This document analyzes and summarizes three music videos: 1. Ben Howard's "I Forget Where We Were" defies indie music video conventions by not including any performance aspects and having an abstract storyboard with no apparent order. 2. Earl Sweatshirt's "Whoa" uses conventions of both a storyboard and performance video, with slow motion, dull colors, and an emphasis on the artist's face. 3. Modern Baseball's "The Weekend" includes both performance and storyboard elements, with shots of the band that coincide with the song's lyrics and a fast-paced visual that matches the tempo.

1. Detailed Analysis of Music
Videos

2. Ben Howard – I Forget Where We Were

3. • The song used in this video follows conventions of the indie genre,
although is slower and is played by a solo artist (Ben Howard) as
supposed to an entire indie band. This video follows the storyboard
convention, as throughout the entire music video, no performance
is shown. Although a storyboard, as the musician is never seen, the
video is abstract and there is no apparent order to the scenes in the
video. The usual style for an indie music video would include a
performance aspect, meaning this video does defy genre
conventions. The music video is also abstract as it has no link
between the video on screen and the lyrics in the song. The only
link to the music is the pace and tempo of the both the video and
the music, as both are relatively slow and have a melancholy feel
and atmosphere. The artist is never scene in the video and the only
two people present appear random and have no link to the artist.
The video has no apparent intertextual references and no particular
regular notion of any iconography of any sort.

4. Earl Sweatshirt - Whoa

5. • This video follows various conventions of the rap genre as it
has performance aspects to the video. Throughout the
video the artist is singing the words to the song, whilst
continuing to carry on, as a storyboard would. This video
uses both conventions of a storyboard and a performance
video. Similarly to the song, the video appears dreary and
slurred because of the slow motion footage and the dull
colours used when editing in post production, the slurs in
the background of the song give the musical aspect a
similar feel to that of the visuals. The effect also gives the
video a slightly contorted feel, separating it from real life.
The artist’s face and presence is very predominant in this
video, this may be due to the demands of the record label,
but for whatever reason, the artist is made clear.

6. Modern Baseball –The Weekend

7. • This video follows many conventions of the music’s genre. This song
and video would fit into the ‘indie’ genre. The video follows
conventions as it includes both performance aspects and
storyboard aspects. The video does also coincide with the lyrical
content. For example, towards the start of the song, the lead singer
describes the description of a girl, a girl following this description
then becomes visible on the screen. Throughout the video the
members of the band are visible in many of the shots. This may be
due to the record label’s demands or to simply fit the performance
aspect of an indie genre convention. The musical aspect to the
video matches the visual aspect as the fast paced tempo is reflected
in the dancing audience watching the band play in the performance
aspect of the video. There are no massively obvious intertexual
references, however the video does take the appearance and style
of many American high school movies and many other videos from
other American indie rock groups.