Target Audience Research

Target Audience Research

In order to create a successful music video I had to learn what my target audience would like to in the music and music videos they consume.  To do this I have created a survey devised to learn who are the most popular artists of my target audience, how much they consume this medium, what genres they like, why they like the genres in which they do like, what about the artists they like, what aspects of the artist’s music that they like and what aspects of their music videos do they like. 

The first few questions I asked were questions such as age, gender and occupation. This was so that when I came to analysing my results I could see if their answers might have been influenced by anyone of these simple factors.

                The first main question was what genres did they like most. The most popular genre was pop but this was closely followed the genre rock. I think a target audience of this age is probably more likely to favour this genre as this is what most of the well known artists are famous for. Also most pop artists have other genre influences than just pop. The most popular influence would the rock genre. Most teenagers hear these influences through their favourite pop artists and their songs and thus it would then introduce them into other genres such as rock. My findings would suggest that I should choose a rock/pop genre of music to create a music video too as that is the most popular genre. This chart displays my findings.

I then asked my target audience why they liked the genre. Most people who chose these genres felt that most of the music that belonged to this genre was upbeat and thus they said they liked it because it was catchy and exciting. They also said that it allowed them to easily dance to it. These findings suggest that I should make sure that the music is catchy and upbeat so that they will be attracted by its exciting danceable rhythms.

                The next question which I asked my target audience was how long on average, did they spend consuming music and music videos per week. The majority of my target audience spent on average eight to fifth teen hours per week consuming music and music videos. From my findings I have found that my target audience must spend approximately one to two hours a day consuming music and music videos. This suggests that my music video must be of the highest quality and it must apply to the tastes and preferences of my target audience for it to be viewed by them in the limited time that they spend consuming music and music videos.

The following question I asked my target audience was, “Would there be anything that music artists could do to make you more willing to spend more time listening to their music or watching their music videos?”. I asked this question because after asking the previous question I found that my target audience spent a limited amount of time consuming music and music videos and so I wanted to find out if anything could persuade them to watch or listen to music and music videos for a longer period of time. This was so that I could use this in my own music video therefore persuading them to watch it. From this I found that the majority of my target audience thought that music videos should be generally more interesting and more unique in general. This could be having some more unusual shots or clothing and having brighter colours within the video.  Also they said that they would like to have some more upbeat music videos. From this I now know that I should have a more visually interesting video and that it should be upbeat.

                I asked my target audience which were their three favourite artists so that I know who is most popular and so I know who I should be inspired by when creating my video and therefore attracting my target audience as they already like similar videos. There were so many different artists that my target audience favoured that I decided to only note the artists that came up in the results more than once. The most popular artists were Lady Gaga, Amy Winehouse, Adele, Katy Perry, JLS and Pink. I have since decided that I shall be inspired by some of these artists.

The next question I asked was why did they like the artist(s) they had chosen in terms of their image. The majority of my target audience said that they liked the target audience firstly, because of their good looks and secondly because they are successful role models and make them aspire to be as successful as their celebrity role models. This tells me that I shall have to make sure that my artist looks good and I will have to make her appear extremely successful in order to attract my target audience.

                Following the previous question I asked my target what aspects of their favourite artist’s music did they like. The majority of my target audience said that they liked the lyrics put to the artist’s music as they have meaning that moves them. This tells me that the visuals in my music video should draw from the lyrics and really make them stand out.

                The final question which I asked my target audience was what aspects did they like about the artist’s music that they had chosen as their favourites. There were two answers that seemed to be repeated many times by my target audience. They said that firstly they liked the more wacky and unique videos as they are different and its more interesting when you haven’t seen a certain aspect before. Secondly they said that they like a video which has a narrative. This tells me that my video should have a story tied to it where the artist takes a journey and secondly that it should be fairly wacky and unique so that it attracts the target audience.   

Directors Research

Marc Klasfeld
• Marc Klasfeld is an American music video director.

