Indie Pop codes and conventions

Indie pop is a genre of alternative rock that originated from the UK in the mid 1980s with roots from the Scottish post-punk bands.

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Settings: Indie Pop music videos are known for being low budget. The main settings are in cities, woods, parks, studios etc. These locations are chosen to give it a mysterious look which makes the audience focus more on the performance.

Performance:

The majority of Indie Pop music videos include a performance from the artist which makes the audience focus on his or her talent. Live performances are used to promote the artist too. This enables audiences to see the atmosphere the artist created in their concerts encouraging the audience to watch the artist live.

Performance is often partnered with a narrative to break up the music video and at the same time creating the music video memorable.

Narrative:

A narrative is used to tell a story by using a sequence of images and videos related to the song enabling the audience to understand why it was given that certain narrative which links with song. Music video directors are able to create a variation of storytelling created by a special effects making the video a lot more interesting for the audience and keeps them engaged in the music video as the scenes are always changing. This can also help gain success and status of the song, artist and directors.

Mise-en-scene:

Props in an indie-pop music video will often be cheap everyday props and that the audience are familiar with. Props may also add to the narrative, meaning that they will help to tell the narrative. For example in Ed Sheeran's A Team video, we can see the girl using drugs. We as an audience assume this already, but our assumptions wouldn't have been fulfilled without the character actually showing us her struggles to feed the addiction.

Sound:

Dialogue is often used in music videos either in the begging or the end to tell or conclude the story. For example Taylor Swift's 'I knew you were trouble', at the begging she tells her audience what she had learnt from the relationship she was in previously. It is also used to either distort, fade, increase or decrease the tempo to express one's emotions. Diegetic sound is used when filming scenes to match the lyrics with the action but the end product of the song is non-diegetic.

Camera work:

Extreme shots are the most common in these genre. They help to show the artist's emotions. Long shots are used to show the setting of the video and the message behind the video. High angled and low angled shots are used to show the artists vulnerability or to show their power. Mid shots are usually used when the artist is performing or showing the narrative.