Indie - Representation

The indie genre is all about being yourself and an individual. The songs produced by the bands show this. For example Oasis was a band that would rebel against the norm to prove a point or to say what they thought. A couple of their songs are about drugs, drink and sex, this is not unusual for indie rock or pop.

The indie movement target teens to early 30's with their unique style of singing and lyrics. Artists such a Jamie T and Lily Allen have become huge just by singing about everyday occurrences and not singing big power ballads like Mariah Carey. Indie-Pop is a British born genre which has now begun branch out into other genres like rap, rock and R&B.

History of the Indie genre

Indie pop is a genre of alternative rock music. It originated in the UK around the 1980's. the term 'indie' has been used for some time to describe an artist on an independent labels. Bands like 'The Who' made a big impression on the indie-culture in the 60's before the term indie music fully established itself in the 80's. The 1980's were mainly pop orientated, but once music moved into the 90's band such as Blur and Oasis appeared who were the forerunners of the Britpop movement. Colleges and university acted as a stage for upcoming artists in the 2000's, some bands preformed for free just to get noticed. Most large cities in the UK now boast an indie music scene. America has begun to produce indie bands such as The Killers who are labelled as 'The Best British American Indie Band'.

Information adapted from Lauren Everett's research.

Indie Album Cover and Magazine Research

I have found a selection of indie-pop/rock album covers which we will take influence from in the making of our digi-pak. We are hoping to create an album cover similar to 'The Wombats'.

We have looked at a couple of magazine adverts found in the magazine NME. I liked this one by verve because of its simplicity and neutral style. It is minimalist with only important information on it, making it easily readable by the target market. The band and album name is clearly visible, how to listen and get the music is at the bottom of the page. The importance of the information is told by the size of the font. We are looking at creating a minimalist advert similar to this one. However because of the style of band we will have more colour and more interesting font.

Audience Feedback

We got together a small audience to listen to the song and to read the lyrics. they gave us feedback on what they thought they would see in the video. We will take this into account with our own ideas to devise the video.

Vicky Ashwell

Verse 1 + 2
Film a girl walking downt the street. A boy sees her, P.O.V shot from him looking at her.

Chorus
Girls dancing with friends

Verse 3

Back to the street with footage of the girl

Verse 4
Back to party, the boy tries to talk to her.

Verse 1 End
Ends with the girl kissing camera - red lipstick and she walks away leaving him shocked.



Tom Williamson

Verse 1
People on beach, Someone is standing there alone, ashamed.

Chorus
Party begins on the beach, sunseting.

Verse 3
Shots of body parts to give impression he/she are naked.

Verse 4
Ends with the person who was ashamed being involved and getting someone.

Verse 1 End
Slow motion of people dancing, time has moved on, now night time. camera pulls back form the group and fades out


Stuart Hill

Verse 1
Boy is trying to tell a girl that she should not be ashamed of her body, and that body image isnt everything.

Verse 2 + Chorus
Girl is pressured by her friends to do things she isnt happy with.

Verse 3
Have a shot of the girl being confident about herself.

Verse 4
Have a tasteful shot of a couple 'making-out'.

Verse 1
Have a zoom out from the couple leaving them alone.


Russell Houlden

Verse 1
Singing about pressure from the media to look good, Live performance.

Verse 2
Goes to narrative footage of people looking different.

Chorus
Shots of friends laughing and messing around believing they are better than everyone.

Verse 3
Shots of the girl and boy begining to talk and having a laugh aswell.

Verse 4
Shot of boy caring for girl, they walk away from the camera into the distance.

Permission Given by the Band

Stereo Decade - So Cool

Are you ready for love. Lalala (Haha can we keep that?)

Verse 1
Don’t be ashamed of your body, after all its not ashamed of you
I’m not ashamed of my body, having said that I think its ashamed of me

Verse 2
She’s something, she’s so smooth
And now she’s in front of me melting
Don’t be ashamed of your body, after all its not ashamed of you

Chorus
So cool, so cool
I bet your friends all think that they are
So cool, so cool
So cool, so cool
I bet your friends all think that they are
So cool, so cool


Verse 3
She’s something she’s so smooth
And now she’s in front of me naked

Verse 1

Chorus

Verse 4
Show me that you’re not afraid
I want to feel your lipstick all over my dirty little face
Show me that you’re not afraid
I want to feel your lipstick all over my dirty little face

Verse 1

Verse 1

Verse 1

Chorus

Music Video Analysis - Shiela by Jamie T

Shiela is a full narrative perferformance and Jamie T is not seen throughout the video, this is unsual as video's are normally made to promote the singer and for fans to see them perform. This is an indie song and the words are sang half spoken similar to a rap. The video begins with a zoom out with a pan from a close up of a bunch of flowers, singing starts almost instantly. The audience should notice that the person lip sincing isnt Jamie T but that Jamie T's voice is played over the footage. For the whole video the camera leads the person along the edge of what i think is the River Thames, these shots are continuous with no cuts, ande he constantly looks that the camera while lip syning. We also get a couple of side shots of him walking, the camera tracks him from a long shot. To show that this is a average night people walk infront of the camera while momenterily blocking the main character while drunk girls scream "London".

