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.

Can't Stop - Red Hot Chili Peppers

Can't Stop by the Red Hot Chili Peppers was released in 2003. The video was directed by Mark Romanek and features the band undertaking completely random actions. The lyrics such as 'this life is more than just a read through' imply that you should lead an energetic life and create oppurtunities for yourself. However, upon first glance of the music video it would appear that the video is entirely random.

The video has a performance and a bizarre concept which overlap each other. The performance aspects are still set in strange and abstract ways to coincide with the rest of the video. The band engages in various activites, such as wearing a giant hippopotamus mask, jumping, playing with rubber balls, buckets, bins, water bottles, pens, plants, playing guitar in a room full of empty chairs and a room full of lamps turning on and off.

The bridge of the song is much calmer than the rest of the song, and the visuals reflect this. During the bridge, the guitarist is set in a smaller room with many lights turning on and off. this sets a warmer mood compared to the rest of the song and is much more relaxing.

At the end of the video, a sign indicates the inspiration of the video, crediting Erwin Wurm and his 'One Minute Sculptures'.

This is an example of the 'One Minute Sculptures' that inspired 'Can't Stop'.

Throughout there are close ups of the band, particularly as they go about their activities, and also long shots of the entire band as they are playing the music together. The opening scene to the video is the camera moving through a yellow tube until it reaches Anthony Kiedis, the lead singer, who the recites the first lines.

The video is filmed in a large room, around the size of a warehouse, but has a very clean, white appearance. The setting is used to reflect the contemporary nature of the video and lyrics.


The video has a mixture of both performance and concept within it, making it relatively normal in genre characteristics. However, the concept presented is baffling. There are almost no relationships between the lyrics and the visuals, apart from when the line 'your image in the dictionary' is sung, and a still image of the guitarists face is shown. The video presents metaphorical links to the lyrics, but these are unclear if you do not understand the ideas behind the lyrics.

Within the first 40 seconds, we establish who plays what instrument but the band as a whole is not seen performing until the chorus. The first drum beat cuts to a medium close up of the drums being played, and occasional, more prominent notes on the guitar force a cut to the lead guitarist.

There are many close ups of the lead singer, firstly in the yellow tube, along with others as he is looking in mirrors or hiding behind plants. This promotes him as the lead singer of the band, and the video as a whole does very well to promote the band and its creativity. The video will stick in the minds of viewers because of its randomness and will cause multiple viewings as people try to understand what is going on. An element of humour also helps the video to be memorable.

Special effects are used throughout the video to put an emphasis on the random and impossible actions the band undertake, for instance, spinning a large yellow bin on his finger as if it were a basketball. Slow motion is also used at the guitar solo. Pink foam peanuts are poured over the guitarist as he plays, and putting this in slow motion creates an emphasis on the sounds he creates and the actions causing the peanuts to spray everywhere.

The lead up to the chorus causes quicker cuts between members of the band, as the cuts are synced to the drum beats.The drum is a key instrument to drive editing, as it is loud and can be played extremely fast.

The entire chorus is performance based, and also includes longshots of the band as a whole. This is the first time we see the band together playing their instruments. Other verses are a mixture of concept and performance, but large portions are not used for performance. Small cuts to show the lead singer or a key note on the guitar is all that is used to take the viewers away from the random scenes in the rest of the verse.

The intertextuality is firmly shown at the end of the video when the sign showing the 'One Minute Sculptures' pops up.

Switchblade Smiles - Kasabian

I chose to analyse this music video because I feel it holds many conventions of a rock music video. The first 20 seconds presents a zooming camera movement towards the band, before panning over the top of them. This establishes the band themselves, their setup, and who is playing the instruments.

After 40 seconds of the video we see the first example of how the music drives the editing. At each beat, a band member snaps his eyes open, and the camera cuts quickly to each member of the band in time with the music.

After this sequence, the visuals immediately portray the sounds we can hear, as the scream starts and we see one of the band members performing the scream. His body language presents struggle and therefore a deeper meaning to the scream in the song.

After this, we begin to hear the drums and the camera cuts to a close up of the drums being played. The camera cuts back again for another scream, and as soon as the guitar begins to play, the rapid cuts and close ups begin. The jolting movement of the band members along with the shaky camera relfect the sounds we can hear.

As lyrics are sung, we see a close up of the lead singer, but as the camera pans around him we can also see the other band members playing their instruments in the background.

At 1:45 in the video, the pace of the song slows down, and slow motion shots of the band members slamming their instruments around are shown to reflect the change in music. The chorus is not the fastest part of the song, so camera movement is slow and pans around the band. However, close ups of the lead singer are still present to establish them.

At the song bridge, at every beat, red is flushed across the scene so that you can only roughly see the black outlines of the band members. This is the only special effect really used in the entire video, mainly because of the simplicity of the setting. Much like 'Can't Stop' by the Red Hot Chili Peppers, it is filmed in a white open space.

