Research Methods

History of Indie Music

Indie initially meant 'independent', when it was shortened from the original word in the 1950s, and it originated in the UK and the US. It was created to challenge mainstream music at a time where huge labels dominated the industry. They combined arty, handmade posters and advertising, with a mixture of rock, blues and pop music . It encouraged mystery and creativity which lead to a whole new genre. 

Indie became more popular in the 1970s, with the 1976 Sex Pistols gig being considered as a major turning point for the genre, where people who could not relate to popular music had a genre they could relate to. Many bands came about at this time such as The Clash, the Ramones, the Fall and Joy Division.

In 1980 the first UK Indie chart was created, and indie bands began to appear on shows such as Top of the Pops.

In 1989, Reading Festival's line up was dedicated entirely to Indie music, and it began overtaking rock and pop in popularity. 

During the 1990s and 2000s, Indie became more mainstream and critics began questioning whether it had most its roots; bands such as franz ferdinand were beating rock and pock artists to the top of the charts. 

In 2006, Arctic Monkeys began using social media to self-publicise their new album, which quickly became the fastest selling debut album of all time, selling almost 400,000 copies in the first week. 

They brought the genre back to its roots and brought in a new generation of Indie fans. 

Nowadays, within the genre of Indie there exists many sub-genres such as Indie pop, Jangle pop, and lo-fi.

Google Definition of Indie Music : In popular music, independent music, often shortened to indie music or "indie", is a term used to describe independence from major commercial record labels and an autonomous, Do-It-Yourself approach to recording and publishing

History of Music Videos

Music videos came into prominence in the 1980s due to mtv and before this they were known as 'illustrated song', 'filmed insert', 'promotional (promo) film or 'film clip'

1902-1917 - The phonoscene era - directors of music videos from this time period combined a sound recording with a film shot, with actors lip synching to the sound recording, which was then synchronized together to look like a convincing performance

1926-1959 - Talkies, soundies and shorts - Talkies were musical short films which featured bands, vocalists and dancers. 'Spooney Melodies' in 1930 was the first true musical video series. Shorts were typically 6 minutes long and featured animations and backgrounds combined with the performer singing

1960 - 1967 - Visual innovation - The development of the Scopitone (a visual jukebox) lead to the spreading of short films from france to other countries. The earliest top 40 hit video was Jan & Dean's 'Surf City', produced in 1963. The Beatles starred in many feature films for their music which helped raise popularity of the modern music video.

1967-1973 - Increased importance of promotional clips - Pink Floyd were pioneers in producing promo films for their songs in order to boost sales, as well as the Rolling Stones and The Who. 

1974 - 1980 - Beginnings of music television - Australian TV shows Countdown and Sounds helped establish the importance of music videos as promotion for new releases and emerging artists. Similarly, the British show Top of The Pops began playing music videos in the late 1970s, but had to abide by a limit placed by the BBC on how many 'outsourced' videos could be played. The Old Grey Whistle Test was a British Rock Music show who produced various music videos specifically for the show. In America, Video Concert Hall launched in 1979 and was the first music video music show on American TV. 

1981 - 1991 - Music videos go mainstream - MTV launched in the US in 1981, and began an era of 24-hour-a-day music on TV. The first major reason for the development of music videos was the relatively cheap and simple recording and editing equipment, and the development of special visual effects. The most iconic video, Michael Jackson's 'Thriller' was released in 1983. In 1984, the canadian music channel 'MuchMusic' was launched, and later, in 1985, MTV launched the channel VH1 which featured sorter music, appealing to an older demographic than the general MTV. MTV europe was launched in 1987 and Asia in 1991.  

2005 - present - The Internet becomes video-friendly - The earliest makers on internet music videos were IRC-based groups who recorded them as they appeared on TV and exchanged them online. The website iFilm launched in 1997. 2005 was the launch of YouTube which revolutionised the viewing of music videos online, and now sites such as Google, Yahoo!, Facebook and MySpace have video technology. 

