Mood Board - Indie Genre

Above is a mood board i have made. In this I have tried to en capture everything about my project in a few images. These include my genre, research, related bands to my chosen genre, related bands to my artist, related musical instrument, famous digi-pak front covers and also a band playing at a festival (famous amongst the Indie genre)

This shows all my influences for the whole project ranging over all three tasks that I have been given to complete and shows the mood/vibe of my overall coursework.

Choice of Genre

My choice of Genre after looking at the different sub genres will be Indie/BritPop.



I feel that this is the most popular type of rock at the moment and the most widely acclaimed. On top of this, a major element of want I want my music video to have in is teenagers and for it to be aimed at younger people, which is what this music group is most associated with. I was inspired by the concepts in The Kooks video and the Babyshambles video, as well as showing me narrative and editing tools to create quite a simplistic video. The clothing is also very modern and stylistic which will help me in casting someone, as it is an easier style to replicate.

With my genre chosen I will pick a band and analyse what my overall research has helped me achieve.

Goodwins Six Point theory

Andrew Goodwin, author of the 1992 book Dancing in the Distraction Factory: Music Television and Popular Culture, came up with his own unique insight into the changing media world.


This specifically included the definitive critical study of music television, with close studies of the emergence and growth of MTV. Andrew Goodwin raises many issues to do with conflicting theories surrounding Music Television criticism and the problems with using a classic realist criteria. He set out a list of six things that the audience would expect to see in a music video:



•Music videos demonstrate genre characteristics (e.g. stage performance in metal video, dance routine for boy/girl band). The narrative and general gist of the music video should conform to the genre, however vary in content to create uniqueness. I believe all of the videos in my research have used this, possibly the most would be the Blink 182 post or the Nirvana post


•There is a relationship between lyrics and visuals (either illustrative, use images to explain the lyrics which is very popular - Amplifying, repeated images are drummed into the audiences mind over an over mainly used for choruses etc - Contradicting, meaning of the song is completely ignored).


•There is a relationship between music and visuals: Structure of the music IE Verses/chorus; uniqueness of artists voice can help to create an image or trademark that will be continued in the music video; The artists mode of address such as storytelling, becomes a two-way thing as we listen to the story or the story is acted out in this case


•The demands of the record label will include the need for lots of close ups of the artist and the artist may develop motifs which recur across their work (a visual style). Close up of artist is used heavily in just about all the videos so is needed in my main one


•There is frequently reference to notion of looking (screens within screens, telescopes, etc) and particularly voyeuristic treatment of the female body. I haven't personally seen voyeurism in my videos because it is a mainly male dominated. However, the exeption would be Blink 182 because of its showing of women naked etc


•There is often inter textual reference (to films, TV programmes, other music videos etc) - Sabotage by the Beastie Boys - directed by Spike Jonze is a major example of this.

Edit: After having done my video, I wanted to link back to Goodwin's theory and my final music video.

1st point - Here I have used issues of alcohol, teenage relationships and teenage hobbies such as Playstation.

2nd point - The lyrics at some points match the visuals, with the "Take it back" line added to parts where the narrative moves on or transitions into the next part of the narrative.

3rd point - I have edited the video so that when there are pauses or changes in tempo of the music, I will reflect it in the editing. For example, at first the music starts fairly slowly before quickening into the first main verse. At this moment where the guitar kicks in, I have used a transitional effect of doing double speed on the original filming, reflecting the fast paced music.

4th Point - Close ups of the lead protagonist and singer are used throughout my music video. This is because I needed to see his emotions far more clearly because all the things that occur in the narrative directly affect him and the audience's perception of him. Also, the brand identity is helped by the use of the railings as a place of equilibrium, which has become a signature of the band through all the different types of media.

5th point - Voyeurism isn't really used, apart from their is a woman and relationships with the woman at the centre of the plot.

6th point - References to other media and other relevant context include the use of a playstation 3 and Fifa 2011 (one of the most popular games in the world)

Michel Gondry

Michel Gondry is a French film, commercial and music video director and a screenwriter. He is noted for his inventive visual style and manipulation of mise en scène.



