Conventions of Rock/Alternative Music Videos

For my music video, I am looking at the Rock/Alternative genre. The music itself can be interpreted in many ways as well as being easy to recreate in a performance video because of the instruments used to make the music.

Generally, in Rock/Alternative music videos, there are many shots of the band or artist, along with their instruments. The visuals typically illustrate the music, whereby the band are seen playing the instruments we can hear.

The range of shots used in a video include close ups of the vocalist, close ups of the instruments being played, long shots of the whole band, panning shots, whip-pans, high angle shots, and hand-held shots. There is a strong focus on instruments in this genre of music video, unlike pop videos which concentrate more the artist themselves. In some videos, there can be cuts between performance and narrative. The narrative generally plays upon a small part of the lyrics or just one line, and in many cases the links between lyrics and narrative visuals are unclear. Some visuals are intertextual references or metaphorical links to the lyrics. Camera movement can be frantic or slow, depending on the music. Slow motion and distortion effects can also be used.

Cuts and edits relate to the beats and instruments played in the music video, there are usually successions of quick shots during the song. This can change at the bridge of the song, but then editing will change with the pace of the music. It is unlikely that you will find a song with shots lasting longer than five seconds. The drums are a key instrument to drive the pace of the editing.

Many videos are filmed on a stage, rehearsal area, outdoors or in a small room. Low key lighting is used to reflect the genre of music and mood, and the scene will be based around the band and their instruments. What the artist is wearing depends on the song and whether it is a performance or narrative, with slower songs tending to depict more formally dressed characters.