Codes and Conventions of Indie/Rock Music Videos

The genre that I have picked to analyse is Indie/Rock, and I have looked at 2 videos to help me understand the codes and conventions used in music videos of this genre.

In Indie/Rock music videos you usually see the artist/band performing throughout the video. This is shown in Mumford & Sons video 'Little Lion Man'.

The video 'Naive' by The Kooks challenges this though, as there is a sense of performance in the video, but it is focused on one of the band singing, with the rest of the band in the background of the video. I think this is because the video is more narrative based than performance based, and so this challenges the typical codes and conventions of Indie/Rock music videos.

You also usually see the artist/band playing their own instruments in the music videos, and we can also see this in the 'Little Lion Man' video as they are all playing instruments and singing throughout the video.

There are popular camera techniques used in Indie/Rock videos, especially long shots and extreme close ups. In the Mumford and Sons video there are many extreme close ups of the artists playing the instruments, which shows them actually playing the instruments which shows to the audience their talent. 

There are also a lot of long shots used in the 'Little Lion Man' video as it shows all of the band playing all together.

Dark colour palettes are usually used in Indie/Rock music videos, and this is shown in The Kooks video 'Naive'. The video is very dark throughout, and is based at a gig. 

The Mumford and Sons video also has quite a dark colour palette, using mainly white lights and a grey background. The clothes they are wearing are also quite dull and dark, mainly whites grays and blacks. 

The editing usually used in Indie/Rock videos is quite fast paced, and a great example of this is Mumford and Sons 'Little Lion Man'. This is also parallel to the music in this video, as when the music speeds up, the editing and cuts between instruments become faster to. 

These are all examples of typical codes and conventions in Indie/Rock music videos.