Genre Conventions:

Genre Conventions:

The song I am making a music video for is ‘White Lines’ by Feeder. This song falls under the alternative rock and indie genres, two very similar styles of music, and both sub-genres of the wider rock genre. Conventions of the alternative rock genre music video, as the song fits nicely in to that genre but only has certain features of the indie genre, include the type of promo being a mix of narrative and performance, but more centrally focussed on a narrative, as seen in wake me up when September ends, by Green Day, a popular alternative rock band. Some videos however are all performance clips, such as the music video for ‘The Best Is Yet to Come’ by Kids in Glass Houses, another alternative rock band. These performance clips see the whole band perform, usually seen through wide shots, but, however, the lead singer and front man is always the central focus and is on the screen, and therefore shown to the audience, more often than the other members. Despite the wide shots of the entire band, conventionally the lead singer is shown alone, often in a close-up. A shot which is trending at the moment is a close-up of half of the lead singer’s face, the other half being off-shot, and the rest of the space being taken up by another band member who is out of focus due to the shallow depth of field. This depth of field often alternates between shallow and deep, taking it in turns to show the lead singer and the band member in the background. This shot can be seen in the above music video by Kids in Glass Houses, and I have seen it lots of times in recent music videos. I also believe it has post-modern qualities, as The Beatles achieved a similar thing in one of their videos, where the camera shows a close-up of John Lennon, and the depth of field changes to reveal the drummer in the background. It is also unconventional for a music video, of the alternative rock/indie genres to be conceptual, and there are many reasons for this, which will be mentioned in due course.

The colour used, as well as the brightness, contrast and placement of lighting equipment, all reflect a different mood of a music video, depending on the variables. For example, an up-tempo song will feature a bright colour-scheme with three-point lighting. Contrasting this, a down-tempo, slower song, will have a dull colour scheme with extensive use of black and other dark colours. Sometimes the text will be edited to be black and white, not to convey a different time period, but to create a moody feel to the music video. FX is also used sparingly, not because of budget restrictions, but because of the need to use it, or lack thereof. Depending on the speed of the song, the music video will also cut to the beat of the song, with fast paced drum beat sections accompanying montage sequences. The setting is also conventionally dark. This creates a sense of mystery, a convention of rock and roll, and often the setting will reflect the background of the singer. Rock music is stereotypically has a middle/lower class audience, with some exceptions. This is reflected in many music videos, were the setting is a housing estate, council house, bus stop and even an alleyway, the latter seen in Bob Dylan’s ‘Subterranean Homesick Blues’, and the former seen in Arctic Monkeys’ ‘When The Sun Goes Down’.

As aforementioned, conventionally alternative rock/indie music videos are not conceptual clips. This is because a major convention of this genre of music video is that the lead singers create their own image. This gives him/her the chance to engage with the audience and make judgements upon the text, as the audience not only makes critical responses on the song, but also the band’s style and image, more particularly the lead singer. The emphasis is placed on the lead singer as this is the person that leads the band, writes the music and sings the song, in most instances. The audience decides whether or not to buy the music if the singer is acceptable to them. This is said in terms of looks, style, taste in clothing etc. It is arguably more important than the song itself. The audience tend to idolise him/her or fancy him/her. The former point of idolisation is the spectator (active audiences have different opinions and views and therefore can’t be referred to as a collective) actively project themselves on to the singer; seeing themselves in their shoes. This is usually because they are cool, young, rich and successful and ‘get all the girls/boys’, all of which, at some point, everyone will aspire to achieve. This is an example of voyeurism and fetishism, also, as the spectator’s gain pleasure through watching the lead singer, whilst fetishism places emphasis on material possessions which the audience wishes to have, which the lead singer has. Narcissism also plays a large role in this, as the audience aspires to be the lead singer. This is why it is important for the lead singer to establish themselves in their music videos, something easier to achieve in narrative and performance clips than in conceptual clips. Basically, the music video helps to create an image. A non-convention of the genre is the establishment of an anti-image. This can be seen in Blink 182’s ‘All the Small Things’ were they establish themselves as a boy band. Although this is openly mocking the boy band formula, it is a convention of pop-punk, a genre which Blink 182 comfortably fall under, and not a convention of alternative rock and indie. Alternative rock is a sub-genre because it can’t be categorised as mainstream rock. This is because mainstream rock features clean guitar riffs and clean vocals, whereas alternative rock features distorted guitar riffs with gritty vocals, often unintelligible.

These are the conventions of the alternative rock and indie genres, as opposed to, for example, hip-hop music video conventions, which conventionally feature strippers, half-naked females dancing around the artist, who is usually performing, and wearing ‘bling’ (lots of jewellery). A convention which completely contrasts the indie and alternative rock music videos is the setting, where in hip-hop music videos, the setting is often a large, well-lit mansion, surrounded by numerous fast sports cars, showing off the artists’ power and wealth whereas the alternative rock music videos, as aforementioned, are set in back alleys and council housing estates.

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