His career as a filmmaker began with creating music videos for the French rock band Oui Oui, in which he also served as a drummer. The style of his videos for Oui Oui caught the attention of music artist Björk, who asked him to direct the video for her song "Human Behaviour". The collaboration proved long-lasting, with Gondry directing a total of seven music videos for Björk. The style of Gondry’s music videos often relies on videography and camera tricks which play with frames of reference. He pioneered the "bullet time" technique later adapted in The Matrix. Gondry also directed the hugely acclaimed “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind” amongst others. His work with Music videos is how he got his break however, and he continues to work on them having started back in 1988.

He was an oscar winner in 2005, for the film "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind" as well as BAFTA's and Academy awards. For music videos he has won every award possible.

The video I looked at is "Heard em say" by Kanye West.



Heard em say is a beautiful moving cartoon based music video. This is very unique, especially for a rap song, even though it is an instrumental based song. The images can be more creative and there are no limits to what you can draw. This is how the narrative is beyond what a human can film allowing for far more imagination. The images of the child going up to heaven and the drawings are visually perfect for the song. Doing this as a music video would be very good because of the lack of boundaries of which you can work in, but to make it work I think you would have to be a highly skilled artist. Unfortunately I know of no one that would be able to work at a level as skilled as this however, I appreciate how good this template looks and would work.

Directors impact on a music video - Spike Jonze

During the research period I felt it was important to get a jist for the skill of actually creating a music video, not just the songs. For this I looked at directors that are asked to produce these videos and i have picked Spike Jonze and Michel Gondry.

Spike Jonze is an American director, producer and actor, whose work includes music videos, commercials, film and television. During his illustrious career his main breaks in the directing of films include the Oscar winning films Being John Malkovich and Adaptation. He was also a co-creator and executive producer of MTV's Jackass.



Jonze filmed himself dancing to Fatboy Slim's "Rockafeller Skank" as it played on a boom box in a public area. Spike showed the video to Slim, who loved it. Jonze then assembled a group of dancers to perform to Slim's "Praise You" outside a Westwood, California Movie Theater and taped the performance. The resulting clip was a huge success, and Jonze and his troupe were invited to New York City to perform the song for the 1999 MTV Video Music Awards. The video received awards for Best Direction, Breakthrough, and Best Choreography. The video is hugely iconic, as it is different and more tongue-in-cheek then serious cinematography.

His Work with music videos stretches from 1992 – to the present, which is testament to his ability and reputation. The video I will be looking at it is the iconic and humorous Sabotage by The Beastie Boys because of the comedy he employs in the video.



The video is mocking the 1980s "cop show" scene that was popular in America. It highlights in a funny way the conventions of each character in these shows and how silly some of the plots are. This video is very effective as many people remember this even now 17 years on. Picking a concept from society and making a tongue-in-cheek mock video of it is a very exciting point, however, if I was to come up with something like this it would be very difficult and ambitious to pull off.

The Smiths - Panic

This video is deliberately messy and unattractive. The band always made a comment that they didn’t want to be mainstream and commercialised, so they made a strange, slightly abstract video. The lack of any lip-syncing and no images of the iconic front man Morrissey is because of the same reason. He never posted himself on the front of the album covers etc and didn’t feel the need for any exposure. The hazy filming also links with the lyrics of “panic” well.



Throughout the video, there are constant flicks between different images, back and forth and in an unordered manner. The editing is really quick which makes it difficult to make out what is going on, which is quite effective as it stands out. The hazy black and white filter also helps this as again it is difficult to make out the images, thus we focus on the music itself, which is the main thing to this band.

The two shots that can be made out are the first person tracking shot and the circling pan shot of the male. The first person tracker is of someone with their arm outstretched, in a hurry, which is created by a fast forward editing technique. The other shot is a fast forwarded rotation around a central figure, which I think could be a good shot to use to establish your character, in a more 360 degree manner, although this isn’t really the impact this video is aiming for.

what I can take from this?
The extremely quick editing looks effective to convey a person’s current mental state, when used in conjunction with first person. This would be extremely effective if used to convey anger, confusion or possibly intoxication.

The Smiths biography - Fathers of BritPop

The Smiths were an English indie pop band, formed in Manchester in 1982. Although they had limited commercial success outside the UK while they were still together, and never released a single that charted higher than number 10 in their home country, The Smiths won a growing following, and remain cult and commercial favourites. The band found good success with the singles “There is a light that never goes out” and “panic”. The iconic front man Morrissey stated that he chose the name The Smiths "... because it was the most ordinary name" and because he thought that it was "... time that the ordinary folk of the world showed their faces."

