Target audience results- Miss Miller

We carried out research by asking 40 people questionnaires on Indie music, we done this to see what they dislike and like about indie music videos to help us tailor our video to their preferences. By using questionnaires it told us what audiences expected to see within indie music videos, conventions they want to see, narrative, performance or concept based and what age we should target our video at. We asked 40 people with our questionnaires and five people with our vox pops so that we didn't get biased results and so we ensure that we asked many different types of people which would help us to create our music video. We used questionnaires so that we could compare and evaluate as questionnaires gives a variety of answers. We used Vox Pops also so that we could get a deeper understanding of what they want to see as we are directly getting the questionnaire answers. I will use my results to create my music video and I will tailor it to the questionnaire results as this is what our audiences want to see.

We created pie charts from the results we gathered so that we could evaluate and compare our results.




From this pie chart we gathered many things. We found that people like different genres of music which was useful for us as we could see that we could've picked any of these genres to create our music video on. Indie was the most popular music genre with 53% of people choosing this, next was R&B with 19% people choosing this genre, following the rap genre with 14%, then lastly rock and pop with both 7% of people choosing these genres. Indie was the most popular choice which tells us that our music video will appeal to many people also showing us that our target audience could be wide. The second most popular was R&B which shows us that audience may want to see conventions of R&B within our video such as dancing and the video to do with love. By having indie as the most popular answer shows us that our video will be successful as many people enjoy indie music. Asking this question has been useful to us as we can now see that indie is a popular music genre so that people would like our music video. From asking this question it tells us that we need to keep our video conventional to the indie genre and maybe add a convention from the R+B genre e.g a girl in the video.

 

From this pie chart we found out roughly on the idea of the ages of people we should target our music video at. We found that 65% of people we asked were aged  16-20, 17% were aged 10-15, 15% were aged 21-25 and 3% were aged 26+. We asked this question to decide what our target audience should be so we understand what conventions we should add into our music video to suit our target audience. We discovered that we should target our music video at 16-20 year olds as we found out from our questionnaires that this is the main age group who answered our questionnaire. Due to our target audience aged 16-20 we can add in conventions such as sexual references and drugs as our target audience is at an appropriate age. By adding in these conventions would make our music video more interesting. Asking this question this question has helped us a lot in knowing what our target audience should be for our music video therefore we now know what conventions to add in to suit our audience.

From this pie chart we found out roughly on what gender we should target music video at. From asking the questionnaires 38% of people we asked was female and 62% of people were male. From asking this question we can see roughly what gender we should target our music video at. From the pie chart we can clearly see we should target our music video as males however we should also add conventions which would suit females aswell. Our song's narrative is about a male and a relationship between him and his dad therefore our music video would be suited towards males. Asking this question has been very useful in knowing what gender we should make our target audience. If we didn't ask this question we wouldn't know what gender would be our target audience.

From asking this question we found out if Ed Sheeran is an popular artist and a good choice in creating a music video to one of his songs. the results were that 60% of people are a fan and 40% were not therefore it shows us people enjoy Ed Sheeran music therefore our music video should be successful due to the fact that most people are a fan of Ed. From asking this question gave us knowledge about how popular Ed Sheeran is. From asking this question it has gave us confidence when we go to create our music video as many people are fans of him and many people have at least heard of him.

This was a very important question we asked when giving out our questionnaires as without asking it we wouldn't know what micro elements and conventions we need in our music video for it to appeal to our target audience and to make it interesting. We found out that 40% thought the lighting made it interesting, 30% thought that diverse and unique videos make it interesting for them, 25% enjoy dance routines and 5% thought other which could be cinematography. From this we saw that we definitely need to have different types of lighting within our music video to make it interesting. We could add low key, high key and make the lighting black and white. Due to the fact our song were creating our music video to is in the indie genre we should make the lighting more low key and black and white rather then high key as it gives a mysterious feel. We should add conventions which are unique and diverse such as a unique location such as a beach or many different shots used. 25% said a dance routine however our music video is in the indie genre which would be unconventional to have a dance routine however we could add in a performance which would appeal to those particular people. Asking this question was very useful otherwise we wouldn't understand what micro elements and conventions we would need to make our music video interesting.