Target Audience

Age
We decided on an age range of 15-25 years old, as the style of music is most popular within this demographic through radio plays and word-of-mouth. At this age, they are likely to attend small local gigs. Also, he is within this age range, therefore he is likely to appeal to this age.

Gender
The song we have chosen to use has no stereotyping factors, therefore it will appeal to both genders. For example, pop artists such as Justin Beiber sing about 'girly' themes such as falling in love, so will appeal to a young female audience, whereas Billy Lockett sings 'believable' songs which have no gender bias.

Lifestyle
The target audience will be students who may have part time jobs which provides them with a small amount of spare money, but still have time to attend gigs. These gigs are more likely to be small and local, as opposed to large pop concerts. The listeners will be more interested in non-mainstream music, as their music tastes will be shared with their small group of friends with similar interests, or through music sharing sites such as Spotify and small festivals such as Latitude.

Interests
They may play a musical instrument such as a guitar or piano, as these are commonly found within the music genre of Indie. The stereotypical Indie fan is artistic, intellectual and musical.

Socio-economic group
Groups D and C are most likely to be targetted by our music video/genre, as they are unlikely to have a full time job due to being at school or university, but will have a small amount of spare money to attend gigs and purchase songs.

Why?
The genre of Indie used to appeal to a small, niche audience as there was little way of gaining publicity for the artists before music sharing sites such as Spotify and Itunes. However, since these have grown in popularity, it seems this genre has followed, and 'indie' songs are now commonly played on radio stations and regularly climb high in the charts. The genre allows us to be creative, while still appealing to a wide audience.

Decisions for Final Product

After considering various options, I have decided to create a music video. This is because I believe there is more opportunity to be creative with this, and it also allows me to develop my interest in music.

Once I had decided this, I needed to choose a genre, artist and song. My favourite music genre is Indie Pop, so I have stuck with this and chosen a local, little known, artist called Billy Lockett, who's song 'Balance' has recently been played on BBC Radio 1 as part of their Intruducing Scheme.

Billy Lockett comes from Northampton and has been playing music since he was aged 8, spending his teenage years gigging in local pubs and jamming in his basement with friends. His style is folky, and his songs are very narrative which will allow a concept for a video to be easily created.

What I Have Learnt

After completing the preliminary task of creating a short film I have realised the importance of planning and structuring the work that needs to be done. I have learnt and improved a variety of aspects of my work:

Scripting

As our short film was based upon an unusual theme (a pen) there was very little dialogue and therefore only a short script was required. However, the script we did use was extremely helpful as it was simple, and could be improvised to sound more naturalistic.

Story Boarding

The story board was fairly successful as it allowed us to work together to combine ideas and structure how it would look on during and post production. We realised the storyboard was not final, it could be tweaked, but it provided us with the basis for our short film and allowed us to plan the filming.

Location

Again, because our film was based upon pens, it was not necessary for a lot of attention to be paid to location. The obvious choice was a school, which meant it was fairly simple to film during school hours. We adapted the mise en scene in order to create a more interesting viewing experience, for example scattering colourful pens within the scene etc.

Talent

Talent was not really required for this particular film - we just had to decide on a pen to use and stick with the same pen to avoid continuity issues.

Organisation

This was a major factor in the filming of our preliminary task, and I believe we planned our filming and editing very well so we were able to complete it to a high standard while still meeting the deadline. Because of the time spent scripting and storyboarding, it was then very easy to go on to film as we had a clear idea of what needed to be completed.

Teamwork

For this task, I worked in a pair; this worked well as there was not too many people and therefore too many ideas to consider. We varied who would film throughout the filming process, and the same for editing, so that we could both improve our skills.

Editing

The programme used for editing this short film was iMovie on Apple Macs - I have previous experience of this from GCSE and AS Media studies, therefore it was easier to concentrate on creating a high quality piece of work. All sound was added in postproduction, for example the voice overs for the stop motion section and the music which accompanied it.

Final Product

Overall, I am very pleased with the final product. I particularly like the opening sequence for the credits, and the music matches perfectly. One thing I would have liked to improve is the quality of the picture - however this is unlikely to happen as I was limited to the school cameras. This may be something I consider when creating my final coursework piece.