Media presentation

1. MUSIC GENRE
CONVENTIONS RESEARCH
VICTOR KHAYCHENKO

2. CONFIDENCE MAN
The song that we chose for our coursework is by an Australian indie/electro pop group Confidence Man. I
in this presentation will be looking at similar artists which are indie pop.

3. WHAT IS INDIE POP?
Indie pop originated from post punk and appeared from the underground scene. Indie is both musical
genre and subculture. The main feature of indie pop music is that it is angst free. Indie pop production
sounds more low fi and dirty than contemporary pop music. Indie pop was a protest to the normal values
in pop, such as being cool, tough, sexualized and etc. Indie pop focuses on showing the “lighter” side of the
underground by sounding less depressed and more concentration on harmonies.

4. RICHARD DYER’S STAR THEORY
• Richard Dyer suggested a three part theory about image of stars. First of all, the theory suggests that;
star’s image is constructed and that they are not who they really are on stage. The star is a commodity
in a sense that label will create similar stars by knowing the trends and patterns in order to generate
profit. The star is an ideology, this means that stars come from certain part of the social hierarchy and
represent certain views which create an ideology.
• Also, there are two main paradoxes about the stars
• The star must be both extraordinary and ordinary
• The star must be both present and absent

5. APPLYING RICHARD DYER’S THEORY TO CONFIDENCE
MAN
• If you apply Dyer’s theory to Confidence Man, Confidence Man have an appearance of a typical pop
band, not too flashy yet not too shy. As a commodity, you can purchase their merchandising such as
shirts, CDs or vinyl on their website from various webstores over the world. However, Confidence Man
don’t propagate any ideas or ideologies, their music does not feature any particular political or social
messages. Paradox wise Confidence Man fit pretty well. They don’t seem to be something surprising or
brand new in the pop scene yet have a certain following which deems them present yet absent.

6. BILLIE EYELASH – BAD GUY
Billie Eilish is an American indie, electropop, trap singer. She won many awards such as ASCAP pop music awards, MTV awards
and Teen Choice Awards. She was also nominated for many other awards. Her breakthrough song is called ”Bad Guy” In her
performances she wears baggy clothing of luxury brands such as Dior, louis Vuitton, channel and Gucci. In one of her interviews
she said that she dresses this way in order to be different from everyone else and so she is not criticized for her body. This is the
way she appears in the bad guy music video. There are also scenes where Billie Eilish is bleeding from her nose. The colors in the
video are oversaturated. There are even moments when Eilish’s color of clothing or hair fits the background. The video has a
pretty sinister atmosphere which is supported by the scenes of severed heads and Eilish bleeding. Some moments are simply
bizarre, for example when you see fat men bouncing their bellies or a man being fed cereal while lying down. Overall, the video
is disjuncture since the narrative of the video has nothing to do with the lyrics. The video editing is not particularly fast paced
and mostly consists of close and mid shots which give a claustrophobic feel to the music video.

7. Billie Eilish - Bad Guy video

8. LANA DEL REY – BORN TO DIE
Elizabeth Wooldridge Grant is another American singer. She sings in style of baroque pop, dream pop and indie
pop. She won prestige awards such as MTV music awards both UK and Europe, Echo awards and Danish music
awards. The biggest influences on Lana’s music are; Frank Sinatra, Andrew Lloyd, Bob Dylan and Elvis Presley. In
her public performances she dresses simply in somewhat sixties fashion. She usually wears a dress. In the video
she also wears a dress. The music video is set in a space looking somewhat like a palace. There are also scenes
where we see a narrative with a young couple where the girl dies in the end. The editing is pretty smooth and
shots are mid and long, which makes the video feel pretty spaced out.

