Conventions of the Indie Genre

Genre can be defined and explained in the following way:
The general feeling and emotion that a band/artist evokes in their audience and how they apply the conventions of their genre to their overall sound and appearance make them immediately distinctive and recognisable, instantly representing the genre their music fits into.

Conventions of a genre:
-typical instruments used
-typical sound/tempo/volume/style of singing
-context/themes of songs
-appearance of the band
My group - which consists of Steven, Sam, Emily and myself - have chosen a song which we will be using for our music video. We decided on 'First Love' by The Maccabees (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6A1xu0BSs2s&ob=av2e).
The genre for our music video is indie. Indie music relatively comes from an independent scale incomparision to mainstream artist which are signed to major record labels such as universal records. The genre, subcultures, stylistic and cultural attributes, all relate the indie genre the genre completely operates through a do-it-yourself (DIY) approach.

The term “indie” is often used to mean a sound that relates to an individual interpreted, or the way that a sound is presented or made to fit in with those conventions. The term indie often relates to a band or artist that is not sign with any mainstream culture. The DIY approach gives the artist totally creative freedom such as Rough Trade Records does with their artists and bands.

The conventions of a music video vary depending on genre of music. However, some of the general conventions are:
• The artist is shown performing.
• Lyrics of the song influence the representation of the narrative and images shown within the video.
• The editing fits in with the pace of the song
• The clothing represents the genre
• Typical rock instruments e.g. guitars, and many indie bands use synthesizers and keyboards to add a psychedelic/weird tone to their music which makes it so distinctive from other music genres.
• Most dominated by males although there are a mixer of male to females for instance Florence and the machine.
For most indie music videos the conventions tends to follow a chronicle order of black and white, but not always. The use of close-ups, extremes close-ups and longshot are seen as a signature mark within the indie genre.

Key Artists of the Genre
The most iconic indie bands of today are:
• The Maccabees - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8fs1wkwAMQc
• The Wombats - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rlOVEMHLAMc
• Arctic Monkeys - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=30w8DyEJ__0
• The Strokes - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_l09H-3zzgA
• British Sea Power - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w2n-7K0Ef6Y
• The Fratellis - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f1Bs9_k3kVc
• Foals - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YaVE4WVlsDQ
• Editors - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eO7tVypeYAo
• Foster the People - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SDTZ7iX4vTQ&ob=av2e
• Radiohead - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XFkzRNyygfk
• Bloc Party - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vdkmhquF60o