1. Analysis of three Indie/rock music videos
In this assignment I will be analysing three Indie rock music
videos to identify key conventions and the iconography of
videos in this genre, this will give me a better understanding
and help me when creating my own Indie music video that I
have chosen.
The songs I have chosen are:
Foals – Inhaler
Kings of Leon - Supersoaker
Oasis – Wonderwall

2. Foals - Inhaler
Inhaler by Foals is a very upbeat song, however has a vocally more aggressive sound in
the chorus to emphasize the meaning to the song.
The songs is about conflict and singer being smothered to the point of not being able
to breath hence the title ‘Inhaler’, he needs an inhaler to breath or in other words
space from everything ‘I can’t get enough space’.
The song starts off with a group of people laying on the floor with exaggerated shots
of them breathing heavily, this gives the audience the idea of what the songs theme
is.

3. In these scenes there are a lot of graffiti walls and
skate boarding and bike riding in skate parks which is
common conventions of modern Indie/rock
videos, this identifies to the audience this is a Indie
song.
This is a shot of the band playing in the bowl of the skate
park which again represents skateboarding which is a
convention of Indie/rock, however, they have chosen this
location to play in because it also connects to the song as
they are in the centre of the bowl which emphasizes
needing breathing space instead of being closed in.
Throughout the song there are scenes of a woman
getting a tattoo of lungs on her chest, again this
emphasizes needing to be able to breathe. After
this, the woman then begins heavily breathing.

4. The song has a fast paced beat, therefore the editing style is quite fast to keep up
with the rhythm. There are some fast paced shots of all the locations in the video
to quickly establish the settings/narratives and the style of the video, which is
modern Indie/rock that has no other common conventions of this style such as
black and white or old fashioned colour.
A lot of mid shots are used of the band members when playing their instruments
to show live performance which is a common convention in rock videos.
The bands appearance meets the convention of Indie clothing, as they are
wearing skinny trousers and jean jackets which doesn’t attract much attention
like other bands and is more casual.

5. Kings of Leon - Supersoaker
The song ‘Supersoaker’ is a love story that seems to be set in
the 1950s/60s.
The song opens with a lyric from the song ‘Sentimental girls’
to connote to the audience the narrative and theme to the
song being a love interest/story.
In the picture, they have used vintage looking glasses that
were common in the 50s to immediately show the visual style
of the video

6. For the visual style, a mixture of pop-art screenprinting and hand tinting has been
used to re-create the 50s rock and roll scene. Another Indie/rock song Wonderwall by
Oasis have also used hand tinting.
Hand
tinting
Pop-art
screen
printing

7. The style the band has also re-introduced old fashioned Americana which refers to
the vintage milkshake bars and all the hairstyles and make up the female characters
have used which is a lot like Marilyn Monroes style. The band have used many
different effects in this video to make it clear the vintage style is what they’re looking
for by using black and white, Pop-art screen printing and sepia.

8. A lot of mid shots are used of the band members to identify their instruments
and faces when playing live performance, this is common in rock videos.
Although they have a vintage idea for the video they stay remain in common
Indie clothing such as jean jackets, short sleeve t-shirts and skinny trousers. So
they don’t allow their music videos to change their representation of being an
Indie/rock band, they want to keep the identity of being a conventional rock
band.

9. Oasis - Wonderwall
The song “Wonderwall" refers to "the person you constantly find
yourself thinking about".
This song is about the feelings a person gets when they experience
the initial stages of love and infatuation. It describes the volleying
between euphoria and agony that a crush can make you feel.
The song starts off a vinyl record being selected
and played, with the colour being in black and
white this immediately tells the audience this
video will be represented with a 60s old
fashioned look. This is common in a lot of
Indie/rock music videos.

10. In the next shot there is the singer sitting on
a stool playing the guitar. The shot looks as
if it had been filmed by an old fashioned
movie projector, this effect again
emphasizes the vintage style the band is
trying to achieve.
The bands clothing style meets
the common convention of
Indie/rock music videos because
of their jeans, shirts and jackets.

11. Like “Supersoaker” the band have used
the idea of hand tinting to create the
vintage effect and make certain things
stand out, this effect is used through out
the video. This also shows this can be a
common convention of Indie/rock music
videos to add this effect.
Hand tinting

12. In conclusion, a lot of Indie/rock music videos are similar when it comes to their
conventions like style and effects.
All three videos from my analysis show they all wear similar clothing being jean
jackets, skinny trousers and shirts.
Two out of the three music videos show a similar visual style being old
fashioned and vintage by using black and white colouring and hand tinting
effects.
All bands within the Indie/rock genre keep to their common conventions and
styles to represent to the audience the style of their music, this is known as
iconography.