Alternative
rock music became popular in the 1990's but the history or alternative rock
music goes back farther than that. Before Nirvana brought alternative rock
music to the mainstream audience, the music genre had been gaining popularity
with the college crowds and music underground.
As a
musical genre, alternative rock consists of various sub genres that have emerged
from the independent music scene since the 1980s, such as grunge, Brit-pop,
Gothic rock, and indie pop.
-By researching and gaining knowledge the history of this genre it allows me to produce a product that can be recognised within the genre and portray the genre conventions.
I have chosen to research and produce my own music video
within the Alternative Genre. In order
to begin my journey, I have decided to research the conventions of this genre
focusing on the mise-en-scene.
Camera
The camera
tends to follow the artist.
-Goodwin
argues that music videos present 'star image' and multiple close-ups of the
artist shows the artists 'star' quality.
The most
conventional shots are close-ups and mid shot, these allow the audience to see
the emotions of the characters, often linked to the lyrics or just simply the
mood portrayed in the video.
Non-narrative
music videos usually show the artist playing the song featuring close-ups of
instruments or/and the artist emotionally lip syncing.
Long/establishing
shots and medium shots are used, which give more detail or background story for
the audience.
Setting
Alternative
artists commonly feature places that can be accessed easily, typically public
places. However, these public areas can also and may be quite secluded. These
types of settings create a sense of mystery, as the audience are not yet
familiar with the character and will gain some knowledge from the choice of
location.
Sound
Sound is
very important, especially for a non-narrative indie music video. For example,
when the audience are presented a 'live' performance from the artists. A music
video that adopts a story-line, it may contain diegetic sounds that create a
link between the narrative and the track. Diegetic sounds are mainly heard at
the beginning, before the vocals. It helps establish the setting and atmosphere
of the music video/narrative.
Lighting
Natural and
Low-Key lighting are the two common types of lighting that is mostly associated
with music videos within this genre which allows for scenes to take place in
locations such as clubs, alleyways, dark rooms for example.
Although
High-Key lighting is sometimes used when the convention is being challenged.
Props
Props are
commonly used in Alternative Rock Videos, due to the fact that normally the
band’s music includes: Guitars, drum kits, microphones, speakers etc. Not only
this but they are also going to be surrounding props in the background of the
scenery depending on where the video takes place (For example if they were in a
venue there would be posters). This is done to create slight realism for the
music video.
Narrative
Most
Alternative Rock videos have some segment of their videos based on a story. The
narrative is normally based on messages such as bad pasts/pain/drugs/generally
negative issues, the narrative depicts both the bad and good side of a
situation.
-Many music festivals now have specialist stages for Alternative Rock acts and fans, and some festivals are even dedicated to the genre and other similar genres, such as Reading and Leeds Festival, The Green Man, and Truck Festival.- -By understanding and researching the conventions of my chosen genre it gives me more knowledge in order to follow when deciding my narrative and influences such as lighting and the props I will use in order to follow these conventions, not only this but if my group and I decide to challenge any conventions I will be able to understand a great deal of information within that section in order to choose the perfect convention to challenge-
Andrew Goodwin identifies 5 key aspects of music videos that
we, the audience, should look out for, these are:
- Thought
beats – Where you ‘see’ in the sound
- Narrative
and Performance
- The Star
Image
- Relation
of visuals to song
- Technical
aspects of a music video
Andrew
Goodwin stated that there were three different ways in which the music video
can connect back to the song itself. These are:
-Illustration
-Amplification
-Disjuncture
Illustration
In an illustration music video, it should always cut
on the beat. This is to make the viewer feel the music and keep up with the
song.
The video will show the meaning of the lyrics, whether that
being literally or the feelings portrayed by the lyrics FOR EXAMPLE:
This video
produced by Oasis is an example of an Illustrated music video because of its
use of cuts. The majority of the transitions made in this video occur on the
beat itself in order to create a feel for the music which is suggested by a
video in this category. From the video we can see the cuts being done quickly
from the performance to part of what seems to be a narrative structure on the
important beats of the lyrics.
Amplification
Most of the time will cut on the beat, however,
sometimes will cut off the beat. The purpose of this is to 'amplify' the song
and the narrative, which keeps the audience entertained
Images we see should show what the lyrics mean. Sometimes
the video won’t match the song completely but will match the context in some
way
The artist will most likely dress up as the character who
feature in the narrative of the video. They will still be recognised but also
helps us understand the narrative slightly more. FOR EXAMPLE:
This music
video of Coldplay with their song 'Hymn for the Weekend' features the lead
singer who is usually in the centre frame of each shot, including the
performance shots. We see him embarking on a sort of 'adventure'. This music
video is an example of an amplified video due to the cuts of several frames not
being exactly on beat. However, the video itself does not really match the
lyrics as the lyrics suggest a lot about ‘drinking’ and ‘love’ and the video
expresses a more exploring and a journey sort of vibe. But the video could be
suggested that it does match with the lyrics as his is talking about someone in
his lyrics and from the use of head and shoulder shots we can identify that he
may be thinking/dreaming about that person whilst venturing throughout the
video.
Disjuncture
This is more for dance music as we don’t focus on the
narrative
Images don’t match most of the time and the narrative does
not relate to the song. Established artist are more inclined to do this as the
audiences already know what they look like and the genre in which they fit
into.
The
artist or band will look nothing like they usually do, sometimes the complete
opposite, rarely they won’t even feature in their own music videos
FOR EXAMPLE:
Within this
uniquely styled video a great deal of CGI is used in order to create a series
of monkey’s dancing. This example fits nicely into the disjuncture category of
music videos as the video does not show a match to the lyrics or feature the
band at all in the shots due to it being consumed by the use of animation.
How is this useful?
This research is extremely useful when it comes to producing my digipak as it gives me an idea of the range of different structures of a music video
Enables me to see that within my chosen genre there are many routes I could take
Understanding these different categories gives me the opportunity to experiment with the structure of my video.
After completing a year of AS media studies I have targets for myself in order to make more progress within this year of studies. I aim to:
Involve and experiment more in terms of my camera shots and angles, for example try out more low angled shots and mid shots in order to create a more interesting piece of work.
Invest more time into my audience so I am able to understand their interests to suit my product to them
Be more challenging and try out different types of lighting, like lighting from below.
Overall make everything more detailed so I can gain more knowledge about what the brief is asking me to do
