Solo Task - Emma Hall 9162
“New genre is the transformation of old genres” – Todorov
Combining genres together is becoming more and more frequent in modern times, with indie-folk only starting to appear in the 1990s, but quickly becoming a genre given many titles and variations such as acoustic-soft rock, alternative country or folk-pop. As Abercrombie rightly ascertained “the boundaries between genres are shifting”, the early music videos in this genre were a mixture of conventions from different genres, before a style of its own could be developed.
Early artists include Lou Barlow, Jeff Buckley and Elliot Smith. A common convention to be found from their early videos that has stuck with this genre is the use of tracking shots. The idea of someone being on a journey throughout the video provides a simple narrative that is easy to understand. In Elliot Smith’s ‘Coming up Roses’ video, he takes a journey around his home town of Portland, known as the ‘City of Roses’. This links with the lyrics and also creates a personal connection with the artist, supported by the way the camera follows his perspective. Certain shots in this video are almost clichéd shots taken from the folk genre, with side-on angles of the artist walking down the road carrying a guitar case. Some of these shots have a circular border that makes it look as though you’re looking down the lens of binoculars, and that the audience is somehow prying into a secret. This all combines to make a very personal video, which I think is a key code to follow, in order to link the artist with the audience. This video also has some performative elements, with lots of close ups of the guitar which seems to be a key element in this genre, and it is always has more screen time than any other instrument, which relates to its heavy use within the music itself. The camera’s coverage of the band playing, however, is a bit outdated, and has developed a lot since this video was made: the camera remains still on the same group long shot for most of the time, then goes hand held and zooms wildly in and out onto the faces of the band. This seems to be an attempt at adding excitement that stems from a time when being in a band was ‘rebellious’, and music TV channels were more popular.
Jeff Buckley’s ‘Grace’ video is a more concept-based video, with shots of him performing in a studio intercut with fleeting shots of various polysemous signs. These include blurry shots of the city, a bunch of roses, a flame being lit, and candles. These could work indexically to suggest romance, but the lyrics of the song, combined with sombre tone of the music, slow cutting rate and low key lighting suggest something more serious, such as the subject of death, referenced in the song. Goodwin applies well with this song, as the lyrics match directly in some cases: “Wait in the fire” matching the shots of a lit match. At other times the slow pace and hazy visuals make the meaning more ambiguous, which fits the mood of the song. Plenty of close-ups are given, while again there is included a shot of the artist looking out of the window in a moving car, making the journey aspect a clear convention of this genre once again. Also, there is once again a lack of voyeurism that I think is something I should definitely avoid in my music video as it is clearly inappropriate for the genre. I like the way this video follows Carol Vernallis’ 4 concepts, particularly the way it leaves gaps in the audience’s understanding, as I think it makes the audience be more active and engage more with the video to find out what is going on.
From looking at early videos, I can see that travelling has always been a key component of this genre, and that videos used to be largely performance-based, usually in a studio setting, though that has expanded more into the outdoors in recent years. The early videos were also very varied, as some took a more rock-based outlook, whilst others stuck to the folk side of things. I believe that to be successful in the post-modern era, my video will have to embrace the mixing of genres, to appeal to the wide and varied audience for this type of music.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c4UL7fXSzk8 Elliot Smith 'Comin up Roses' 1995
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A3adFWKE9JE Jeff Buckley 'Grace' 1996
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