• He has directed over two hundred music videos for artists such as Katy Perry, the Foo Fighters and Avril Lavigne.
• He has had many MTV awards and nominations.
• He has also written and directed commercials, independent films and documentaries.
• Some of his best known commercial work are Avril Lavigne’s Cannon campaigns and Smirnoff’s Green Tea Partay viral video.
• His first independent film debuted at Tribeca Film Festival. It was The L.A Riot Spectacular.
• He has also directed episodic television the HBO series “Oz”.
• He is the founder of Rockhard production company.

Marc Klasfeld as a director interests me because of his style of telling a story or conveying a message about the artist to the audience. He does this to make the artist seem ordinary like the average audience member however, at the same time he allows their talent to shine through. This matches with Dyer’s theory of the two paradoxes in his article “Stardom”. He said that the star image is based on two paradoxes. The first being that the star must be simultaneously ordinary and extraordinary for the consumer. This is shown in Katy Perry’s music video, “This Friday Night”. It portrays the average American teenage Friday night and fun and exciting it is whilst making it slightly wacky with the idea of imaginations from people within the video and giving the video a slightly surreal look to it and thus portraying Katy Perry as ordinary and simultaneously extraordinary.
The information I found was taken from:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marc_Klasfeld

Directors Research

Name: Dave Meyers

Specialises in: Film and Photography.

• Dave Meyers was born and raised in Berkley, California.

• In the University of Loyola Marymount he took a degree in Film and Philosophy.
• In his early career he started off making short films which got in to the Los Angeles Independent Film Festival.
• He then went on to work for Paramount Pictures a film distribution and Production Company in development for the films “Face/Off” and “Twilight”.
• Dave Meyers had a chance meeting with well known director Gus Van Sant who remade Alfred Hitchcock’s “Psycho”.
• This inspired him to spend a lengthy amount of time in the music video industry.
• He has directed many videos such as Pink’s “So What”, Shakira’s “Left Behind” and Kelly Clarkson’s “Break Away”.
• His most recent music video was Katy Perry’s “Firework”.
From looking at the information I have gathered, he impresses me in the way that he works is that he seems to be able to cross working with the medium of music videos and film so easily. He changed from working in film to working in the medium of music video just by an inspiring meeting with a director whom he inspires to be like. Also what inspires me about him is that way that he can give an over the top image of celebrities themselves. For example Pink in the music video “So What” has an attitude of not caring what people think and so he plays on that fact. He makes her seem overly violent, angry and careless and yet he does this in a way that makes the audience to aspire to have that attitude without encouraging some of the violent things she does. He makes people aspire to be the celebrities that we as an audience see even with some of their overtly dramatized acts. This all links into the Dyer’s ideas in the article “Stadom”. He states that stars depend upon a range of subsidiary media such as music videos to market their image. Dave Meyers makes the attitudes and the image of the artist stand out as much as possible to gain the attention of the target audience for the artists.

I collected my information from:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dave_Meyers_(director)

Video Analysis: Katy Perry "Last Friday Night"

Video Analysis on Prezi

Video Analysis: Pink "So What"

Video Analysis: Pink “So What!”

