This document discusses conventions commonly found in indie pop music videos. It provides examples from artists like Taylor Swift, Florence and the Machine, and Lana Del Ray to illustrate these conventions. Some conventions discussed include using a narrative to explain the song's lyrics, filters to set a mood, abstract natural settings to portray a fictional world, and close-ups of the artist to familiarize audiences with their appearance.

1. There are many codes and conventions of the Indie pop genre that we can easily incorporate into
our own video to make it distinct to the genre.
Some of the artists we have looked at to influence ideas of our own:
Lana Del Ray
Taylor Swift
Florence and the Machine
Ellie Goulding
Beyonce
Rihanna
Some of these were also looked at for more ideas on how women are typically represented
and in what ways. For example, Beyonce and Rihanna's music are not examples of Indie-
Pop music, however they show the representation of women in varied and interesting ways.
1. One of the key features of indie-pop music videos is the use of a narrative alongside the
performance, normally involving a theme, explaining to the audience the story behind the lyrics
of the song, most linking to love and relationships of the artist or characters in the song.
Taylor Swift-Love Story
Uses the famous story of Romeo and Juliet to explain her love story along with the lyrics,
treating it like a flashback to an older time, with flashes to the same two characters in the
present time and also Taylor performing the song.
Florence and the Machine-Rabbit Heart
Uses a strange, alternative world look to represent her story, incorporating ideas from Alice in
Wonderland, Religion and other places to make her love story alternative, individual and recognizable
to her individual style of song and music video.

2. Lana Del Ray- Ride
In this particular video, Lana Del Ray shows her lyrics through portraying love as being free, living
life to the full and uses a lot of her American origins in the video, for example the American flag
appears a lot in this and the majority of her other songs, possibly showing a particular theme to her
album.
2. Many of the indie-pop music videos use a filter over the top of clips or the entire video to give a
certain idea to the viewer, such as memory, age to the video, or showing the clip in a positive or
negative light.
Beyonce- Flaws and all
In Beyonce‟s video, there is a filter over the entire video, showing it as aged and almost like film reel
material, through use of the “bad television” flicker that our group is keen to use on our own music
video. This is effective in keeping the viewer‟s interest and showing the images as a story to visually
explain the lyrics to the audience.

3. Ellie Goulding- Your Song
Ellie Goulding uses a filter on the „memory‟ clips of her video to show them as the past, thoughts and
also as a fictional story to accompany her performance side of the video, which looks as if in the
present time, with no obvious filters or effects.
Rihanna- Only Girl in the World
In this particular video, Rihanna has used almost a red glaze over her visuals to make it seem as if all
the light in the setting is red. This shows her as glamorous, provocative, and cute and links to her lyrics
with her being the only person shown in the entire video, performance and narrative. It also fits in with
the themes of her album and to her as a performer.

4. 3. Another convention of the genre is to use the mise-en-scene to show the setting of the video
(usually abstract, natural settings) with the artist showing through the use of the setting that it is
a fictional idea and is the narrative part of the video.
This idea is shown in all of the music videos I have looked at, from Florence and the machine using
an Alice in Wonderland themed forest scene, to Taylor Swift and her use of a castle and themed
costumes to portray her love story. So this is a very strong, popular theme in the majority of Indie
pop and also female pop videos.
4. These videos also use camerawork, to show a heavy focus on the artist and their performance,
rather than a narrative that doesn’t include them, which is a feature used a lot in other genres,
such as alternative rock.
The videos in this genre use a lot of close-ups on the artist‟s face to familiarize fans or an audience
who are being introduced to the artist, to their appearance, to make them more recognizable to the
audience in future.