The Rule of Thirds is used so that another man can enter the frame and casual breaks out into song. He speaks in received pronunciation. The camera swaps its focus to him while the man we have been previously folowing walks behind him. After his verse he walks off screen to the left leaving the main character alone to sing again. We also gets shots of him not singing however Jamie T continues to sing.

A high angle shot is used to show a homeless man singing another role. There are only a number of different camera angles used in this video, Close-ups, mids and long shots which is similar to other music videos. And interesting twist is revealed at 1:42 when we get a long shot showing that he is singing to no one but it seems he thinks he is. The then walks up to a couple arguing and watches them, they dont notice him which might imply hes not even there. The scream "london" has been enhanced during editing to create moe of an impact.

At the end of the track the actor stops lip syncing while Jamie T continues to sing. The lyrics might reveal why as they are about a death of a girl. The camera pans the show a shrine, he stand looking up and lays the flowers which he has been carrying for the whole video. There is a close up of the note reading "To my darling Sheila love always Dad xx" after that there is silence. The video ends with a shot of him bowing his head, all sound fades out except for police sierns.

So Cool - Timings

A time scale for the song So Cool
0:00-0:05 = Speaking and laughing
0:06-0:13 = Piano begins and lyrics
0:14-0:23 = Guitar plays
0:24-0:29 = Drums and instrumental section, increase in tempo.
0:30-0:39 = Lyrics start up again
0:40-1:12 = Main bulk of the singing
1:13-1:20 = Instrumental solo
1:21-2:35 = Bulk of singing with main tune.
2:36-3:06 = Singing with symbol beat only slows tempo down
3:07-3:31 = Singing with drum beat and guitar begins to texture the beat again.
3:32-3:38 = Silence, end of song.

Stereo Decade Research

Stereo decade originated in East London, Essex. The band members are Jonny Romain, Joe Harvey-Whyte, Joe Porter and Ben Bashi. They are an indie-pop band with apparently catchy lyrics with an up-beat tune, they also include an elctro-acoustic style in their music. They have been touring round the UK trying to find their break however are still unsigned. They have appeared on Radio one to preform a live lounge cover, which was a success. They have a number of songs including Point of View and I Dont Know Why.

Chosen Song - So Cool by Stereo Decade

We found this band on Myspace, They are currently unsigned and have created a group of songs which they have published on their page. We have chosen So Cool, an indie-pop style song. it includes slower paced material as well as fast instrumental sections making it perfect to make a video to. We will soon produce a questionnaire to ask people what they would expect to see in a video for the song. We will also develop our own ideas to produce a storyboard before going to filming. I am going to work with Charlotte Wilson and Lauren Everett to make this video.

Black Eyed Peas - I Gotta Feeling

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BYZ78FXTdiY

This video begins with different shots of the band members getting ready for a night out, it is quiet slow and matches the pace of the music. In between these shots we get random shots of women walking down a street, there is a range of different shots used including close-ups of their waists and mid-shots of their legs. the timing on these are faster than the one of Fergie and
Will-i-am simply because fans don't want the focus to be taken off the band. We also get a couple of shot of Taboo and Alp.de.ap. So far all these shots are in a dark light, lit with artificial lighting.
I think in my music video i will also use shots of the band with random crowd shots to make the scene more believable and to create more of a party atmosphere.

After the into Will-i-am begins to sing bringing in the narrative into a live style performance, the camera pans and follows him around the space. The transition between the shots begin the quicken, we continue to get flirtatious shots of Fergie. This style seems to be seen in other pop music videos such as The Pussycat Doll and Girls Aloud. And we still see random crowd shots with the use of a handheld camera, this technique i will also try and use in my music video. Another technique i will try to develop is at 1:21 ,Taboo is frozen in mid-air as people walk past him, this is a very abstract section of the video and i really liked it, simply because it has no relevance to the rest of the video.

At 1:31 when the beat gets progressively louder, the transitions between the shot quicken in pace. The band members also begin to interact with the camera by looking straight into the lens, this i will try to use. We continue to get different shots of the crowded party as the night progresses. A technique i liked which they used was shutting the music off for a spilt second, at 2:12 and to shut the video off too by fading the footage to a black screen.

A slow motion technique is used at 2:32, this contrasts with the pace of the music. Handheld camera work become more frequent which make the scene more believable. We also get a slow motion shot Fergie. The scene begins to get darker as they introduce glow in the dark paint and a strobe light is used which helps set the mode of the party. At 3:42 the main beat builds, the footage here is fast, lively and jumpy, we seem to get shots of completely different parties, one rave style and a normal house party, or this could be the same one but at different times of the night. At the end of the video theres a zoom out looking down at "The E.N.D" written in glow sticks. This is also seen at the end of their other video Boom Boom Pow.