Music Video Research

Music Videos - Indie Genre 

Three different artists that fall within the genre and answer the following questions: 

1. How do they visually differentiate between verse and chorus? 
2. How do they use the beat and rhythm in the visual style? 
3. How do they showcase the stars? 
4. How do the visuals relate to the lyrics? 
5. What's the overall concept? 

EVERYTHING EVERYTHING - Don't Try

1. The verses mainly feature a variety of shots, mostly of the main man singing into the camera and the band performing within the setting of the 'royal dinner food fight' where as the chorus features more of the conceptual element, focusing the shots on the more arty and the action (i.e. the guests at the dinner party having the food fight or the band acting within the setting. 
2. During the faster paced moments of the song, like some of the verses or the main part of the chorus the editing speeds up. But towards the end of the music video, like many of indie music videos they have used slow motion to make the most of their shots (in this case of the food fight) which contrasts with the fast parts of the song. 
3. The main man, Johnathon Higgs, is showcased the most as per usual in music videos of bands. He is shown mostly in close ups singing directly into the camera as if he is looking at the audience, engaging with them. The rest of the band are also shown playing their instruments and singing back up in the background during the chorus. As they have a lot of extras/characters within the scene the band have clean cut gray and yellow suits on; setting them apart from everyone else. This has become a staple of the band's music videos, as more often than not they are all in matching outfits, be it in lab coats or white shirts and black jeans. 
4. Within this video, the visuals don't really relate to the lyrics, there is a real mix of themes and shots in this music promo so it is difficult to tell. The idea seems more conceptual based than narrative based and hasn't anything to do with the lyrics. 
5. Overall the band have used an interestingly abstract concept with themes like royalty and scenes of food fights and generally having fun. 

SPARKADIA - China

1. There is more action shown in the chorus as the music gets faster although a lot of the shots are in slow motion apart from the ones featuring the singer of Sparkadia, Alex Burnett which are in real time and cut in parts of the video. The verses mainly show close ups where as the chorus' are more narrative based (however random).
2. There are visible changes in the visual style as the beat changes. For example, in the slow parts of the song, the majority of the shots are slow motion and when the chrorus starts the action and the narrative gets more random and begins to speed up. 
3. Burnett is showcased as the singer and shown singing in the back of a car, and similar to Everything Everything have used close ups to engage the audience with the lyrics. He also takes part in random parts of the sketches that make up the narrative. 
4. Again like the first video, the visuals and the lyrics don't really correlate so to speak, not so there is like a heavy focus on the narrative. The video is made up of small sketches which shows a random display of things from a man in an owl mask playing the drums to a girl dressed in balloons that begins to pop them as the video progresses. 
5. Much like the first video, it is mostly conceptual based, showing random sketches involving different characters that didn't really relate to the song. In that sense there wasn't much of a narrative although I guess you could say that some of the sketches involving a man and a women being together could have something to do with the woman he's referencing in the lyrics and the lyric "The stronger we act - the longer we crack
   There's only so much we can take till we start to break", could have some reference to the egg cracking and the balloons popping. 

WALK THE MOON - Tightrope

1. The verses feature the main singer, Nicholas Petricca singing into the camera, and much like the other two videos do this so they can directly connect with the audience and engage them with the lyrics. And the beginning of the chorus features the actors in the surroundings changing and dancing and in the main part of the chorus the whole band sing into the camera, hand movements and puppets around the screen join the visuals and the lyrics (e.g. in the part that says "my heart is burning up", hands with flame painted on them engulf the band at the end of each chorus).
2. Much like the other two indie music videos the action surrounding the band speeds up when the music does and slows down accordingly.  
3. Like the other very similar videos the stars are shown by singing to the camera, in normal codes of dress, which shows the difference between them and the actors dressed as animals in the setting. This is very similar to Everything Everything, with the suits. 
4. Again much like the other two videos, they only have a small similarity between the visuals and the lyrics as mentioned before. However from what I have seen in all three of the videos there seems to be a trend of having only a small relation to the lyrics along with a very random and conceptual videos. 
5. The overall concept again is very random, mostly about the characters in the setting being chased by humans dressed like animals and the band getting eaten by fire... Much like the other two videos there isn't much meaning, there is just a lot of bright colors  arty settings and shots. 

LIST OF GENRE CONVENTIONS IN MUSIC VIDEOS

GENRE - INDIE

1. Widescreen black banners used across the screen to make it feel more like a movie than a music video promo. 
2. A lot of bright colors seen within the settings and costumes. 
3. Close ups of the band or single stars singing and dancing into the camera. 
4. Not always a direct relation between the lyrics and the visuals, maybe only small relation. 
5. The setting and extras/actors can be completely random and have no relation to the song. (i.e. a lot of animal masks used within the videos I looked at as the characters) 
6. Slow motion is often used to complement the music and emphasize the actions (i.e. throwing food at a food fight, jumping around in a paddling pool), and the action speeds up and slows down accordingly. 
7. Band features in the random action shots as well as the direct singing into the camera close ups. 
8. Repetition of shots, colors and themes throughout the video (i.e. parallel editing showing the action of different characters) 
9. Sometimes the videos can remain in one setting, mostly to make the most of one place and contain the narrative. 
10. The band almost always is in the video at one point, there is a mixture of conceptual narrative and performance based video.