Indie Music Video Analysis

The Kooks - 'Always Where I Need To Be'

The Kooks are an English indie band and I am going to look at one of their music videos in order to identify some of the typical features of an indie music video.

The music video "Always Where I Need To Be" is a performance/concept video which focuses very much on the image of the band. For example, the identifiable style of clothes the band wear, such as the coat with the fur lining in the image on the left. These individual style clothes reflect the individuality of the band and their indepence. An audience would instantly identify with an image such as this, and would perhaps follow this image.




Throughout the video there are lots of close ups and medium close ups of the band members; this again allows the audience to identify with the band members, and get a more intimate and personal sense of them. There are also many shots of the bands playing instruments, this is another way of the band advertising their image and their musical abilities to an audience, it also shows the way they make their music and the style of the music visually as well as audially.




The band use colour as well as black and white during the video, the black and white conveys a vintage, urban sense to the video, which are two features of an indie band's style and image. It also makes the video more interesting to watch as the different effects create different moods throughout the video.

The setting of the video is in an urban environment, such as towns/cities, parks and industrial areas; of these there are lots of long shots, which establishes the environment and location of the video. The setting also reflects on the band, it shows them to be city-living people, who are young and around the places that young people want to be or can see themselves in and identify with.