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-culture in nature - which it most probably was.

I've always been intrigued by indie music and indie artists for reasons I don't really know. Perhaps it's the way it's so non-commercialised (both the music and the artist) which is also why it's often very different from what we very often get to hear. It's almost revolutionary in the way that indie artists will express themselves however they want, in a very limitless way, and not owe anyone any explanation whatsoever. I felt that that is what I wanted to incorporate in my music video as well. My teammate Hira is a die-hard indie music admirer (her blog might've made that clear) and so she had great input when it came to deciding upon our genre. 

Indie music videos are characterised by the artists' unique creativity or thought, expressed mostly in very simplistic ways, with usually significantly lower budgets than mainstream music videos. The star image is often missing or kept to a minimum in indie music videos as the artists aren't associated with a record label and hence their priority is mostly the originality of their music rather than appealing to the mainstream public. So choosing indie as a genre meant that we could freely experiment and not restrict ourselves to a particular style in making the music video.