Indie Music Video Genre characteristics

The Indie genre has a set list of Characteristics and Conventions, much like all music videos and other video products such as film opening sequences (which were studied last year).

Firstly the videos are more about the music than the members of the band itself. So in the videos we see lots of close ups of the band playing instruments. Although this is mostly the case, Indie music videos also do try to sell the artists, (this is mainly for more popular bands). This is achieved by showing close ups of the band members face.

In this example we see all of the band members playing instruments, but this isn't all we see, we see a sort of story as well as the band members. This is another component of music videos, not only do they have to show the band but they also have to have some kind of story to stop the audience from getting bored.

As well as showing the band playing , the video tends to be lower budget and can even look as though it is a home video. Along side the video being low budget the actual audio is also 'lo-fi' and 'raw'. The music tends to be 'lo-fi' because Indie bands are signed to an Independent label or may be completely unsigned, meaning that they have a low Budget and 'hi-fi' sound costs too much. The 'lo-fi' sound attracts the fans, for two major reason: firstly the fans would like this sound as it shows them that you don't have to have a record deal or buckets of money to make a successful song/album. Secondly it means that the band can play pretty much anywhere, including pubs and even the middle of the street. This gives it a sort of likable raw feel that attracts people in the masses to the indie genre.

Indie band members tend have a do it yourself attitude, this probably stems from the fact that indie bands don't have the budget that major label signed bands have. So whereas major bands have roadies to move and set up their equipment, Indies simply say "thanks, but we can do it ourselves." I think that another reason for them doing this is they like to keep total control over their music and keep in touch with their fans.

Finally indie bands can push the musical boundaries and play whatever they want, this is because without a major label prompting them to play music that is popular at the time, they can play any music that they want and take it in any direction that they feel. The content of indie songs usually tends to be based on one major topic: Romance. Mostly they are about heart breaks rather than successful romances, this could be because the audience can relate to the lyrics if written on this topic.

The colours of the music videos is also very important. The indie genre has a very specific colour palette, the videos that belong to the indie genre tend to use a lot of dark muted colours such as browns and dark reds. Along side these they also use white making some of the videos seem very stark.