Grenre Investigation: Indie

Indie music is an abbrieviated term for independant music and the name is very much self-explanatory, in that it is unique and unusual - which is often why such tracks slip into this category, as their style is outside of genres which already exist.

Indie music, like most genres has crossed over and separated into several other branches of genre. For example, you can now find indie-pop, indie-rock etc. Alongside this, the style of music has also appeared to converhe out into the fashion world, with the outfits worn by popular indie artists becoming adopted not only by the people who listen to it, but by a large part of the fashion world in general; the codes of dress reflect the codes of the song, and it seems like a natural progression for it's listeners to uptake an individual style of fashion to match their unique taste in music. What I love about this type of music is the almost total artistic freedom to create whatever they feel like, as many indie artists are under smaller, independant labels which mean they for the most part they're not under so much pressure to make a hit single. This arguably means they can push the boundaries further in that the conventions can be totally whacky and surreal, yet it won't face such harsh criticism being in a lower limelight.

Indie music is generally part performance based and predictable as they give their target audience what they expect and what they are used to seeing. A lot of indie music is about live performances e.g: festivals and acoustic sets and is very much about the music itself. When there is a storyline as part of the music video indie music videos can either stick very closely to the lyrics of the song or digress into something far fetched and spontabeous that has very little to do with the lyrics, however this concept would be stuck to throughout, and could represent a more personal venture for the artist.  Below are two examples of well known indie music videos.



Although she is not an indie artist as such, Taylor Swift's collaboratin with 'The Civil Wars' pushed her into the genre in this occasion. The music video meets many of the conventions of an indie music video; a forest setting, innocent blonde lady walking around in a white dress, abandoned house etc. It's very isolated and artsy.

Ben Howard fits the indie genre perfect, and this is personally one of my favourite songs. The visuals differ in terms of desaturatated colours, sepia tones and black/white hues which give the video a reflective, vintage feel. The bike links to journey's and simplicity; he could use a car or taxi but chooses to take it slower so that he can properly take in the city surroundings, which is highlighted in the establishing shots of the location.