Genre analysis

Genre

Definition:

Genre is the style or category of music or video. There are many different types of genre and they can be used for categorising music video, films and other types of media.

History:

Our genre is indie rock. Indie rock is a genre of alternative rock that originated in the United Kingdom in the 1980s. Indie rock was extremely diverse, with subgenres that include indie pop, jangle pop, and lo-fi, among others. Originally used to describe record labels, the term became associated with the music they produced and was initially used interchangeably with alternative rock. As grunge and punk revival bands in the US, and then Britpop bands in the UK, broke into the mainstream in the 1990s, it came to be used to identify those acts that retained an outsider and underground perspective. In the 2000s, as a result of changes in the music industry and the growing importance of the Internet, a number of indie rock acts began to enjoy commercial success, leading to questions about its meaningfulness as a term.

 

Lyrical content and themes:

The bands are free to explore different sounds, emotions and lyrical subjects as they are independent and therefore do not necessarily cater for mainstream tastes. The lyrics of songs are usually influenced by the genre of the group, most hip hop and rap artists rap about money, girls, cars and just wealth in general, this is a typical convention of that genre. Whereas most indie rock genre bands sing about their lives more and they have a connection with the audience by singing about things that they know and about things that they can relate to. They sing about things that have happened to them and indirectly talk about their lives and certain events. However the lyrical content of indie rock bands can largely vary as there is not one set sound or theme, each band has its own style and each band explores in different ways. Mostly when a band finds a style that they and their audience like they don't change that style. Some bands however will explore different styles after they have already released albums in the original style. 

How the bands are represented:

Mostly the bands in the indie rock genre are usually pictured in a normal photo with all the band members in, this forms a poster. The clothes that the band members wear are usually quite casual and can often be smartly dressed. most hip hop and rap bands and artists are pictured wearing expensive clothes and lots of chains, this backs up the stereotype that they like to show off their possessions and their money. However the contrast to the indie genre is that most indie bands just picture themselves in the band, they usually stand in a line with all the members and they have no set location for these photos, they are just together as a band, this is because the typical audience are more down to earth and just want to see the band they are listening to in a normal setting.

Ideology of indie rock bands:

For most indie bands one of the most important things to start with is about making their town known and telling a story about where they are from. Often once they become bigger it becomes about the image of the band and having a real connection with the audience not just in their music but with their image. In hip hop and rap the ideology is to be better than the competition, often the artists want to tell stories of how they've made it and where they've come from. Whereas indie rock bands are more trying to entertain the audience and it can be an escape from the real world whilst still being able to relate to some of the themes and events.

Target audience:

The target audience of the indie rock genre are usually aged between 16-24, this is because they are the most likely audience to relate to the music. It doesn’t target a specific genre as it can appeal to any gender. There is no common background in the audience, it can appeal to people of all backgrounds. It usually appeals more to the lower and middle class people. The target audience of hip hop and rap is mostly teenagers and young adults as it is quite explicit content so the older generation don't really like it as much as the younger generation. it can attract both genders however mostly it attracts males as they prefer the scenarios and they are the most likely to relate to them and most likely to appeal to them. Another reason that it appeals to the younger generation is because of the speed of the music, the beat and the singing can be hard for the older generation to understand and therefore they wont enjoy it as much. The indie rock genre has a very wide audience and not as much of a niche audience like other genres, people of all ages can enjoy the music as it has various rhythms and speeds so anyone can listen and enjoy it.  

The video that I will analyse is The libertines- Gunga Din. I chose this video as it is the same genre as the music that we are using for our production.



The convention of this genre are that the music videos have more narrative in them than performance. mostly they only have a small amount of performance and lots of narrative as that is more appealing to the audience and they have much more for the audience to look at than a heavy performance based video. however some indie rock videos are heavily disjuncture based and the video doesn't relate at all to the song.

Camerawork
The camerawork in indie rock promos is usually very similar, mostly very similar shots from one video to another. The main camera shots are close ups, long shots and mid shots. the close ups are of the certain band members so that you can see them and so you can see the different members and what role they have in the band. the mid shots are used so that you can see the different clothes that the members are wearing and the long shots are to show the scene and the setting. In this video you can see that they use a lot of close ups and mid shots whilst the band are walking down the road, it gives the audience an idea of what they do when they are together and it gives them lots to look at so that they don't get bored of the video and then of the song. This video also uses a tracking long shot at the start where it shows Pete walking down the street, this shows the setting that they are in and what he is doing, it also shows the mood that he is in by the look on his face. throughout the video the camera is tracking the band as they walk down the street the camera is following in front of them so that you can see the antics that they get up to during the video.

Editing
The editing is very fast paced and it changes depending on the beat and depending on the speed of the singing. This is a convention of the indie rock genre editing. The music video adheres to the conventions of the indie rock genre. The speed of the cuts changes depending on the speed of the beat and the speed of the song. In The Libertines- Gunga Din the editing is very fast paced throughout the song, it starts of slower but then gradually picks up and gets faster throughout the song, near the end of the song it is very fast and the shots only stay on screen for 3 or 4 seconds before changing. 

Mise-En-scene
The clothing that is worn normally by the members of indie rock bands is quite smart clothing, often they will wear shirts and other smart looking clothes. In this video all of the band members are wearing smart clothing, shirts, ties and suits. This video adheres to the conventions and stereotypes of the indie rock genre.

Narrative/Performance
In most of the indie rock music genre videos there is a balance between narrative and performance, however in this video there is no performance, it is just narrative throughout. This video subverts the conventions and the  
stereotypes of the indie rock music genre.