An example of the new and bizzare music videos coming out of Indie music can be shown in MGMT's 'Kids' music video. The differences can be explained as such: Popular music follows the classic music video layout of small narrative and mainly band performance. Indie music usually aims to be different by developing a strong narrative with slight band peformance and often using unusual filming techniques and extra effects. MGMT seem to have chosen the Indie layout but wanted to exemplify the meaning of their song with harsh demonstrations and representations. Put simply they wanted a video to fit their song but went over board in trying to be different.
MGMT - Kids (Official Music Video). Watch more top selected videos about: MGMT
Something can be taken away from this, like for instance the subtle interjection of the band memebers into the narrative and how that merges the fake reality shown to us with the real reality of the band. This effectively confuses the audience because we see straight from the start a narrative is being developed simply to suit the music.
Also the music video shows a transaction between filming and animation which may not be smooth but cleverly takes the ending narrative to another dimension. This unfortunately gives the impression that they ran out of ideas for the narrative and decided to stick some drawings in at the end to better explain their intentions.
Overall the point is to show how commercialised kids and parenting are and how things such as popular culture and TV are slowly poisening younger generations, which is a harsh reality to try and put across but is cleverly done by seem plain weird. This could potentially be brilliant inspiration for our own music video if we decide to subtly show how simple love can be to our audience (see meaning of chosen song: 'She's got you high')
Another example similar to Indie is modern Folk music which unintentionally gives the impression of being 'different' but has its roots in the earliest forms of music. There may be a lack of music videos for Folk music simply because its not as popular but what music videos do arrise follow a very simple layout of consistent performance from the band and possibly a small amount of narrative. The most common convention of Folk music is its raw narratives and story telling which would lead most to think their music videos would follow those stories but simply for time and money's sake most show the diverse sounds Folk musicians make through performance art.
A good example of both performance and narrative can be seen in Seth Lakeman's 'Kitty Jay' which is based on a very old tale but only shows it through small representations.
What we can learn from this kind of music video is being effective in telling a story with simple camera shots and by focusing on an atmosphere. As the music video was filmed and edited by a small productions company their skills and filming quality will be slightly similar to our own and by making the absolute most of what we have we can still replicate and even improve on a music video such as this one.
This can be done by experimenting with simple lighting, going beyond conventional camera angles, experimenting with different kinds of focus and subtly editing colours and textures of the filming after production.
The most important thing to take away from this video is the atmospheric power it has and how it places the audience in the setting and scene. This may not be required in our chosen song but explaining a narrative to an audience is always much more effective if they can immerse themselves into it through the combination of familiar sights and sounds.
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