Happy Prelim

Indie Bands & Record Labels (Genre Research Project)

Arctic Monkeys

A British indie rock band formed in Sheffield in 2002. The band consists of Alex Turner, Matt Helders, Jamie Cook, Nick O'Malley, Andy Nicholson, Glyn Jones.

Record Labels: Domino Recording Company, EMI, Warner Bros. Records (Major labels)

Their most recent album was released in 2013 and is called 'AM'.

I feel that Arctic Monkeys began with a lot of underground fans but over the past ten or so years, their fan base has expanded greatly, a lot of different people being able to enjoy the music they create. Also, over the years, their music style has changed to appeal to a larger audience.

Coldplay

A British alternative rock band formed in London in 1996. The band consists of Chris Martin, Guy Berryman, Jonny Buckland, Will Champion.

Record Labels: Parlophone, EMI, Warner Music Group, Universal Music Group, Atlantic Records, Capitol Records, Fierce Panda Records (Major labels)

Coldplay's most recent album, 'A Head Full of Dreams', was released in 2015.

Coldplay's music has been produced to appeal to a large audience.

Bastille

An English indie rock band formed in London in 2010. The band consists of Dan Smith, Kyle Simmons, Will Farquarson, Chris Wood and Charlie Barnes.

Record Labels: Virgin Records, Capitol Records, EMI (Major labels)

Bastille's most recent album is called 'Wild World', and was released this year.

Genre Research Project

1. Decide which genre you’re going to produce a music video for and upload 3 (minimum) music videos within your genre under a ‘research and planning’ label

2. Conduct some research about your artists:

a) Which record label does the artist/ band belong to? Is it an independent or major label?
b) What was the name of their last album?
c) Do you think they are designed to have mass appeal (are they pop) or more elite, underground fans?

3. Create a montage of images for genre conventions. Upload pics of hand drawn spider diagrams or prezis for artists in your chosen genre. Comment on how they represent themselves and how this may appeal to their target audience.

Ideas to include:
- Typically narrative or performance videos?

- Mise-en-scene: iconography, props, costume style, high or low key lighting, locations: urban or rural, set design, colour pallet?
- Cinematography: close up shots or wide shots, special effects
- Message of video, generic types: archetypal gender roles etc. 

Indie Music Videos

We're hoping to create a music video with the genre of indie rock/pop. I found a few music videos which helped with giving me ideas in what music we could use. 

Video Ideas

Here are a few music videos which effects and narrative gave me inspiration for our own music video. It may not necessarily be the genre of music we want to go with but the different effects are something I would like to attempt to achieve.

Prelim Idea

After researching different music videos, we came to the conclusion that for our prelim we would like to attempt to replicate the first 30 seconds of 'Happy' by Pharrell Williams. The shots look simple, but getting the movement of each person exactly the same may be challenging.

3 Favourite Music Videos

We were told to look at all the past ECS music videos and choose three that stood out to us. It was difficult to decide but I managed to cut it down to three of my favourites:

My first favourite music video I chose was a narrative music video. The camera work and the effects they have incorporated into the music video really stood out to me. I particularly liked the slow motion and double exposure shots and as the shots were fast paced, it went well with the fast pace of the music. I also liked their use of reversing the clips at the end.

My second favourite was a performance music video. Their use of a black and white filter goes well with the music and the different types of shots used helped with giving me an idea of what I would like to achieve when making a music video, whether it being a narrative or performance one.

My third and final favourite video is also a performance music video. It looked very professional due to the way things were filmed and the different types of effects they used on those shots.

Music Video Examples

Here are a few music video examples from other schools:

My two personal favourites out of the five:

Narrative and Performance Music Videos

When creating a music video, we have two options; narrative or performance. Creating a music video with a narrative shows the audience a story within the few minutes the song is playing. A performance music video is different to that as it usually shows the artist performing their song. 

Here are a few examples of both types of  music videos:


Narrative

Performance

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