Research into Indie-Pop Genre through Belle and Sebastian

Chaos Killed the Dinosaurs are an indie pop group, and so I researched the genre in order to understand the conventions and to look for influences. I did this by researching the Scottish indie-pop band Belle and Sebastian. 

Belle and Sebastian

This indie-pop band were formed in 1996. They have had much critical acclaim as well as some commercial success. Their name is a reference to a 1960s French children's book. They have a very wide target audience, young to middle aged (15-55) males and females. This all absolutely fits with the indie-pop genre, the critical acclaim and  high quality original music distancing the band from mainstream pop without alienating potential audiences. The band appears unbranded to an audience, and this creates a focus primarily on their music, and satisfies audiences when they feel they have come across the band by themselves. 

The image above is consistent with the band image and the unpackaged feel: the styling is natural, and they are in plain clothes with very little/no make up and very few accessories. This connotes that the band do not have a persona but rather are themselves playing music together. This could help audiences feel more connected to anything they learn about their individual personalities, because they would feel that they are learning about a real person instead of an image created by a record company. I feel that it is very clever and appealing to audiences to package an artist in this way. 

Until I did this research I was unaware that the band name was a reference, but  I did not feel any exclusion or inability to relate to the artist, which means that it should not matter if some of our audience do not recognise the reference from which Chaos Killed the Dinosaurs originates. Although we will create a more exciting and vibrant artist identity, I think it is a good idea to take influence from Belle and Sebastian and represent the artist image as realistic and consistent, and as if this is how the characters are in real life, Arianna in particular. This would generate stronger and potentially wider audience appeal. 

I feel the indie pop genre is very appropriate to both the song and artist image, and Chaos Killed the Dinosaurs should fit within this genre, particularly by producing hopefully critically acclaimed music with a wide appeal. The acclaim and music quality is likely to appeal to the older audience whereas the music videos and artist identity may appeal more to the younger demographic; there is something for everyone.