Indie rock originated in the UK and US in the 2000s as a subgenre of alternative rock. It emerged from underground independent music in the 1980s and gained popularity. The genre has evolved over time from a mellow underground sound to the mainstream popularity of grunge and Britpop in the 1990s. In the 2000s, indie rock reemerged led by bands like The Strokes, aided by the growth of the internet allowing more exposure. Current indie rock music videos typically feature both a narrative and live performance clips of the band to engage audiences and portray the appeal of live shows.

1. Genre Research
Indie Rock

2. Originates
• The genre originates from the UK and the USA
in the 00’s. Indie Rock is a sub genre of
alternative rock, starting within the 80’s
alternative rock emerged from independent
underground music and slowly became more
known and more popular. Slowly progressing
more different styles were being produced
creating more sub genres. Such bands that
helped progress the genres was The Smiths,
The Cure, Nirvana and Oasis.

3. Progression
• Indie Rock has evolved to where it is from the underground scene. Like I said it originates from
alternative rock but the sound itself has changed and progressed over time. Within the 80’s
alternative rock was a more mellow sound, more easily to listen to than pure rock music.
• It then progressed to Grunge in America where bands such as Nirvana became mainstream and
well known to an international audience. At the same time Britpop became popular within the
UK with bands such as Blur and Oasis battling out for number one spots. Within the late 90’s
this type of music started to decline and left the mainstream market.
• Then within the early 00’s Indie Rock genre started to take hold. First commercial success came
from American band The Strokes then followed up by a number of other bands. The genre was
such a success because of growing popularity of the Internet. More and more bands could
express their music online, this meant appealing to bigger audiences, which made record labels
sign a number of bands, helping to put the genre in the public eye.
• A band that took full advantage of this was the Arctic Monkeys, the Sheffield band would give
demo CD’s out at all gigs and their fans would share the music on the Internet. Over time
thousands of people downloaded the demos on such sites as MySpace making them extremely
popular. Word of mouth on the Internet made the band a great success. This has to be one of
the reasons why their debut album Whatever People Say I Am That’s What I’m Not became the
fastest selling British album of all time selling 360,000 within the first week.
• The genre is now less in the public eye with the explosion of dance music over the last couple of
years but the genre is still a heavily involved on many people’s lives.

4. Representation
• I feel artists are firstly represented as talented
musicians, pretty much all bands write all their own
music something, which can’t be said for most
musicians in the charts. Artists within the Indie Rock
genre can be stereotyped to be heavy drinkers and
drug takers. This stereotype has been developed over
time from people such as Pete Doherty, famous for his
music, dating Kate Moss and his heroin addiction.
Musicians within this genre I feel can be scene as role
models as songs created are extremely creative and
poetic when it comes to songwriting. But people like
Pete Doherty show the darker side of being a
successful young person with endless money.

5. Current Music Videos
• Within current music videos within the indie rock genre you
often see a narrative portrayed in between clips of live
performances of the band. Doing this helps show the
audience was the band are like live, making the audience
want to go and see a live gig. Having a narrative also keeps
the video entertaining, helping engage the audience.
Within the Indie Rock genre most money is made form
revenue from live performances, showing exciting clips of
the band playing live is essential to get people to watch the
band live. Within music videos hardly any showing off takes
place, this is usually to show the audience the artists are
just like you; young people having fun and making the best
of their life.

6. Current Indie Rock Videos
• Some videos I feel which fit this convention are:
• Swim Deep – Honey
• Don Broco – Actors
• Arctic Monkeys – You And I
• All three videos show a simple narrative and also
show the band performing, this sleeps the
audience get a sense of who the musicians are
like and weather or not they can relate to them.

7. My Video
• I feel in my video I must consider using a
simple narrative and make the band members
look as appealing as possible, making them
seem like normal down to earth people. In
particular show what the band look like when
performing and show that as an audience you
can relate to them.