Vance Joy - Riptide Analysis

GENRE AND AUDIENCE

Riptide is an indie song. The indie genre is alternative rock/guitar based music. It originates from the United States and United Kingdom in the late 1970's. It is targeted at a niche audience. Indie is short for independent pop music that artists produce the music independently from record labels.

Vance Joy's Riptide fits into this category because ....

Research and summarise the indie  genre : conventions, influences, audience  and key artists.

What is the definition of " indie " and does the artist, video fit into this category ?


NARRATIVE AND ICONOGRAPHY

Riptide's music video is an interpretive style. So the images/scenes/objects directly link to the lyrics. For example the scene with dollars on blue background accompanied by the lyrics "All my friends are turning green". The literal meaning of this would be that money is his new friend however if you look deeper, it could mean that his friends are turning green with envy.

The music video doesn't have a storyline and rather focuses on showing the lyrics literally. However there are a couple of scenes based on a female singer which progresses throughout the music video. The first time we see this female singer, she looks glamorous and well presented. The next time we see her, her lipstick is smudged. The scene after that, her lipstick is still smudged, her eyes are wide open and mascara smeared looking like she had been crying. In the next scene, her lipstick is still smudged, her hand is to her neck, with blood trickling down her hand and her mascara is fixed. The last time we see her, her hand is no longer at her neck, she is not bleeding anymore and her makeup is fully ruined.