Audiences and Institutions for the Alternative Rock Genre

Alternative rock consists of many various sub genres, such as:

• Grunge





• Britpop





• Gothic Rock





• Punk Rock

Although all these have existed in the 1980's they did not reach the hight of their popularity until the 1990's.

In the 1980's, rock artists recorded on Independent record labels and used college radio and word of mouth to promote themselves. Within recent times, up and coming bands have been able to use peer-peer sites to share their music, such as YouTube, MySpace and Twitter to gain recognition in the underground scene in the UK and across the world. I will be therefore be posting my completed version of Stage Exits music video on YouTube to promote the video with their specific target audiences.

Alternative rock has been recognised as rejection to the commercialism of mainstream culture.

Many bands during the 1980's played in small clubs. For example The Beetles used to play in their basement and performed to crowds. I have taken this into consideration whilst planning and shooting my music video as I have stuck to the forms and conventions of rock videos being shot in empty places but the space in which I filmed was in a small area, therefore this will be considered acceptable by the Audiences and Institutions for the video.

The lyrics from rock songs tend to address social concern like drug use and depression. By using these lyrics they will be able to connect with an audience which are also using drugs or depressed. Although in the song which I have produced a video for do not address these concerns I shall consider using the social issue in other media areas such as the CD artwork on the cover or the website.

Many trends have tooken place with the Alternative Rock Genre. Below are just some of the most popular that I will address:

Gothic Rock - late 1970's/ early 80's was post-punk. The representation of the sub genre was that of a dark and gloomy underground from of rock. Lyrics often addressed:

• Romanticism





• Morbidity





• Religious Symbolism





• and Supernatural Mysticism

As the band I filmed had a punk feeling to it I decided that I would concentrate on said genre to see what I could include in the video.

I firstly, found that within the Punk Rock genre which was popular in the 70's, punk rockers produced there own recordings of songs. I felt this was a great form and convention when making my music video as I filmed with hand held camera it would never get a well polished look like with cameras used to film bands in the mainstream because this would fit in great with the genre as this would be able to target the audience.

Youthfull rebellion and outrages styles of clothing was connected to the Punk Rockers. I have chosen to use these audience and Institutions in the range of media I am using by portaying these images such as fashion and rebellion in the artwork for the album cover and music video to attract the audience who would purchase the bands CD.

Forms and Conventions used in Alternative Rock Videos

In researching the forms and conventions of my chosen music video genre, I chosen to analyse many different videos across a range of subgenres within the Rock genre. I wanted to form some theories about conventions of techniques, issues regarding narrative, and of course representation. I firstly, hoped to find an easy pattern to decide on who the target audiences were. As a supplementary activity, I research the institutional motives and personnel behind the production most similar to my own plan.

After looking up videos on sites such as YouTube I found that the most frequent and common forms and conventions used are:

• 
  
  Filmed in a big open space


• 
  
  Focus alot on the band itself


• 
  
  Effects (scratched or black and white)


• 
  
  Grungey feel


• 
  
  Sense of rebellion

After finding these forms and conventions I started to think and put these ideas together that would match the song and also would fit in with the forms and conventions of the genre.

I then looked up popular bands within the alternative rock/ punk rock genre.

Nirvana - Smells Like Teen Spirit

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dXO3OMGKPpw

In this video the director (Samuel Bayer) decided to have the main focus on the bands performance, especially Kurt Kobain. This also proves that the form and convention of having shots of a performance by the band is very important to include in the video which I will be making as that is how the video targets and captures their audience as the audience is wanting to watch basicallywhat they do best.

The video has a dark and grungey feel as a smoke machine seems to have been used whilst filming to create such atmosphere, as this makes the video feel that it is not polished. This therefore, uses the forms and conventions used by the early punks as they went through the Li-fo period which seems to have been applied to the video.

The music video also shows a sense of rebellion and connects and ties in with the song as the video is set in a schools gym with a huge crowd of students which cheerleaders, as well as the band, are performing to. This has the rebellion convention as this would not occur in a school gym normally and shows the rush and excitement.

Research on Rock Music Videos

Below are some of the best rock music videos listed:

• Guns N' Roses - Sweet Child O' Mine


• Aerosmith - Janies Got A Gun
  
• Aerosmith - The otherside


• Metallica - Enter Sandman

• Pearl Jam - Jeremy

• Soundgarden - Black Hole Sun


• White Zombie - More Human Than Human


• Metallica - Until It Sleeps


• Aerosmith - Falling in Love


• Aerosmith - Pink


• KoRn - Freak on a Leash


• Limp Bizkit - Break Stuff


• Limp Bizkit - Rollin


• Linkin Park - In the End


• Linkin Park - Somewhere I Belong


• Jet - Are You Gonna Be My Girl


• Green Day - Boulevard of Broken Dreams


• AFI - Miss Murder


• Linkin Park - Shadow of the Day

Guns N' Roses - Sweet Child O' Mine



The video shows the band rehearsing in an abandoned theatre surrounded by crew member. This is regularly used in most rock videos. The original idea for the video was rejected as it was about drug-trafficing. The video was going to feature an Asian women carrying a baby into a foreign land, where she then discovers at the end that the child was dead and was actually filled with heroine. This idea was rejected by Griffin Records.

Metallica - Enter Sandman



The music video combines images of a child having a nightmare with images of an old man as well as shots of Metallica performing. The child is shown having a nightmare of drowning, falling from the top of a building, being chased by a truck and finally falling from a mountain. Throughout the video the images are constantly flickering. In this it shows that rock videos usually have an underlyning story which is dark as well as shots of the band performing, this may become useful when filming my music video.

Linkin Park - Shadow of the Day





The music video takes place in what seems to be America where there is unrest as it seems the world is war-torn. There is a lot of violence involving police, soldiers and rioting police are shown detaining civilians. Plumes of smoke can be seen in the background in the sky. Near the end of the video a car is set on fire while mobs are throwing molotov cocktails at the police, resulting in the police and SWAT teams opening fire on the mobs while they are retreating. Chester then stands in front of the burning car while looking at the carnage that surrounds him. He then turns towards the flames and the video fades to black. In the background the mob can be heard chanting "We Want Freedom". The area bears some resemblance to Downing Street in London.



In the video it uses some forms and conventions used by the genre alternative rock such as punk. This is shown as it is anti -war which is one of the ideologies which Punks follow.



Green Day - Boulevard of Broken Dreams





The music video shows the band breaking down in a desert, who then begin to walk down a dusty road. This is then followed by images in LA showing homeless people and other sad sights. The band are also shown performing in a abandoened warehouse.



The director Samuel Bayer used unorthordox techniques to get the aged look of the video. he scratched the film with razor blades, poured coffee on it and smudged cigarettes on it.