Analysis of Music Videos: Indie Genre

History of Indie Music

'Indie' is an abbreviation of 'Independent' Music.  In the United Kingdom during the 1950s and 1960s, the major record companies had so much power that independent labels struggled to become established.
 Several British producers and artists launched independent labels as outlets for their work and artists they liked, but the majority failed and were swallowed up by the majors. 
Independent labels have a long history of promoting developments in popular music, stretching back to the post-war period in the United States, with labels such as Sun Records, King Records, and StaxDuring the punk rock era, the number of independent labels grew. The UK Indie Chart was first compiled in 1980, and independent distribution became better organised from the late 1970s on wards.     
       

Bastille

Bastille are a British Indie Rock band formed in 2010 but first started off as a solo project by singer Dan Smith but then later on decided to form a band. From then on till the present day, Bastille is now a four-piece consisting of Chris Wood, Will Farquarson and Kyle Simmons. The name of the band comes from Bastille Day - which is celebrated on 14th July which is also Dan Smith's birthday. After an independently released debut single and a self-released EP, the band signed to Virgin Records. 

'Things We've Lost in the Fire' (2013)


The song is the sixth single by Bastille from the debut album 'Bad Blood'. The song was first released as a 7-inch record single and as a digital download on 23rd August 2013. It received radio airplay on both BBC Radio 1 and BBC Radio 2 - two of the most popular British national stations.

The music video was shot in Kėdainiai, Lithuania. It was directed by Naor Aloni and released 13th July 2013. The music video is more of a narrative, symbolic video rather than performance based. It contains more cinematic shots which contain symbolic meanings to do with the story line of the video - this could have been done to create a visual aesthetic to go along with the style of the band and the song.

Florence and the Machine

They are a British indie rock band that formed in London in 2007; consisting of lead singer Florence Welch, keyboardist Isabella Summers and a collaboration of other artists. The bands music recieved praise across the media but especially from the BBC which ended up leading to a huge part of the bands rise to fame while promoting them as part of BBC Introducing. Their debut album 'Lungs' was released 6th July 2009. The bands sound has been described as a combination of various genres of the years - including rock and soul.

'What Kind of Man' (2015)

The song was released on 12th February 2015 as the albums lead single with the video being directed by Vincent Haycock and choreographed by Ryan Heffington. The video can be said to against the typical conventions of an indie music video due to most being either a narrative or performance based video while the bands video consists of a conceptual narrative with some performance due to the conceptual dance within the video. The video is a short film and is part of a series of other short films, all consisting of songs from their latest album 'How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful' (2015) and are all listed as 'chapters'. This video includes dialougue about the unifying power of tragedy in a relationship between a couple as they drive down a country road. 

Arctic Monkeys

They are a British indie rock band formed in 2002 in High Green, a suburb of Sheffield. The band consists of Alex Turner, Matt Helders, Jamie Cook and Nick O'Malley - former band memebr Andy Nicholson left the band in 2006 shortly after their debut album was released. This band were heralded as one of the first bands to come to public attention via the internet - some have suggested they represented the possibility of a change in the way in which new bands are promoted and marketed nowadays. 

'Do I Wanna Know?'  (2013) 

The song is from their fifth studio album AM (2013). The song was released as a single on 18th June 2013. The video was directed by David Wilson with animation agency Blinkink. The video is an animated conceptual video which can be seen to adhere to the stereotypes of indie music due to the visual images used. The video begins with a black background and simple visuals of white sound waves - which is similar to the bands album AM cover art; which also leads to the logo they are most known by.