The Animals.

The Animals were a Newcastle based band in the 1960's. They combined classic Indie with Psychadelic Rock and Blues genres. Their most famous song, 'House Of The Rising Sun' has been covered by modern day Indie Rock band 'Muse' and many other Indie genre bands would state The Animals as an  inspiration for the music they make. They were signed to Atlantic Records, which now has artists such as Plan B and Paolo Nutini signed to them, who we would class as being similar to our artist.  It is clear that the dress codes of modern Indie genre bands that we have blogged previously have been inspired by classic bands like The Animals, for example, in the picture above, the band members are wearing skinny leg, smart, suit style trousers, with smart brogues or Chelsea boots, with shirts and blazers which are very similar to those worn by Mumford & Sons. The difference between the bands we have looked at previously and The Animals is that they have a much softer, upbeat sound, whereas The Animals remain true to the blues genre alot, with a deep and gritty vocal sound, this is predominant in the song 'House Of The Rising Sun'.

Getting Into The Music Industry- 'The Indie Way'

We have previously blogged about the BBC TV show 'Later Live With Jools Holland' as a popular way for bands in the Indie genre (and Indie based sub genres) to gain more recognition and increase their fan base. Jools Holland personally seeks new and up-and-coming bands to promote on his show.

However, not all bands trying to get into the music industry have this opportunity. The Indie genre is often related to bands travelling around their area, performing local gigs in pubs, clubs and at open mic nights, which spread the word about what they are doing to form an initial fan base.

The artists can also go down the classic route of trying to gain a record deal, by sending their CD's or EP's to record labels to be listened to, in hope that they will arrange meetings or recording with them.

These days, television is one of the best ways for a little known artist to become a household name virtually overnight. Talent shows in the UK such as ITV's 'The X Factor' and 'Britain's Got Talent' are some of the highest rated TV shows in the country. Typically, Indie artists steer clear of shows like this, as they focus often on Pop and R&B genre artists, as opposed to skilled musicians and songwriters. However, in recent years, this gap in the TV market has been filled with Channel 4's 'Orange Act Unsigned' which scours the country for singer/songwriters and musicians trying to 'make it big' in the music industry, but have had little success previously. Another TV show is Sky1's 'Must Be The Music' fronted by classical pianist turned signer Jamie Cullum, alongside Sharleen Spiteri and Dizzee Rascal, which allows musicians, singers, songwriters and bands of any genre to audition.

The biggest success story of this type of show is Tommy Reilly, who won 'Orange Act Unsigned'. After beating two Indie genre bands, 'Hip Parade' and 'Scarlet Harlots' he automatically received a record deal with 'Universal Music' which resulted in his release of 2 albums since then, and gained a number 14 chart hit in the UK with 'Gimme a Call'.

Through promotional work and gigs, artists could also be approached to feature in music magazines, for the Indie genre artists the main magazine in the UK which they would hope to be asked to feature in is NME, this year, The Drums had a full feature and front page in the magazine which gained them huge recognition in the UK and increased their fan base enormously.

A way for artists who have already been signed to an independent record label, who have recordings inplace to gain more recognition, would be to release their music on iTunes, before their great successes 'Mumford & Sons' and 'The Drums' have been featured on iTunes' 'Free Single Of The Week' feature, which allows customers to download the track for free onto their iPod or iPhone. This can do great things for the artists, as often customers will download the 'Free Single Of The Week' even if they have not heard the song, or heard of the artist previously, they could then form an interest in the artist, having listened to the free song, and go on to download or purchase more material, increasing the fan base and popularity of the artist.

Although it is difficult for artists to gain a record deal in that Tommy Reilly did (as only one act is chosen from thousands of auditionees to be signed) it is becoming increasingly more popular for Indie genre artists to do so. However, remaining true to the routes of the Indie genre, the most popular way is by building a local fan base, performing lots of small (often acoustic) gigs, which can result in being signed to an independent record label, which could  be completely independent, or be a subsidiary for a large record label such as Universal Music, which would probably be the route our artist would choose to go down in order to get signed.

Record Labels & Similar Artists- Prezi.