This video was made for the song “So What” from the album “Funhouse” by the artist, Pink. The use of the video to this song is to amplify the values of the song through its visuals. According to Steve Archer in How to Study Music Videos amplification through the visuals is to develop or enhance the ideas from within the chosen song. The lyrics from within the song “So What” conveys the artist’s anger over breaking up with her husband and her attitude that she doesn’t care about what has happened that she’s going to show her husband how much she doesn’t care.
The majority of the camera work in this video consists of mainly long shots and mid shots. These shots help to develop the narrative of the video. In this case they are used to show the artist’s angry behaviour towards the fact her husband has left her. For example there is a shot of her cutting down a tree that carved into it has the romantic gesture of her and he husbands initials inside a heart to show that she’s angry and she doesn’t want to see anything to do with them being romantically linked. Also there are several close up shots of her when the song develops into the chorus. Steve Archer in How to Study Music Videos states that this change could signify an important development in the song. Pete Fraser stated that close ups predominate the screen and could be used to create a sense of intimacy. Both these ideas can be demonstrated in this video. In this song the most important part of it is the lyrics within the chorus. They are a message to her husband telling that she doesn’t care that he has left her because he was not a nice person and she believes that she is still a rock star without him. She is thus demonstrating her independence and her not needing him. The close ups on her at this point make her the only important thing and it makes the audience listen to her voice and the lyrics and not be distracted by anything else, thus conveying the important lyrics. Also with those close ups she is creating intimacy with her audience which could be her husband and so it is a way for her to convey her message personally.
The mise-en-scene of this video is slightly on the wacky and wild side, for example her costume and make up consists of tattoos, piercings and bright coloured clothing. John Stewart is quoted in Pete Fraser’s article Teaching Music Video to have stated that mise-en-scene can be used to emphasise an aspirational life style for the audience. The mise-en-scene in this video being slightly wacky shows that she has a disregard for what people think, which could show rebellion and youthfulness. This can be seen as a good thing as it is some people’s belief that it is her life and she should do what she pleases. This could be aspirational to some viewers.
The editing within this video is mostly quite simple. It mainly consists of straight cuts. The simplicity of the editing is to allow the artist to shine through. According to Dyer in his article Stardom states that Stars depend upon a range of subsidiary media to construct an image for themselves which can be marketed to their target audiences. The editing is the one thing that remains simple thing in this video that does not distract the audience from consuming Pink’s star image.
Another music video that is similar to this video which I like is called “The Only Exception” by Paramore. The visuals for “The Only Exception” were designed for e less aggressive song that Pink’s “So What” however, it still has that story and conveying the message like style which is what I like about this video. Paramore’s music video has a sort of circularity of narrative where the main singer starts of in one room and walks through a variety of them and ends up back where she started. It is this originality and creativity that I love about the video.

Video Analysis: Rihanna "S&M"

Video Analysis: Rihanna "S&M"

