Codes And Conventions Of Indie Pop Music Videos

1. Codes and Conventions of Indie
Pop music videos

2. What is Indie Pop?
• Indie pop is a genre of alternative rock, but it
differs from rock because it is more melodic and
less abrasive

3. Costume
• Most characters in these music
videos tend to wear casual
clothing, with dull colours such as
khaki, olive, black, white and
brown. Men tend to wear rolled up
shirts, t shirts, jeans, coats and
boots, whilst women tend to wear
plain clothes such as hoodies and
jeans. An example of this can be
seen here in Imagine Dragon’s
song Radioactive. This is the same
as hair and makeup, generally
plain.

4. What can I expect settings-wise in
indie pop music videos
• Setting wise, indie pop videos are usually set
in low budget locations such as urban areas,
parks, and woods. Here this can be seen in
Foster the People’s video for Pumped Up Kicks
where it shows the band members walking
through an urban area.

5. Filters and Lighting
• The next aspect of mise en scene in these videos is lighting,
and it has been commonly found that in indie pop music
video there is always a slight sepia effect to the videos, as
well as some videos having a filter being put over the top of
the video to create effect, an example of this can be seen
here in The Smith’s music video for the song This Charming
Man. The use of sepia can also be seen here in Tom O’Dell’s
music video for his song Another Love

6. Performance alongside Narrative
• A common recurring theme in indie pop
music videos are for the performer(s) to
use a live performance alongside a
narrative. This is done to showcase the
talent of the performer(s) and it gives
off a sense that they do this job as a
passion rather than just money making.
• Live performance also promotes the
artists too, it showcases what heir live
performances are like and in turn can
sell more tickets and make more money.
A large proportion of indie pop music
videos which have a performance
element have a narrative running
alongside them. A few examples of this
include The Decemberists' song Make
You Better and Foster The People's song
Coming of Age

7. Camerawork
• Handhelds to convey anarchy. Make the viewer feel uneasy.
• Wide shots of the whole band to reinforce unity.
• Close-ups on instruments to connote skill to the audience. Stewart “kick it”.
• Low angle to reinforce superiority and reinforce proper hero character convention.
• Arc shots to convey the sense of a full band and Stewert with the skill theory.
• Usually fall within thirds framing guide. The lead singer in the middle, importance
heightened.
• An example of this is a low angle, wide shot of a band performing. This is typically
seen in indie pop music videos

8. Editing
• Black and white filters
commonly used to convey
greyness and a non-tranquil
world.
• Transition between short and
long take durations. This
establishes an
equilibrium/disequilibrium
within the video.
• Slow motion to emphasise band
superiority, maybe rebellious
nature, and appear “cool”.
• CGI in Foofighters to add
dramatic point, more common
with Big 3 backed bands.

9. Ideology
• Rebelling societal norms. This can
be seen with Catfish and
Foofighters all playing music that
would be considered alternative
and is not mainstream in its
approach.
• Unity. Wide shots reinforce
friendship in the videos.
• Love for music. The closeup of the
instruments reinforce this
concentration of music
development and not just a
computer generated hip hop track.
• Political. The foo fighters tackles the
issue of police brutality and others
tackle racial issues too for a niche
audience

10. Iconography
• Superior. This is often achieved with low angle shots, arc shots and
wide shots to reinforce unity with the lead singer being positioned
in the middle.
• Reckless. Handheld shots and the mise-en-scene of black clothing
all reinforces this sense of rebellion. The undignified location and
black and white filter could all reinforce this too.
• Skill. Their skill of music is constantly ascertained within the music
video reinforced by the amount of close-ups of the instruments
themselves and synchronous music with playing. Stewart theory
supported this, saying its in place to prove they can “kick it”.