1. Alternative Rock
Genre
History
Conventions
The Genre emerged from the independent music underground in 1984, then The camerawork used in most alternative
throughout the 80s, it remained a quiet genre with the occasional song rock music videos is often similar. They
receiving mainstream publicity. The most inspirational bands from the 80s usually use a wide range of camera angles
were R.E.M and The Smiths. The reason for this is because they were known relating to the lyrics in the song to
for being “Eighties bands only in the sense of being against the eighties.” These exaggerate the point they are trying to get
icons meant that the genre began to become more popular with new bands across in the song. The editing in music
forming like Nirvana and Jane’s Addiction due to the success of R.E.M and The videos usually relates to the tempo of the
Smiths in a difficult era. This then led to Nirvana releasing the hit single song. If the song is quite up-beat then it is
‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’ from their second album ‘Nevermind’ which caused likely that fast pace editing is used, if the
the alternative rock genre to achieve widespread popularization. song is down-beat then the editing is
In the late 90s, the genre began to decline in popularity due to events such as likely to be slower. The Mise-en-scene
Kurt Cobain’s death and Pearl Jam’s law suit. Some bands managed to keep in used in the music videos often relates to
the mainstream despite this such as Coldplay. In the 21st century, the genre is the mood of the song. If the song is
exiting the mainstream further with new genres becoming popular like R&B related to anger then the lighting is often
and Indie rock. low-key and the costumes and make-up is
usually mysterious and distorted. In some
videos, the sound used is not just from the
song, sometimes there is a narrative
which means other sounds are used such
as ambient and diagetic.