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‘Just another ‘indie’ video’

So we’ve all heard about Hewitson River’s new album and music video, right? I’m sure everyone has. It’s becoming a much more regular occurrence that record companies are pumping out the same old rubbish, under a new obscure title. Firstly I will point out some similarities between some popular videos right now. Firstly, Florence and the Machine:

The destructive abstract tea party scenes. I wonder where the Hewitson River video got that idea from?

The tea party scene represents the rebelious element that is often used within most indie genre videos.

The Hewitson River video contains a lot more other conventions from other music video, for example the instruments being played in a rural setting.

Bigmouth Stikes again, and Mumford and sons share the same audience, so why not the same 'indie' conventions?

However, maybe I'm coming down on Hewitson River a little too harsh, as this idea of copying conventions from one text and bringing it into another isn't a new thing at all. Picasso once said 'good artists steal, great artists copy', and I guess that this is also true for music videos and genres.

Bigmouth Strikes Again isn't all copy copy copy, there are some conventions in the music video that do challenge the genre slightly. For example, we see that Hewitson River gets duplicated through editing. This is not normally a convention that not necessarily applies to the indie genre, as usually indie genre videos will contain performances from the whole band, rather than just a lead singer.

It's difficult to say whether or not the narrative structure maintains conventions of that of the indie genre, because it's abstract, which means that the audience will make up their own narrative to what they think is going on.

However the costume Hewitson is wearing is similar to that of the mumford and sons, and relate to the whole 'vintage style' all these new music videos seem to be heading for. However Mumford & Sons are not the first band to dress in a formal 'vintage' style.

I think that costumes allow the audiences to understand what kind of genre the video is, without even hearing the song.

The costume is iconic to the genre of music, and the style of the video. For example, if I was to pick out an element of Hewitson River's outfit, I'd say his hat.

The intertextual reference of the smiths is the irony of the protagonist jumping around being lively in a grave yard. The Smiths are a very ironic band, as their happy mood of the song is often juxtaposed to the melecholic lyrics.

For example ' sweetness I was only joking

When I said I'd like to smash every tooth

In your head'.

Another intertextual reference is the use of flowers in the tea party scene, which is of course refering to Morrissey's use of flowers on stage.

The audience memebers who are familar with The Smiths should be able to point out these references, enabling them to relate to The Smiths, and relate to the video.

Nothing is Original

In order for a video to become a success, the producers must follow certain conventions that apply to the genre they are aiming for. For example rap & RnB videos often incorperate the idea of wealth, sex, and possession.

This idea relates to indie as well, as we can spot several conventions and themes used within most indie videos, for example the filters that are often used to make the footage look aged.

In the Hewitson River video, no filters are used to discolour, or 'age' the footage, which does not relate to a typic indie video, like 'Flaws' by Bombay Bicycle Club.

Overall, Hewitson River uses a lot of themes and conventions of other videos of that genre, however it's not a case of simply 'replicating' but more of 'identifying'. The conventions are used in a way that will help identify the style and genre of the music the video has been developed for. Conventions are not only used, but challenged to create new iconography for the band.

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

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