SWIM DEEP//HONEY
SONY MUSIC UK
Swim Deep are an indie rock band from Birmingham, they are a notable part of the emerging 'B-Town' scene coming from Digbeth. B-Town reffering to the current trend of birminghan based indie music. Their first demos Isla Vista and Santa Maria were self-released on soundcloud in 2011.
The brightly coloured mural featuring the title of the track enforces the bright and youtful reapresentation of the band that they had durng 2012. Also, the idea of creating and painting appeals to the artistic subculture of indie. Highkey lighting is used in the opening scene to emphasise the positive representation of the band as well as the girl shown during this scene. The girl is blonde and wearing bright colours and this kind of appearance portrays her as wholesome and pure, the kind of girl that everyone would want or want to be, allows the audience to live vicariously through her.
The backdrop the band are moving against is bright and colourful which once again matches the tone of the video. The bright imagery of pink trees and purple clouds is indicative of a dreamworld which fits in well with the lyrics "Don't just dream in your sleep it's just lazy." Arguably the studio setting slightly contradicts the 'organic' representation that is common among bands like them, a natural outdoors setting is more common. However, this mixes the conventions of pop and indie to create something more cheerful and upbeat than a lot of more conventional indie videos.
The costumes and hair styles in this video are extremely conventional. It is clearly influenced by 80's and 90's British fashion which is very popular among the young adult and adolescent target audience of indie music. it also reflects how musicians would have dressed when indie and rock music was most popular. it is conventional and commonly seen in many of the music videos I have analysed.The intertextual reference to Nirvana clearly shows their musical influences and who the band associate themselves with.
The idea of messing around with paint and being silly is indicative of youth which, according to Dyer, is a pivotal theme in the creation of a 'star' and it also allows the audience to live vicariously through the members of Swim Deep and either form personal relationships with them or they provide a simulation of social interaction, according the the uses and gratification theory.
This is also shown through the use of over the shoulder shots, over the shoulder shots allow the viewer to see the point of view of the person on scree. Therefor, it adds to the element of personal relationships found in the video. Furthermore, the video has a large performance element which is extremely conventional of indie music as it shows the musicality of the artist and gives the audience a reason to idolise the band.
There are a lot of close-ups of the lead singer which is also common for indie artists as the lead singer is seen as the 'face' of the band and is often the most desirable member to fans. Furthermore, lots of hand held footage is used which creates an organic and self crafted image for the band, which as i have seen in my research so far is incredibly important when crafting an image for an indie band.
The inclusion of showing the behind the scenes element where the band give the girl what appears to be an indie make over, she has on a denim jacket and a scarf will skulls on which is much more conventional than the white preppy shirt she has on at the beginning of the video, is postmodern in a sense as it shows the making of the video during the video. the is interesting and not an element that seems to be common in indie videos as escapism is often an important element.