INDIE

The genre of music my band fits into is Indie Rock / Indie. Indie music originated in the UK and the USA in the late 1980's and is rooted to the earlier genres of alternative punk and new wave etc.

"Indie rock" is a term used to describe any artists working within a network of independant record labels and underground music venues that emerged in the States in the late 80's early 90's.

Many subgenres derive from and overlap with indie rock such as Math Rock, Indie Pop, Riot Grrrl, Twee Pop, Emo, Indie Folk, Lo-Fi, Baroque Pop, Shoegazing, Garage Punk, Drem Pop, New Prog, Dance-Punk etc.

Popular British Indie bands of the 1980s were bands such as The Smiths, Happy Mondays, The Stone Roses and the Cure. The images of these bands was very rugged and appealed to a wide teenage market. 

Big indie names today are Vampire Weekend, MGMT, LCD Soundsystem and Interpol. Not much has changed in the past couple of years, as teens still love the sound of Indie music but the variation in sounds is actually pretty different - especially with newer technology being developed and more electric sounds being produced (keyboards etc).



MINI BAND INTERVIEW

I asked Gavin, the lead singer of the band a few questions about their inspirations behind the song I am creating the music video for...

1. What/who are your band's main influences?

'Duran Duran, Test Icicles, Arctic Monkeys, Cut Copy and The Rapture.'

2. What inspired the song Electric Shocks?

'Electric Shocks is about avoiding the humdrum of everyday life by going out to get crazy with your mates. It's meant to convey a sense of gang mentality and building excitement on Friday night!'

3. Are there any themes you would like me to convey in the video? (e.g. love)

 'The themes you should convey in the video are really solidarity between friends and  resistance against 'normal'    wetherspoons dwelling office types - that's a life we want to avoid.    Think about walking through the city with no particular night out in mind and experiencing unexpected things as a group not attending a packed out Syndicate or some other stereotypical teen hangout. '                                                                                                    

the band.

"ROBOT DISASTER represents the musical hopes and dreams of 4 young boys from across the UK and 1 from Italy. We aim to fight our way into your hometowns and headphones with tales of people and parties told through words and song." - taken from http://soundcloud.com/robotdisaster

Our prelimenary task for Media is to create a music video for a band of our choice (my band is called Robot Disaster and are an unsigned band living in the UK). We must also create a CD Cover to go alongside the music video and a CD advert for a magazine.

The song I have been given permission to use is one of their newest songs called Electric Shocks which is a really upbeat track. You can listen to the track on the band's Myspace page:

MYSPACE 

 I met the band at a gig just over a year back and I am in contact with the lead singer G-Star. I will be keeping them up to date with the progress of the project and asking for their opinions to help with my choices in how I portray their music in the video.

I am working alone with the challenge to create a music video, a CD cover and a magazine advert for the CD. I'm looking forward to working alone as I have a lot of my own ideas but I will balance this out by getting feedback from my teachers and other students in my class and that are involved in the process to get another view on my work, so it still is meeting what will appeal to my target audience.

I have chosen teenagers aged around 16 - 19. This is avery small age group that I have chosen but my reason for this is that this is the age of teenagers who are in sixth form/college and want to be 'cool' by seeing all the latest and newest unsigned bands at gigs and clubs around Bristol. Therefore these are the people that the band are trying to appeal to and I need to do the same.