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Showing posts from October, 2020

Concepts and Structures in Alt/Indie Rock Genre

 This is area 2 of Hira's research.

Instruments Used In Alt/Indie Rock Genre

This was on of the areas of extensive genre research that Hira worked on. (click the image for her blog post)  

Keeping Up With the Conventions

        Codes and Conventions in            Alternative/ Indie Rock Music Videos Type of Music Video Indie rock music videos appear to be predominantly performance-based, however several indie artists explore conceptual and narrative-based videos as well.  Performance-based: Everytime // boy pablo This music video is purely performance-based, showing the band performing in one fixed location, with no other interventions. Are You Bored Yet // Wallows (ft. Clairo) This music video adds a slight twist in performance as, apart from band members performing on the stage, the crowd is shown lip-syncing the song with vague (almost blank) expressions. Conceptual-based: Graffiti // CHVRCHES This music video revolves around the artist reminiscing her first love, and contains various sequences of her and the aforementioned first love. The use of elements such as floating objects or people that recur throughout the video add to the overall concept of romanticising love. Sunflower // Rex Orange Coun

The Indie Scene

 My team members an I divided our research and took two areas each - one easier and one lengthy. This is my presentation on the easy area of research, "Popular Artists and Albums in Indie/Alt Music" White Simple and Colorful Geometric Company Culture Book Presentation by Fiza Zaheer

Genre Selection

 So this was a rather quick and easy process. In the first 15 minutes of the team discussion, we came to the unanimous consensus on the genre, which would be *cue drumroll* alternative/indie rock.  Yes. There is still a massive debate (for reasons beyond my comprehension) on whether indie should be considered a genre, but I personally believe that the style, vibe, element and everything that that particular music has evolved to possess can very much only be described as "indie". You can't not listen to an indie song and not be able to tell what it is. (There are more well-fledged arguments that I won't get into (for now)). So, indie or independent music had been around since perhaps the 60s, but was mostly composed of underground groups and performers, being officially recognised in the 70s, and then receiving a popularity boost in the 80s. The term at that point was used to refer to post-punk and new wave music labels. It was also seen as something very counter-cultu

Genre

A genre is obviously one of the most important elements involved in the making of music. It is the way in which the various kinds and styles of music are characterised, with artists developing their own particular genre style.  This categorisation of music into genres is done on the basis of several distinguishable factors, including the style of music, and the generic conventions and expectations that it follows. Some of the most mainstream genres include pop, hip-hop/rap, country and rock. All the music in these genres will have certain factors that distinguish them clearly from the others, for example, rock will have a clear use of electric guitars, drums, bass and the music overall is loud and distinct. The genre of the music largely determines the music video's style. Rock music videos are more performance-based. Hip-hop and rap music videos will also have certain stylistic elements that make them stand out and define them as a genre, even without the music - casual street-sty

Star Image

We discussed the way in which popular artists present themselves to the world, aka their "star image", which plays a major role in their popularity and how they're perceived. To study this in greater detail I chose to look into Billie Eilish because I find her aura as an artist really interesting and dynamic.