Walk The Moon (Indie Pop)
In the early Walk The Moon videos, they tended to have one shot for the entire song, such as in Shiver Shiver:
Shiver Shiver - Walk The Moon (2012)
Unofficial music videos (part of the "7in7" series), hand-made, band-made by WALK THE MOON without a film crew or a budget.
In this video, the band only appear at the end, and don't have any instruments. The lead singer appears first (around 2:10), and lip syncs with the lead, and the rest of the band joins at around 3:02. However, their video for Tightrope isn't a one shot, breaking their trend in music videos. It was also shot with a budget in a studio, rather than shot by the band with no budget.
Tightrope - Walk The Moon (2012)
Directed by Ari Costa
All their videos are narrative and/or conceptual, with little to no performance apart from lip syncing. Also, their music is mostly voice, guitars, bass, drums and synthesizers, which is common in the indie pop genre.
Everything Everything (Indie Pop)
Once again, the music videos for Everything Everything songs are mainly conceptual, with some performance and narrative, with lip syncing. For example, in the Cough Cough video, the oil is representing money, and difficulties with money, such as "compromising yourself when you have to make a living", and in the Kemosabe video, the band is performing in the woods.
From these videos, and others that I have watched, I have found that most indie videos are mainly conceptual and or/narrative, with some performance, which may just be lip syncing, or entire band set ups with instruments and other equipment like microphones. Also, lesser known indie artists tend to have little to no budgets for their music videos, and those who are more well known have more professional videos. Both tackle more complex themes in their lyrics and videos, sometimes using key images in the videos to convey the themes (such as the oil in the Cough Cough video).
Pop
To contrast with indie music videos, pop videos tend to be simpler in terms of what themes they explore, and are more performance and narrative based than conceptual, so as to appeal more universally. Pop videos are also much more professional looking, as they have higher budgets due to the mainstream stars that are making them, such as:Jessie J - Wild
This video is entirely studio based, meaning the conditions can be completely controlled to get the exact look they want, therefore they have complete control over the image of the stars, such as portraying Jessie J as a powerful woman (for example at 4:00 where she is standing over Big Sean). There are no complex concepts in the video, as it is entirely focused on
One Direction - Kiss You
This video is another example of the difference between pop and indie videos - this has a loose narrative, with lip syncing throughout the video - in this case the lip syncing is performance as the band don't play any instruments. The band is being portrayed as 'quirky' and 'fun', and the narrative of the video is that they are making a video (such as the 'behind the scenes' shots like the photoshoot scenes at 2:01). There are reoccurring scenes ensuring the narrative is easy to follow for the audience, which contrasts with some indie videos where a concept may only be explored once in the video.
Folk
I would also be interested in creating a music video for a song by Passenger, for example, or similar artists, as the lyrics can be interpreted in many ways, and give many ideas for key images and themes. The songs also tend to explore complex themes, or more serious themes than those explored by pop songs. For example, Passenger said Hearts On Fire "is a nostalgic song. It's about when the timing with someone isn't right, even thought the person might be. And although you're not with the person at the time, there may be a moment in the future where the relationship makes more sense."
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