9. LANA DEL REY - BORN TO DIE

10. TWENTY ONE PILOTS - HEATHENS
Twenty one pilots is an American indie pop/rap rock duo from Columbus, Ohio. The two members are bass player/singer Tyler Jose
drummer Josh Dun. The band formed in 2009, however fame came to them only in 2016 through singles such as “Stressed out”,
“Ride” and “Heathens”. Twenty one pilots won nominations Alternative Music Press Artist Of The Year Award, American Music
Awards Favorite Duo, BBC Radio 1 Hottest Record Of The Year and etc. Their song heathens got also featured in a hyped movie –
Suicide Squad. The video clip is set in a high controlled prison. The band members are dressed in orange jump suits and perform
In the prison itself. There is also a narrative which features the characters of suicide squad as they eventually start a riot in the
Prison. There is an establishing long shot in of the prison and that is pretty much it. The rest of the shots are close a mid which
Give a feeling of being kept in this prison.

11. TWENTY ONE PILOTS - HEATHENS

12. FOSTER THE PEOPLE – PUMPED UP KICKS• Foster the people is an American indie rock/pop formed in Los Angeles California in 2009. The members
are Mark Foster, Sean Cimino, Isom Innis and Mark Ponitus. So far they’ve released 3 albums. The hit
that gave the the breakthrough is called “Pumped Up Kicks”, it got high positions over many charts and
sold many copies. Foster the people have appeared on the famous Saturday Night Show and got awards
such as Top Rock Song from Billboard Awards and WEQX song of the year award. The music video itself
shows moments in the band’s life such as playing gigs, touring, walking around and wave surfing. The
image has a low fi filter which helps it give a warm atmosphere despite the song’s dark lyrical matter.
Mostly there are close and mid shots present in the video/

13. FOSTER THE PEOPLE - PUMPED UP KICKS

14. SIMILARITIES IN SYMBOLIC CONVENTIONS
First of all, all of the videos feature the performance of the artist or the band. Also, there are certain things
within the videos that might seem bizarre or disturbing. For example in the Billie Eilish video you can see
her bleeding, in the Lana Del Rey video she dies in the end, in the Twenty One Pilots video you can see
supernatural creatures and in the Foster The People there are certain shots which have nothing to do with
the video. All of the narratives in the videos have something to do with the artists.

15. DIFFERENCES IN SYMBOLIC CONVENTIONS
If you look at the videos, some of them have narratives, yet pumped up kicks does not. Also, in each video
where narrative is present, they are different. In born to die there is narrative about a couple that love
each other, bad guy has a random narrative and heathens is about a prison riot. The setting for each music
video differs from another one. Heathens is set in a prison, Bad Guy in some imaginary world, Pumped Up
Kicks in real life and Born To Die in a palace. All of the artist are dressed differently in each of the videos. All
of the videos have different props. Also, the costumes are different for each video.

16. SIMILARITIES IN TECHNICAL CONVENTIONS
All of the videos mostly use mid and close shots either to focus the viewer’s attention on the performance.
All of the videos except for born to die have an exaggerated color pallet, either because of the exposure
levels, lenses or filters used in post production. The editing is also similar, the shots do not change rapidly.
The sound was pretty much parallel, songs did fit the atmosphere of the music videos.

17. DIFFERENCES IN TECHNICAL CONVENTIONS
• First of all, camera angles are varying from video to video. Bad Guy has some low angle and high angle
shots, Heathens consist of eye level shots mostly, Born To die mostly has high angle and eye level shots
and pumped up kicks has lots of low angle shots. Camera movements are also different, Bad Guy almost
has no camera movement, Heathens has a lot of tracking, Born to die has movements towards the
singer and Pumped Up kicks was filmed by camera being handheld.

18. WEBSITES

19. WEBSITES
Similarities:
All of the websites have information and synergy such as tour dates, links for the streaming websites, social media links, and artist’s merch shop.
Differences:
All of the layouts and designs are different
Billie Eilish website has a video game embedded into it
Different color pallets
Lana del rey does not have a merch shop

20. DIGIPACKS

21. DIGIPACKS

22. DIGIPACKS SIMILARITIES AND DIFFERENCES
• Similarities:
All digipacks feature the album artwork
All of the digipacks feature information about the artist, track list, lyrics, barcode, logo of the label and
social media information
Differences:
Two of the digipacks do not have the artist photo
The design and layout of the digipacks are dissimilar
The color pallets are different.