There are different ways that a
genre can be defined, such as; the general feeling and emotion that the artist
gives off to their audience and how their convey the conventions of the genre
to their general sound and presence make them noticeable and therefore
representing the genre the band/artists music fits into. Another way to define
genre would be the conventions of it, for example; the usual instruments used
(a rock group wouldn’t use a violin for
example), the sound being used (volume/style of singing/volume), the context
and theme of the song overall, and lastly, the appearance of the band.
In my group it’s just Ellie and I, we have chosen an indie/acoustic song
sung by Mollie Grace. This song fits the
conventions of indie, especially through the lyrics and instruments. Though, the indie music genre is easy to
understand because ‘Indie’ is normally
thought to mean individuality, which further reinforces the fact that the indie
music is different and alternative to other music and fashion choices, the
attitudes are also different since a lot of the time in music videos, the
attitudes used mirror being unique and individuality, the lyrics also tend to
have a much more deeper meaning that what people originally thought. Since ‘Indie’
comes from being independent, most indie band are signed to small record
labels, not many people have heard of.
Rough Trade, are popular amongst the Indie genre and sign artists such as The Maccabees, which are
a typical indie band. Though, this record label is more positioned around imagination,
originality and freedom, this is different to major record companies that a lot
of mainstream artists, such as Beyonce are signed to, because it focuses on the
money side of music production, rather than the fun side of it.
The conventions of the indie genre are as follows; In an indie music video the instruments
used are guitars, also in a lot of popular indie music vidoes they use
synthesizers and keyboards so the song has a different and psychedelic tone,
which adds to the effect of distinctiveness, that not a lot of mainstream songs
have. Also, Ellie and I have noticed
that the indie music videos usually have
male singers, though there are indie artists out there who are female
such as, Florence and the Machines, Marina and The Diamonds and Ellie Goulding.
Though there are more males such as,
Neutral Milk Hotel, Artic Monkeys and The Killers. It’s said that the indie genre started in
Britain and this is shown through by the ethnic group of the famous indie
bands, The Wombats are a popular British band, that are known by many people
and are also British. Including, Arctic Monkeys. Around the time of 1950’s and 1960’s in the
United Kingdom, the big record companies had a lot of power and this meant that
the independent labels had trouble to become and established company. Though, around the time of the year 2000
Sweden became well known for its indie music, with the popular record company,
Labrador Records, they succeed and now often, the indie music comes from there,
ecsepcially the indie pop sub-genre. Additionally, the fashion of the indie
genre is rather iconic and alternative. You can usually tell if someone is
indie by what they’re wearing, we gained a lot of our inspiration from Ellie
Goudling for our music video, including looking at pictures on Google and
conducting our questionnaire, that gave us information about what indie people
typically wear. The indie culture is
usually, quite vintage, and doesn’t include bright colours, it’s different to what
a lot of people wear and they stand out from the rest, this highlights the fact that they are an individual and like
being different. Their hair is usually
long and wear colour tones that are full, wear skinny jeans or leggings, and
shirts/jumpers that are used, tend to have strips on them and are a light grey colour.
Furthermore, the indie genre has different sub genres within it, and example of
this is that the most popular ones generally are; indie rock and indie pop. You
can easily tell the difference between these two genre, from the instruments
and sound used, though as said before, they still use the distorted effect,
since it creates individuality.