Morrissey's lyrics, while depressing, were often full of mordant humour; John Peel remarked that The Smiths were one of the few bands capable of making him laugh out loud. Influenced by his childhood interest in the working-class social Morrissey wrote about ordinary people and their experiences with despair, rejection and death. While gloomy "...songs such as 'Still Ill' sealed his role as spokesman for disaffected youth", Morrissey's "manic-depressive rants" and his "'woe-is-me' posture inspired some hostile critics to dismiss the Smiths as 'miserabilists.'" The Smiths dressed mainly in ordinary clothes – jeans and plain shirts – which reflected the "back to basics" guitar-and-drums style of the music. This contrasted with the high fashion sported by pop bands “Spandau Ballet” and “Duran Duran” that were popular at the time.

The Band released 4 albums. The group released their debut album The Smiths, which reached number two on the UK Albums Chart. Controversy followed when "Suffer Little Children" touched on the theme of the Moors murders. This caused uproar after the grandfather of one of the murdered children felt the band was trying to commercialise the murders. After meeting with Morrissey, he accepted that the song was a sincere exploration of the impact of the murders. Early in 1985 the band released their second album, Meat Is Murder. This album was more political than its previous one, including the pro-vegetarian title track (Morrissey forbid the rest of the group from being photographed eating meat), the light-hearted republicanism of "Nowhere Fast", and the anti-corporal punishment "The Headmaster Ritual" and "Barbarism Begins at Home". Meat Is Murder was the band's only album to reach number one in the UK charts.

Morrissey brought a political stance to many of his interviews, courting further controversy. Among his targets were the Thatcher government and the monarchy which continued his ambitious public messages. Morrissey launched his own solo career after the band split and is still fairly popular now.

Babyshambles - The Delivery Analysis

This video is of interest because of the clever cinematography involved. Many of the camera techniques such as camera movement, angle and filter are what I will be looking to replicate in my own music video. This has also given me a lot of inspiration.

Link for video(See note at bottom of page) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uGXkZuq8FA0

The black and white filter is something that appealed to me during my research into Kasabian and has again shown itself to be effective. The filter makes everything more basic and simplistic, which is quite a good look for this type of urban music. The tracking shot of the male following the camera is the same as the one in The Kooks video and is defiantly effective. He stands out and we know he is on the way to something, with a purpose. The close ups also help because the character is more recognisable when in group shots, so the audience know who is the central figure.

There are many car scenes, of which these are usual with fast-forward editing. This looks good and changes the perception of time for the audience. Tracking shots and zoom shots are used most frequently, and there is little else in the shots bar the four characters. The narrative is unclear however the link is once again made with the song by the use of occasional lip-syncing. The video reminds me more of a scene from a film, which I think makes it unique and slightly unconventional – which is a good thing in this case.

What can I take from this:
The car scene will be easy to do, as will the tracking shot of the protagonist singing and walking towards the camera. These are two aspects that look good and won’t be too challenging. The black and white filter also backs up the basic, simple tone to the video, everything stripped down, bare, focusing on the protagonists and band identity.

NOTE - Wasn't able to embed video so here is a montage of some of the shots

Babyshambles biography

Babyshambles are an English indie rock band established in London in 2004. Babyshambles has released two albums. The band has received a great deal of attention from the British tabloid press as a result of interest in Pete Doherty's (The lead singer - pictured second from the left) personal life. Doherty created the band because he was thrown out of “The Libertines” because of his horrendous drug habits. The fascination with the lead singer has been the basis of their success as the public has become interested in the modern “rock star” life.

The band's second single "Killamangiro" was released November 29, 2004 reaching number 8 on the UK singles chart. The band embarked on a tour in December 2004, among growing concerns regarding Doherty's drug dependence. During a gig in Blackpool, the band walked off the stage when it became clear that Doherty was too intoxicated to perform and a riot broke out at the London Astoria after Doherty failed to appear.