This music video, “S&M” comes from, Rihanna’s fifth album “Loud”. The narrative of the video contains a lot of provocative dancing and a lot of sexual innuendos within the lyrics. This is used, according to the theorist Andrew Godwin in Dancing in the Distraction Factory to the lyrics and to the visual image and thus distinguishing it as a form of music video. However, it is possible that it has been used for another reason. It could also be used to invite the male audience in a form of Voyeurism. According to Pete Fraser in Teaching Music Video (BFI, 2004), voyeurism is the idea of looking in order to gain sexual pleasure. In this video they have used Rihanna in a combination of camera shots and editing with fragmented body shots to emphasize her sexualised treatment in the video. This then invites a male audience to gain sexual pleasure from the video.
The video doesn’t always make a lot of sense due to its surreal aspects. Rihanna can be seen in a certain part of her music video walking a person on a leash as if they were a dog. According to Steve Archer in How to Study Music Videos this can be seen as disjuncture. This music video seems to work by ignoring the original song and creating a whole set of new meanings through its visuals. This technique is used frequently by arty artists like Rihanna to assert their difference and originality. This thus comes into making her star image. Also, according to Dyer in the article Stardom, The incoherence of the star image ensures that audiences continually strive to make sense of the image. The disjunction of Rihanna’s video gives her a somewhat incoherent image and thus makes her audience want to buy and watch her material many times to make sense of her image.
The camera work in this video mainly consists of close ups and longs shots. The long shots are used to set the scene and help the narrative along. For example, there is a shot where Rihanna is singing from behind some clear material in front of what looks like some paparazzi. These are the shots that give the audience some insight into what the music video is about. The close up shots however, are used to advertise the artist. According to Steve Archer in How to Study a Music Video the majority of a music video, such as this one, consists of close up shots of the artist’s face. This is because the voice of the artist is seen as the most important part of pop music. The close up shots of Rihanna allow her to advertise her voice and star image to the audience to encourage them to keep buying her material. The vast amount of close up shots of the artist are balanced out by the long shots to, according to Steve Archer, allow the audience to watch the music video repeatedly in a more casual way, with a looser approach to their story telling.
This video contains some very fast, simple editing which connected a variety of very small shots. This can be a technique used to make viewers want to watch the video again. According to Steve Archer in How to Study a Music Video, some images are edited so fast that they are impossible to understand the first viewing and thus need to be viewed several times. This is a way to get the audience wanting to view the material several times and thus marketing her and her image. In some parts of the video the editing is matched to the rhythm and beat of the song. This is especially found in the chorus. This technique allows the video to represent the music and makes it a little bit more memorable to the consumer.
According to Steve Archer in How to Study Music Videos, lighting can show development in the song. In this video the lighting emphasises the chorus of the song. When the song develops into the chorus the video moves onto very brightly lit shots, for example at the start of the first chorus Rihanna can be found in an outside shot which appears to be very sunny and thus lit very brightly. This allows the audience to clearly see when the song is moving onto significant moments. Similarly in every shot the lighting around Rihanna is very bright. This is because Rihanna is the most important thing in this music video and the lighting highlights this and keeps the majority of the audience’s attention on Rihanna and thus marketing her image.
The mise-en-scene in this video is all very surreal. According to Steve Archer in How to Study a Music Video, mise-en-scene is used to guarantee the authenticity of the clip. This music video is the opposite to this. The clothing worn by the people in this clip is very brightly coloured and made to look over the top, the makeup is very colourful in some cases, the props used are random and the locations of the music video are very colourful and have a fake look to them. Rihanna’s video is created to be against the norm to sell her image as being artistic, different and original.
A video which is similar to this one is Katy Perry’s “California Girls”. “California Girls” is similar to this video because of its disjuncture. The visuals that go with the video are very random and bare little relation to the lyrics of the song. The visuals are very bright, very colourful and seem to be very wacky. It is the unique, wacky and creative style of the video which I like so much about Katy Perry’s “California Girls”.

Artist Research

Copy of Artist Research on Prezi

Genres of Music

Genres

Blues:

This genre originated from the African-American communities of primarily the deep south of the United States of America at the end of the 19th century from spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts, chants and rhymed simple narrative ballads. The blues songs are primarily played with bent or flattened in relation to the major scale. An artist well known for his blues genre is B.B. King. Here he is in this video playing a sample of the blues genre.

Classical:
This genre originates from the traditions of Western European liturgical and secular music. It is one of the oldest and most far reaching genres of music. It began from approximately the 11th century and continues its popularity still today. An example of classical music is Ludwig Van Beethoven.



Country:
Country music is a blend of traditional and popular US musical forms found in the Southern United States and the Canadian Maritimes. In the Southwestern United States a different mix of ethnic groups created the music that became the Western Music. The term “country music” is used today to describe many styles and subgenres. Country music has produced the top selling solo artists of all time in the United States like Elvis Presley and Dolly Parton.



Electronic:
This type is music is made only by using only electronic instruments in its production. It became popular in the 1960s when the availability of affordable music technology meant that music produced using electronic means became increasingly common. Here is an example.



Funk:
Funk is a music genre that originated in the late 1960’s when African American musicians blended soul music, jazz and R&B into a rhythmic, danceable new form of music. Funk music was a major influence on the development of disco music and afro beat. Funk samples have been used extensively in genres including hip hop, house music and drum and bass. It is also the main influence of go-go, a subgenre associated with funk.



Gospel:
Gospel music expresses is written to express belief. It is also written to give a Christian an alternative to mainstream music. Many popular Motown and Afro American artists started out in their careers signing gospel music. Here is Aretha Franklin singing gospel music at the age of just 14.