At 3:10 in the video, the rapid drum beats drive the editing and a huge amount of quick cuts occur. Some scenes you see within the cuts were part of the earlier visuals and the set appears to go back to the beginning of the song. As the music drops, one band member appears to headbutt the camera and frantic movements of the band begin again at the chorus.

The idea of a struggle is presented throughout the video, despite it being solely a performance video. This can have some metaphorical meaning related to the lyrics. At the end of the song, the struggle is over, with a slow shot depicting the broken instruments and set they were playing on.

One video I found related to the music video was the 'Making of Switchblade Smiles'.

It is a small behind the scenes film but gives a good idea of the amount of preparation required to make the music video. The team on the set of the video is very large and they do not shoot the video all in one go. The video is broken up into smaller sections with the director often intervening to give more instructions. The video also shows how the camera is used in the video in order to get smooth takes. We will have to use a handheld camera to shoot our video, which will make this much more difficult.

Otherside - Red Hot Chili Peppers

Otherside - Red Hot Chili Peppers - Music Video

Otherside, by the Red Hot Chili Peppers was released in 2000. The music video was directed by Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris, and highly influenced by German Expressionist art. The lyrics to the song tackle the difficulties ex-drug addicts have coping with their addictions.

The video portrays a young mans dream alongside a performance by the band, whereby they are all seen to be playing obscure props as instruments. The majority of the visuals are dark and sinister, and the narrative story alongside the performance reflects the meaning of the lyrics. The lyrics are trying to convey the sense of entrapment and disorder drug addicts face and this is reflected in the dark setting. The idea of pathetic fallacy reflecting the mood of the song is used here, with a dark night appearing in the video. The trees shown in the video are black and leafless, indicating no signs of life. This takes the happiness out of the video and shows how it is dealing with a strong and controversial subject matter.

The band members are seen to be playing strange instruments which are synced to the original track. For example, the guitar is played on a long rope down a corridor, the bass guitar is played on telephone cables, and a rotating clock serves as a drum kit. The band are all dressed in black clothing further representing the darkness of the song lyrics.

The video has a strong metaphorical meaning, whilst in keeping with the creative videos the band have made before. However, the usual energetic image of the band has been replaced by a more sincere performance.

There are many intertextual references with one of the strongest being the influence of 'The Cabinet of Dr Caligari', an expressionist film from the 1920's.

Below is a sample of the similar imagery found in the video to the work of M.C Escher and a still from the film 'The Cabinet of Dr Caligari' and the similar aspects seen in the video.




The video illustrates a narrative but also includes a performance element to it. This is typical of the genre, whereby most rock/alternative music videos include a performance alongside a narrative.

The video begins with a zooming shot of the young man (the main character to the video) lying on the floor with what appears red wings on his back. In other rock/alternative videos, the first shot is of the band or artist as a whole, in order to establish them as the makers of the song. However, in this video, the narrative is clearly more important and the first scene gives you an introduction to the storyline.

The next sequence in the video cuts to each band member in turn, showing you who plays which instrument and who is the lead singer. Despite the fact that the majority of these shots are close ups or medium longshots, the band members are cast in the shadows, almost to take the emphasis away from the performance side of the video. They do not use the video as a means of showing their iconography.

We cut back to the young man lying on the floor, and a close up shot of his eye. A graphic match is used here to change scene, where his eye fades into an ambulance light. The narrative storyline then proceeds to work towards how the young man ended up lying on the floor at the start of the video.

The music and lyrics coincide with the video very subtly. As the lyric 'take it on the otherside' is sung, the camera flips around to create a new scene, the first of these being how the road the ambulance was driving on is flipped to create a skyscraper, and the impossible ladder scenario the man faces later in the video is also a scene that gets flipped around. Although the band members are scene playing obscure instruments, they are synced to the music, which is interesting because of the abstract way the instruments are presented. It is not normal for a video to portray instruments in this way but still makes sense to the viewer because they can match the music with the visuals.
The notion of looking is referenced in the video, but used to portray the confusion of the main character. Close ups of his eyes darting around indicate how he is unaware of his surroundings and trying to figure out where he is.

As the video leads up to the guitar solo, starting from about 3:10 in the video, the pace of the music begins to drive the editing. Quicker cuts are used to build up the viewers sense that something vital is about to happen and the quicker cuts also reflect the state of mind of the young man. The pace of the guitar solo is not as quick as the build up, but the guitar solo indicates a sign of release or understanding. This is accompanied by visuals showing the young man falling off a cliff as he is attacked by a raven, so we realise how he got to the place he was at the start of the video. The raven represents death and pain in the video to reflect the struggle of drug addicts.

The final note in the song is played just as the man hits the ground, and the video has gone in a full circle from where it began.