Urban Tribes

Urban tribes- Social groups that share similar interests. The members of these groups tend to have similar world views, dress styles and behavioral patterns. Some examples of urban tribes include punks, emos and townies.

The theory

The theory of urban tribes began in 1988 when Michel Maffesoli created this term. The theory of urban tribes is all about the various amounts of social groups we find in society today and how each one of them has there own distinct fashion sense, behavioral trends and views. The certain characteristics can all be traced to music and certain genres. Young people often base how they behave and dress due to who and what they see in the media, and musicians are a huge influence on that process. Everyone wants to feel a part of something and have a group who they can relate to, and they often find this through the use of music. If we look at one tribe such as emos, which is short for emotional, we see a group that is often closed off to people and society, very emotional and can be seen as negative. These characteristics are seen in nearly every music video that comes under the genre of emo, and that is why this theory is so helpful to the producers of music videos because whatever artist they are making the music video for they can tailor make it for whatever tribe the song will fit into by using different costumes, locations and props to make it as effective as possible.

My Tribe

If i was to base my tribe solely on music, then i would be an indie kid, but as there is so much more to such as your dressing style, what you do in your spare time and other details then i can say i belong to this tribe. Unfortunately i can't really say i belong to any tribe but instead hold characteristics of a few different tribes. When it comes down to the music i listen to then, like i said, i would be an indie kid, but if i look at my dress style then i would have to say maybe trendie/rahs, and my characteristics would maybe best suit the tribe townies. Although i can't certainly put myself into one definite tribe as i am focusing on the relation between music videos and urban tribes then i will say that i am an indie kid. As i have put myself into this tribe then i would say that we consume music videos mostly through music channels such as "Q" and also consume them through YouTube.

The Wombats- Let's dance to joy division (indie)

The Indie band, "The Wombats", from Liverpool represent the urban tribe, Indie kids very effectively in their music video for the song "let's dance to joy division" from the use of costume, props and location. Through the use of the 3 band members clothing, indie is being represented, An indie dress sense will consists of  mainly skinny jeans and shirts which is what we can see some of the band members wearing. The location and the props used in the video are entwined in the way that this urban tribe is being represented as all we can see is instruments and an empty room. This in my view represents what the genre indie is all about with it being seen as something that starts in one of the band members empty room with only the basic instruments at hand.

My Chemical Romance- Helena (emo)

As i previously said, the urban tribe, "emo" is seen as some what of a very emotional, negative and closed off social group, and this video represents that very effectively. Though out the music video the location stays the same which is a church where the band amongst others are attending a funeral. This has already then set the tone of the music video giving off a very negative feel and you only associate death with funerals. The band members and other actors in the video also represent this urban tribe from their appeareance. Although black is what is the traditonal colour for clothing at a funeral all of the people featuring in the video take it to another level with black around their eyes and very pale faces, again referring to the negative trend we see in the "emo" videos.

Nirvana- Smells Like Teen Spirit (grunger)

The urban tribe of grungers are pretty much only represented by one band which is Nirvana. Although there are other bands that fit into this category this is the one that every associates with the genre grunge. Grungers usally have long hair, baggy and plain clothing and worship Kurt Cobain. The tribe is being represented in this music video by the appearance of each band member who show the characteristics i have stated. Both lead singer, Kurt Cobain, and drummer, Dave Grohl have long hair and baggy plain clothes.