The album, entitled Down in Albion, was released on November 14, 2005. It reached the Top 10 on the UK Albums Chart. The first single from the album, "F*** Forever", had been released on August 15, reaching number four on the UK singles chart. The second single, "Albion", was released on November 28 and reached number eight in the UK singles chart.On October 1, 2007 Babyshambles released their second album Shotter's Nation. The first single from the album, "Delivery", was released on September 17, 2007, reaching number six in the UK Singles Chart after its first week on general sale. The album was received much better than previous Babyshambles releases.

After a turbulent time for the band with changes to the lineup frequent and members frustrated with Doherty’s drug problems and inconsistency, the band began to tour the English festivals scene and pose themselves as a festival based band. Doherty has put the project to one side for the moment as he is reappearing with “The Libertines.”

The Kooks - Niave analysis

I was very interested by this particular video because I felt it was both simplistic and expressive. I enjoyed the narrative, the message behind it and the subtle lip-syncing, which created a link with the song and the video, but not too much as to distort the overall plot/narrative.



The video has a constant that is the main protagonist shown in a close up image walking toward the camera, which is tracking away from him. This creates a sense that he is searching for something or someone. Small clips of a girlfriend, shown in the past tense, are entwined within the walking sequence which is used to suggest that he is searching for her. The message of the plot is that she is drunk and the consequences, such as being physically sick and cheating on her boyfriend (the main protagonist)

When we are on the journey with the male, he lip syncs occasionally and only slightly, which looks effective as it keeps with the narrative but links the song/singer/video all together. I think the video is shot very well and simply, as well as being on a low budget, so there is much to take from this.

What I can take from this?
The concept of alcohol with young adults is socially a big talking point. This video begins to make a comment on it by presenting fighting/cheating on partners and being sick – all while intoxicated. This presents alcohol in a negative way. This is something I could look to recreate – as long as the lyrics generally fit in of course. Also, the close up tracking shot is a very effective piece of editing and allows you to become more personal with the protagonist. I think this helps the narrative also as we know the main character well before the actual plot takes place.

The Kooks Biography

The Kooks are an English indie pop band formed in Brighton, in 2004. A self-described "pop" band, their music is primarily influenced by the 1960s British Invasion movement and post-punk revival of the new millennium. The Kooks have drawn on a number of varied sources to create their indie pop sound. They have publically listed “The Rolling Stones”, “The Beatles” and “Bob Dylan” among their influences. The band has gradually developed both their song writing style and musical presentation over the course of their two albums. The band's debut album Inside In/Inside Out was touted as a typical Britpop record, owing influence to “The Libertines and Thin Lizzy” containing elements of the 60’s Britpop movement.

With songs described as "catchy as hell", The Kooks have experimented in several genres including rock, Britpop, pop, and reggae at times being described as "a less severe Arctic Monkeys". Signed to Virgin Records just three months after forming, The Kooks broke into the musical mainstream with their debut album Inside In/Inside Out (2006). The album was ultimately successful, achieving quadruple platinum status in the UK within a year. They also achieved success with their follow up Konk (2008) debuting at number one on the UK Albums Chart and recording first 65,000 sales in the first week.

Pritchard – the young lead singer has had his lyrical style compared to that of a "younger, less pathetic version of Pete Doherty's mush-mouth style" which is a newer form of singing with a slur/colloquial language.

"Naive", "She Moves in Her Own Way" and "Ooh La" achieved chart success in the UK, while "Naive" and "She Moves in Her Own Way" put The Kooks in the top ten for the first time.

Indie Pop/Brit Pop - Short introduction

Indie pop/Brit pop – Genre of alternative rock music that originated in the United Kingdom in the mid 1980s. It continues to have a strong following and inspire musicians, not just in the UK but around the world with new labels, clubs and bands devoted to the sound. It has similar sounds to Alternative Rock however softer, catchier and taking influence from 1960s Pop.

Musically its key characteristics are jangling guitars and innocent lyrics represented loosely with social points, however this genre was moving the industry away from the social concern side of the original genre. It still holds a student rebellious undertone, but in a more light humored entertaining way. The colloquial slur of the vocals has meant that people from different regions can identify with the music as it swept to northern areas of the UK and Ireland. This has become a common feature of more recent “Indie Pop” bands.

My Band under Indie pop/Brit pop are:
The Kooks
Babyshambles
The Smiths - One of the founders of the genre, iconic front man Morrissey and one of the first successful mainstream bands.