Hip Hop:
This is an American genre that began in the Hip Hop movement. This genre has four key elements; DJing, dancing, rapping and graffiti writing. The Hip Hop movement started in the 1960’s. Since then like many other genres samples of it has been taken from it to make new sub genres. An example of Hip Hop would be MC Hammer’s ‘You Can’t Touch This’.



Jazz:
Jazz is a genre that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was created from a merging of African and European music traditions. From its creation until the present date, jazz has incorporated American popular music, from 19th and 20th century. Its West African origins are evident in its use of blue notes, improvisation, poly rhythms, syncopation, and the swung note. From its beginnings in the early 20th century jazz has created a variety of subgenres. Some examples are; New Orleans Dixieland dating, big band-style swing, bebop, a variety of Latin jazz fusions, such as Afro-Cuban and free jazz, jazz fusion, acid jazz (which combines funk and hip-hop elements), and nu jazz.


Latin American:
Latin American music was created during the Moorish occupation of Spain. The musical styles of the Roma, Jews, Spanish Christians and Moors contributed to the evolution of Latin music. The adoption of Moorish instruments and improvised high-pitched nasal singing, and the characteristic Roma vocal trill spread to all parts of the Iberian Peninsula. Colonization of the Americas carried with it these Spanish musical traits. The Spanish Décima song had a layout of ten lines, each consisting of eight syllables, remains an important part of Latin music, as an aspect of corrido, bolero, and vallenato.



Metal:
Metal is a genre of rock music that developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s, largely in the Midlands of the United Kingdom and the United States. It has roots in blues rock and psychedelic rock. The bands that created heavy metal developed a thick, massive sound, characterized by highly amplified distortion, extended guitar solos, emphatic beats, and overall loudness. Heavy metal lyrics and performance styles are generally associated with strong and or aggressive masculine pride.
The first heavy metal bands such as Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath and Deep Purple attracted large audiences. In the mid-1970s Judas Priest helped spur the genre's evolution by discarding much of its blues influence. Motörhead introduced a punk rock sensibility and an increasing emphasis on speed. Bands in the New Wave of British Heavy Metal such as Iron Maiden followed in a similar way. Before the end of the decade, heavy metal had attracted a worldwide following of fans known as "metal heads" or "head bangers".

Reggae:
Reggae is a music genre first developed in Jamaica in the late 1960s. While sometimes used in a broader sense to refer to most types of Jamaican music, the term reggae more properly symbolises a particular music style that originated following on the development of “SKA” and rock-steady. Reggae is based on a rhythmic style of music, characterized by accents on the off-beat, known as the “skank”. Reggae is normally slower than both “ska” and rock-steady. Reggae usually accents the second and fourth beat in each bar, with the rhythm guitar also either emphasizing the third beat or holding the chord on the second beat until the fourth is played. It is mainly this "third beat", its speed and the use of complex bass lines that differentiated reggae from rock-steady, although later styles incorporated these advances separately.



Rock:
Rock music is a genre of music that developed during and after the 1960s, particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States. Its origins come from the 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, itself heavily influenced by rhythm and blues and country music. Rock music was also influenced strongly by a number of other genres such as blues and folk, jazz, classical and other musical sources.



Pop:
Pop music, a term that originally comes from an abbreviation of the term "popular", is usually understood to be commercially recorded music, often with a target audience of the youth market, usually consisting of relatively short, simple songs using technological advances to produce new variations on existing themes. Pop music has taken influences from most other forms of popular music, but as a genre is particularly associated with the rock and roll.
The singer and song that I have chosen is based on this genre. The song is about how celebrities that we see in the magazines make us feel ugly because of the perfect images that are in the magazines. It has also drawn influences from the rock genre due to its angry sounding tone and up-beat rhythm. The song took inspiration from other pop, rock artists such as Katy Perry and Pink

I obtained all my information from:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Outline_of_music

http://www.youtube.com/