Examples of indie pop music

The reason I wanted to have a look at indie music is so I understand the sound and style of the genre. I also wanted to have a look at the mis-en-scene and the way the indie singer behaves in the video which could reflect upon a photoshoot. 

Moodboard

I have decided to create a moodboard to help me again inspiration for layout, mise-en scene, colours and style. From this I can tell how indie is being defined and the type of people who will count as my target audience.

By looking at my moodboard I can clearly see the attention to colour. Bold, bright, fun and comfortable. However, the style tends to be quite simplistic at the same time. Anyone can re create an indie look as it is so effortless. This will reflect to my readers as most will likely dress like this. By analysing this moodboard I can also see that indie characters strive to be as different as possible not only just with their clothes but with their actions and personalities as well. Slogans and sketchy writing is also very indie and could prove useful for when I create puffs and headlines rather than using basic fonts.

Identifying audience

My audience will most likely be a female one as a lot of magazines seems to target males in terms of layout and images used. I want a magazine that will be able to relate to my audience and to be more than just music but about lifestyle and sharing a common interest.

My age range would vary but ideally mid teen as musical tastes and style will be experimented but also they are more ambitious at that age and hopefully my magazine will encourage those ambitions.

Analysing a magazine for its codes and conventions.

Firstly I must think about 3 key areas which will be:

- Text

- Images
- Layout

Here I will be using a popular Indie magazine, NME. I will be analysing their house style and their codes and conventions.

Text: The font they have used is 'sans-serif'. This is so it is easy to read and also done in block caps so it stands out bold. This is kept throughout their issues so readers are recognise the house font and therefore can afford to overlap the text with the main image.

Colours: NME has 5 didferent colour schemes (red, black, white and gold). In a way they have broken the convention as typicaly, magazines use 3 colours in their scheme. The NME logo is always red with a white outline which is their house style however may change for special edition issues. Gold is also picked up on this cover and it is conventional that other bits of text will carry the same colour. Also, the colour of the anchoring text can be reflected onto what the main image. Here it is not picked up that much however the cover person's skin has been made to look very tanned and almost golden.

The red from the title is also picked up subtly on the top and bottom right hand corners. This can indicate something exciting (competitions) or outrageous ( most overrated bands)  

Layout: It is conventional to have a banner going across the top or bottom (here it is on the top) and to have a full image some what in the centre. Many magazines also follow the Z shaped layout which entices the reader to scan their eyes across the top, diagonally down the image and finishing at the bottom. In this magazine I can clearly see the Z layout as my eyes were drawn from the top banner, on to the face and the bigger text on the left also helps to lure the eyes in a certain direction and then the hand brings our eyes back down to the bottom of the page



Naming the genre

I have decided to produce an indie pop magazine.

Indie pop is a new genre of music of alternative pop music which had originated from the United Kingdom, early 1980's. Although 'Indie' is a term for independent music and record labels, naming the genre came from the release of NME's C86 tape in 1986 which featured new bands licenced from independent labels.

Unlike the indie rock genre, indie pop is more melodic and less chaotic. Current Indie pop artists include:
Florence and the Machine, Hellogoodbye, Kate Nash and The Ting Tings.


The style of the people in this genre is bold, quirky and effortless. The idea behind 'indie' is to be independent and to look different than others although as a whole it is a label and therefore contradicts to idea of being 'independent'.