Firstly I need to address which genre my chosen song fits into. 'The Libertines - Don’t look back into the sun' is widely recognised as an indie rock 'anthem' as it is one of the songs that really defined the genre.
The term 'Indie' is a shortened down word for independent, and is a word used in the music industry to describe a bands independence from major commercial record labels, and also brings with it connotations of a 'do-it-yourself' approach to recording and publishing. This term is often added to the front of other music genres, for example 'Indie dance' or 'Indie pop', in this case it is Indie Rock.
One convention that is often used for this genre is an example of the 'do-it-yourself' approach, as it is often apparent that indie music videos have an amateur-ish style to them, a kind of handheld camera, one take, style to them. This creates a more intimate setting between the audience/fans and the band, and the audience feels closer to the band. This also adds to the overall image of the bands that choose to produce their videos in that way. For example the band I have chose, The Libertines, have a reputation for living rough and doing drugs and hosting gigs in their own flat. This ties in with the very loose and rough edged their videos are. It is almost like it hasn’t been edited it has just been thrown together in the space of the song they actually performed in it.
Another convention of Indie music videos is the live performance element to them. Most videos of the Indie variety vow for a performance at some point, if not all, of the video. This reinforces the band’s image and identity, it almost represents the band as a brand in a way. I think it is seen as a convention as well because not only is the performance vital to a band but Indie rock music is a genre that in particular is a rapidly changing genre, this is because so many bands nowadays claim they fall into that genre. Thus creating music videos, thus wanting the audience to know who they are and to create band identity therefore their music videos will essentially be based around the band’s live performance.
Another feature that is seen as very popular in this genre of music is the use of extreme close ups and long shots. This is to show the contrast and works very well in these types of videos. This contrast is brought out very well in this genre as most music in this genre is very fast paced, this means that there are frequent occasions in most videos were burst of fast sequences in shots take place, this gives the video overall good tempo and rhythm, which is why I believe Indie music videos are watched by many people who have a wide range of music tastes.
This is not so much a convention but an aspect of filming that does not appear much at all in Indie music videos, special affects. The main focus point of Indie music is to relate to the audience and this is captured in the videos they produce, they are stripped down to the basics and therefore create a closeness with their fans that does not appear in any other music genre.
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