Indie Pop Research

Lana Del Rey is one of the most popular indie pop artists.  Her image is indie, this comes through her music videos. Ride is an example of one her most conventional indie pop music videos.

The video consists of mainly long shots and close ups so the viewer can establish the location and put emphasis on facial expressions which is a convention of indie pop music videos.  The song is based around love and relationships which the music video reflects this through the narrative of the love story between the man and woman. This video is an exception when compared to her other work and music videos as she designed a story before the music video to establish a narrative further and emphasis the emotions that the song expresses.

    

 

Indie Pop Codes And Conventions

Indie pop is a genre of alternative rock that originated in the from the UK in the mid 1980s. Indie pop differs from Indie rock as it more melodic and less abrasive.  Indie pop music videos are known to be low in budget, the common locations for filming are cities, studios and parks. These locations create mystery and help with the abstract elements in the video. This is why our locations for filming will mainly consist of London, Camden and Greenwich.

The narrative is used to tell a story by using sequences of images and videos related to the song, not literal but still enables the audience to understand why it was given that narrative. We plan to incorporate our narrative by using having a montage running through our music video.  The most common shots in Indie pop consist of extreme close ups as this is used to express emotions and create tension, long shots and establishing shots are equally important in this particular genre as it allows the location to be seen.

Codes And Conventions Of Music Videos

Camera Shots
Music videos tend to include many different types of shots including, long shots, close ups and mid shots. This is to create emphasis on the artist, location and emotions. Close ups are also used not only to show emotion but to show lip synching, which is a classic convention in music videos.

Camera Movement
Camera movement in music videos manly consists of following the main character in the video around. This includes tilts, pans and tracking.

Editing
Jump cuts is the predominant editing technique used in music videos, this is because it allows sudden change form one scene to another. Similarly, transitions such as fade and dissolve are very common in music videos as they create a different effect to cuts.

Audience Profile

Our audience profile explains the primary audience for our music video. Artists similar to ours such as Ella Eyre, Lana Del Rey, Jorja Smith and Wolf Alice all have a very similar target audience being young females, for this reason our target audience also became young females. I feel that although the previous artists discussed come under 'indie rock/pop' they still have a mass audience as that style is becoming more popular causing it to expand. The psychographics refer more to personality traits which for our target audience will be bold and opinionated. If you enjoy mainstream music the most, you might be considered easy going as you don't have a strong, assertive personality. However, less popular genres such as indie, rock, heavy mental and grime will have niche audiences which may make you 'stand out from the crowd'. 

Artist Background

Aaliyah Ade, better known by her stage name VIVID, is a solo artist from South East London born in November 1996. Descending from a family of musicians and dancers, she’s always had a love for music. 

It was in 2013 when her parents got divorced and shortly after her grandmother who taught her how to play the keyboard died. She channelled her upset into song writing and began doing gigs around London. Her songs were often very lyrically sad, backed with an upbeat, happy soundtrack in contrast to pay homage to her grandmother’s favourite songs. During a gig in one of London’s most loved bars in Soho was when a producer saw her perform and asked to work with her on some tracks. They released a joint EP entitled ‘Psychedelic Dreams’ and were both signed to EMI a year later in 2016. 

Since being signed VIVID has been touring as an opening act for the likes of Tinie Tempah and Ella Eyre. Her debut album is due to be released in the Easter of 2018.