evidence of contacting the artist

     

Here is proof of us contacting the artist Firehorse to see if she would allow us to use her song Bloodstream to create our music video. Fortunately, she has enabled us to use her song for our media product

Artist giving permission to use her song

how do these alternative rock band music videos show conventions of their genre

The 1975, Green day and Paramore all have a common interest which is that they are all alternative rock bands. The definition of an alternative rock band is that they are  a subgenre of the classic rock and roll bands such as the beatles, the rolling stones and queen. Although all of these bands are  categorised as the same genre it would probably be found that the conventions of the their videos and the genre have evolved ever so slightly whilst also maintaining some similar conventions within their music videos.

Firstly, Paramore are classified as an alternative rock band but as soon as they were formed they challenged conventions of music videos and stereotypical alt rock bands. The first convention they challenge is that the focus of the music video is the lead singer who is female, now this challenges the majority of alt rock music videos and bands as the lead singer is predominantly male as this is something that the audience would expect from an alt rock music video to focus on. By having a female lead singer it challenges most other modern and old school alt rock bands which can be seen in figure 1. The paramore music video that I chose to use is ignorance as this also conforms to many of the alt rock music conventions more than it challenges them. An example that challenges this  is the first location that is used which could be viewed as claustrophobic by the audience compared to other videos such as green day's american idiot. This defies the stereotypical location of alt rock music videos as their locations are stereotypically a warehouse of some sorts where as this is a cupboard. But to contrast this one of the videos later locations is quite spaceful and could be compared to a warehouse even though it isn't explicitly seen. Another convention that this music video conforms to is the lightning that is used throughout the video. In the paramore video 'Ignorance' The lighting is sparse and  seems to only use diegetic lighting which is exhibited through  the lone lightbulb as there doesn't seem to be any form of non diegetic lighting shown through the whole video. Lastly, this video is also mainly focused on the performance aspect of music videos which is similar to a lot of other alt rock music videos as this draws the audience's attention and it is something that they stereotypically expect from  alt rock music videos.

figure 1

The second music video that I chose is by The 1975 and is called 'The sound' and although Paramore and The 1975 are classified as the same genre lots of audiences believe that the 1975 are pop music as the videos aren't necessarily the same but they do use some of the same conventions.

An example of this is the lighting that is used in the video which compared to the Paramore video is slightly better lit. The lighting used is diegetic and uses a variety of different colours which are white and pink so the band are reasonably well lit and viewable whilst maintaining a certain darkness to their appearance while conforming to a stereotypical convention of alternative rock music videos.  The music video's location is somewhat different to the paramore music video as it  appears to be a glass box inside a warehouse in which only the glass box is lit to showcase the band members. This could be seen as a metaphorical box in which it describes how society is restrictive and only deems certain groups acceptable within it. The last convention that the 1975 conform to is the type of clothing they wear in the music video (specifically the colour of the clothing) which can be viewed as them wearing all black. This could be because they want to conform to the alt rock genre as stylists and music video producers know this is effective but they could also be wearing all black as this is something that the alt rock genre audience expects from  alt rock music videos and musicians. 

The last video I have chosen is Green day's ' American Idiot' as this video conforms to many of the alt rock genre conventions. Firstly, the location is what someone who is a big fan of alt rock music videos may expect as the prime location is a warehouse with a green variation of the american flag. This type of location is wide spaced  but because of the green american flag the audience's attention is drawn to the band and the backdrop whihc makes the location seem smaller. A warehouse/ warehouse style room is a cliched convention of alt rock music videos and it is something that audiences predict a sit is a common choice of location.  Another convention of alt rock music videos is the clothing they wear and the colour of it. Similarly to the 1975 music video all of the band members in Green day are wearing Black clothing which is partially formal but also has a punk edge that is introduced by the dark, bold eyeliner that they wear which separates this video from the 1975 and Paramore music videos. This video also uses a large amount of shots and most of them are at a slight low angle or a marginally bigger low angle which could connote how the band think they have more authority than their audience and that they hold power over their audience. Lastly, The music video is highly performance based which shows that the band have conformed to the conventions of their genre. But this video is very different to the other two videos as it looks less glossy and more like and actual alt rock music video.

These music videos apply Christine Gledhill's  concept which was that 'Genres permit the creation and maintenance of a loyal audience which becomes used to seeing programmes within a genre'. These means that the same or similar conventions are used to maintain a loyal audience as it is something they expect. But it also allows for audiences to be creative aswell as keeping the audience loyal to that genre as they know what to expect from a music video in that genre. Although the 3 music videos are very different they have similar conventions within them such as the locations and the costumes that are used in each video. These conventions are used as it is something that the alt rock genre audience expects but it also keeps them loyal to the genre as they know what to expect from music videos.