Travis formed in the ‘90s having released their debut album Good Feeling in 1997. Travis has been described as sub-genres of alternative rock: folk rock, indie rock, post-Britpop and various combinations of either.
To date, Travis have released six studio albums managing to make two #1 albums, others easily reaching into the Top-40. The genre is clearly a popular one but Travis are one of but a few bands assigned to this style.
Coldplay
This here is a frame from the video for Yellow by Coldplay, showing lead man and star image Chris Martin walking along a beach. The entire video is just him walking whilst the scene gets slowly brighter in the sunrise.
This shot is very similar to a scene from Writing to Reach You by Travis in which the star image, Fran Healey, is walking alone down a road. The shots could be interpreted to represent the independence of the artists themselves, possibly saying something about the unique nature of the genre at the time. Both of these tracks were made earlier in the bands careers.
Indie & Alternative Rock
The entire genre of indie music is well known for trying to stand out from the crowd. Alternative rock at the time was no different, defining itself as a genre aside from what people at the time considered rock. The Verve was one of the bands who helped the post-Britpop alternative rock scene by releasing the intensely popular singles “Bitter Sweet Symphony” and “The Drugs Don’t Work”.
Lead vocalist Richard Ashcroft provides the Verve’s star image here whilst walking along down an urban street. His blue unbuttoned shirt inside a very retro leather jacket as well as Richard sporting a tamer rocker’s hairstyle very much shows the calmer direction of the music.
This frame here, a clip from “Lucky Man” shows a scene from a modern apartment. This frame represents the mise-en-scene changes apparent in the genre. Rock generally was performed on dark stages for their music videos but this frame here shows a performance in a light, modern apartment; this is another example of how the Britpop genre has developed and branched out from what is nowadays seen as classical rock.
Despite the initial swerve of fashion in the genre, the clothes seen to be worn by bands like Travis remain quite light, casual and discreet. Perhaps the bands try to relate to their audience through the default styling of their clothes. The plain style of dress could also be interpreted as a rebellion against mainstream music, using icons of clothing as props, such as Lady Gaga.
This here is a picture of a band called Athlete wearing casual clothing. The style of clothes matches the style of their music; soft and easy on the eyes. Standard dress is plain t-shirts and polo shirts; jeans with various shades of blue included; medium length plain hair. As a representation of genre this is pretty much it. Non-descript clothing is the way of the modern folk-alt-indie-rock band.
The Classical Twist
Piano rock band Keane share several similarities to Travis not least being their classically influenced folk-like style.
This frame from the video for Keane’s “Everybody’s Changing” shows a plain white backdrop with the lead singer not looking at the camera. The frames for the video seem photographic at times, following the tried and tested rule of thirds.
The frame setup remains similar; the video swaps the keyboard player and drummer with various characters representing the changing of people the lyrics refer to.
The video is a good representation of the distant, almost disjunct, style this genre uses in its videos.
