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:

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  Filmed in a big open space


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  Focus alot on the band itself


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  Effects (scratched or black and white)


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  Grungey feel


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  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.