made by artists who are either 'garage bands' or signed to an independent label, which enables them to take complete control over the production of their music rather than having their record company make decisions regarding their sound or even their look. This also gives indie artists the freedom to dabble in different genres and take maximum creative liberties Indie Pop is a sub-genre of Indie music which is a mixture of DIY ethic, pop rock and some retained elements from mainstream pop culture. While Indie Pop often shies away from the glamour of contemporary pop music it has also detached itself from some of the strong currents of angst that came with typical rock styles. Indie Pop also divides into further categories such as indie synth-pop, dream pop, twee pop, psychedel

Genre

It's important to have an understanding of genre and its impact on how a media product is marketed before me and my team mates go on to choose a genre for our music video. Genre is the categorisation of  media products based on their style and certain characteristics, paradigms, which fall under themes, iconography and structure. Unlike other media products, music video genres are characterised by the genre of the music, the music video is based on and will often follow the characteristics that have long come to be associated with these genres. An apt example of this is an artist wearing chains and dark clothes in a rap music video. A rap music video is also likely to be very performance heavy. Genre helps discern different sorts of media texts from a vast variety of products. This way the audience can easily choose what sort of music video they want to consume, creating a niche market which the producers then target. The audience benefits from genres since a sense of familia

Music Video Analysis: PYNK

My Notes: My Presentation:

Music Video Analysis: Bloom

My Notes: My Presentation:

Music Video Analysis: Spring Day

My Notes: My Presentation: 

Continuity Editing

In class we learned the differences between continuity editing and montage. In order to not flounder with the editing of our music video later, we did a practice shoot and edited it keeping in mind certain rules and techniques of contuinity editing. I directed and conceptualised the idea for the video. Mahnoor shot and edited the video while Mahum acted in it and dealt with all the props.

Star Image

Next, for better understanding I will be analysing the star image of one artist in depth throughout their careers to better understand how it co-relates to the promotion of their music and music videos. The artist I chose is Marina and the Diamonds. Click on the image for the presentation.

Auteur Theory

As significant as the performers and artists, are the directors who bring to life a concept the artist has imagined for their music video, often incorporating elements of their own that ultimately create some of their own artistic signatures. The amount of creative freedom awarded to a director is often up to the artist or company that hires them. While some artist leave the music video completely up to the directors, others often want a certain narrative to be portrayed. While directors pander to the artist's style, they retain their own creative vision as well. The director whose work I've chosen to analyse is Emily Kai Bock, a Canadian film maker who is strongly inspired by legendary directors such as, Michael Gondry, Spike Jonze and Jonathan Glazer. I will be analysing her style and stylistic signatures in the context of her music videos: Oblivion- Grimes Yet Again- Grizzly Bear Afterlife- Arcade Fire Yellow Flicker Beat- Lorde Impressionist All her m