Record Labels & Similar Artists on Prezi

Now that we have looked more into the distribution of artists similar to ours, here is a Prezi presentation of similar artists, arranged by their record labels. This is useful to us as if our artist is similar to one or two of these ones inparticular, we could look at the labels they are signed to if we were trying to get our act signed.

The Drums.

The Drums are an American 4-piece band who combine Indie and Pop conventions to create their unique, catchy sound. They state The Smiths as one of the bands the take most inspiration from when producing their music. (Source) They, alongside Mumford & Sons, The Fratellis and Bombay Bicycle Club, are signed to Island Records, as well as French-based label Kitsune, which also has popular Indie genre artists on its books including Klaxons, Foals and Two Door Cinema Club. They are relevant to us as a group, as they are a young Indie band, with a unique sound, and over the past few years have gained huge success from what seems like nowhere. After making a name for themselves, they had a front page and full feature spread in NME magazine, increasing their popularity and fan base hugely.

Two Door Cinema Club- Undercover Martyn.

Two Door Cinema Club are a 3 piece electropop/indie rock band from England & Northern Ireland. They are signed to Glassnote Records (U.S.A) and Kitsune Records (France). This video cleverly uses the band in a 'crowd surfing' position, being held by people wearing full black against a black background to make it appear as if the band are puppets, or toys. The main focus of the video its on the band itself- which is helped by the fact they are the only thing that stands out against the black background as well as the use of many close up shots of the band members performing, and their instruments. The use of sight lines is important in this video as it allows the band members to connect with the audiene- by looking directly into the camera lens on many occasions, particularly in the close up shots. This emphasizes the convention of bands in the Inidie genre (or Indie based sub-genres) that they are 'all about the music', but the video is also in a way, contrasted to this, as the band are made to look and act like puppets- controlled by people other than themselves. This use of sarcasm, and tongue-in-cheek humour is backed up by the amplification of the word 'basement' in the lyrics, as everytime the band sing it, the word appears in a crude, yet comical way on screen. This is all done to provide the audience with an engaging, yet comical performance, bringing in conventions of the 'electropop' genre combining with the typically Indie sound of the song, which produces the unique sound and overall image of the band. The dress code of the band in this video features many of the conventions in dress codes for artists of the Indie genre, the band members are dressed smartly, with a casual and individual twist, such as the bright coloured knitwear, skinny leg jeans, deck/boat- type shoes and thick, black framed glasses. This emphasizes the creativity of the band and their unique look which bands of the Indie genre tend to lean towards to mirror their view of the music they make.

Audience for existing artists and bands

I used http://whois.domaintools.com/ and YouTube to research the audience for existing artists and bands:

Mumford and Sons:

Kings of Leon:

Bombay Bicycle Club- Dust On The Ground

Bombay Bicycle Club are a London-based 4 piece band of the Indie Rock genre. They are skilled musicians, taking pride in their ability to play a multitude of unusual instruments between them including Mandolin, Banjo and Theramin. They are signed to Island Records, along with other bands of this genre which we are looking into, including Mumford & Sons, as they are similar to the artist we are going to use for our own music video. This video for their single 'Dust On The Ground' features the band, casually dressed, walking through a forest and appearing to come across a large house, containing many young girls. As the video progresses, the band continue to explore the grounds of the house and inside, coming into close contact with the females along the way. The girls appear to not notice or acknowledge the band throughout the majority of the video, and carry on as normal, doing activities which make the audience believe the building is some kind of performing arts institution. It is not until near the end of the video that the girls acknowledge the presence of the band, when the scenes within the house become sinister- leading to the band swiftly fleeing. The purpose for the unexpected scenes within the house, featuring all teh girls in similar, white costumes is to create a sense of suspense to the audience, which increases as the video goes on. The main plotline of the video would not be out of place in a horror or thriller movie, which would be popular with the young, 'arty' target audience that the band aim their music at. The dress code of the band in this video is similar to what we have noticed are conventions within the Indie or Indie Rock genre, they are smart/casually dressed, in shirts or slim line polo shirts and skinny leg jeans with turned up bottoms in muted and neutral tones as opposed to vibrant, clashing shades.