 From asking this question we have found out if people enjoy listening to indie music. This pie charts shows us that 55% enjoy indie music whereas 45% dislike indie music. This shows us that our questionnaire wasn't biased but indie music inst as popular as we expected so that we should add other conventions from other genres such as not as such a basic location and maybe a dance routine of some sort to appeal to people who didn't enjoy indie music. By asking this question helped us as we found out that most people enjoy indie music, we wont need to appeal to all types of people as our target audience is 13-20 and we want our video to be conventional to the indie genre.

This pie chart was also very important when looking at results. This was a very important question to ask as we found out what element is most effective in a music video. 38% thought that mise-en-scene was the most effective element, 32% thought that cinematography was the most effective element, 26% thought that editing was the most effective element in a music video. From these results we can clearly see that mise-en-scene is the most effective element of a music video therefore we have to have a successful and conventional location, lighting, iconography, positioning and facial expressions within our music video. The mise en scene has to be successful otherwise audiences wont be interested within our video. We have to make the mise en scene very conventional to the indie genre also otherwise our video wont be successful. The conventions we should have is a simple location, low key lighting, a guitar as a prop, positioning always in the middle of the shot and a clear view of the facial expressions which link to the lyrics. The shots and editing also has to be successful. We should have many different shots within our music video and shots which link with the lyrics and visuals. It is important that we have many different editing styles within our music video to keep the audience interested. We expected very close results when we asked this question. Asking this question was very useful as we know understand that all our elements within our music video have to be effective for our music video to be successful.

From this pie chart we can clearly see what conventions audiences expect to be within a music video. 40% of people which was our highest expected a narrative within a music video. We was really happy when we received this result as a narrative is very conventional to the indie genre meaning that most audiences would enjoy our music video. 35% of people expected a portrayal of love within a music video. From gaining this result we should try and include a girl within our music video as this is what audiences expect to see therefore meaning they will enjoy our music video. We will add in a girl within our music video as it links to our song lyrics. 10% was both performance and simplisitc/low budget/realistic. From gaining this result showed us we shouldn't incorporate a performance within our video due to the fact that's its unconventional to the indie genre but also only 10% of audiences enjoy a performance. simplistic/low budget/realistic result was a shock to us but it shows us that we shouldn't keep our music video to simple otherwise it will look too basic. However due to the fact that our music video is in the indie genre we have to keep the location simple to follow the conventions of the indie genre. By asking this question helped us learn what style our music video should be and what genders should be within our music video.

 From this pie chart we found out what setting would expect to see within a indie music video. This question was important as the question above 'what element is the most important within music videos' told us that the mise-en-scene was the most important within music videos therefore that the setting has to be successful within our music video. We found that 50% of people expects a simple setting within the indie genre, therefore showing us that we have to keep our setting simple and basic. Our setting should change also so that its not to boring. We should film our music video in either a field, forest, beach and house as they are simple settings.

From this pie chart we can clearly see that audiences prefer narratives over performance in music videos. 89% said narrative whereas the other 11% said performance. This clearly shows us that we should incorporate a narrative within our music video. We was very happy from this result as having a narrative within the indie genre is very conventional. 

I believe our pie charts from our questionnaire results proved very useful. We can now compare results and be able to analyse our results more better. By putting our results into pie charts we can now see the percentages of the results which will help us when we create out music video. I believe our pie charts have been successful as we know have knowledge of what to add in our music video when we go to film it. 

The videos below are the 5 people I filmed for my vox pops. The first girl I filmed was younger then the rest of the other people I filmed so that my results wouldn't be biased. I believe my vox pops were very successful as it allowed us to understand what conventions we should add in our music video for our music video to be successful. It also allowed us to understand the target audience also. One of the most important questions was 'Do you prefer a music video consisting of a narrative or performance?' The majority of the 5 people said narrative as well as 89% of the questionnaire results as they most of them thought they like to have a story behind the music video as this makes it more interesting. This has gave us major confidence in just having a narrative based video which is very conventional to the indie genre. Another key question was 'What setting do you expect to see in a music video' Majority of the results from the vox pops and the questionnaires were simple/basic. The audiences said this as they like to focus on the lyrics and the meaning behind the song. Therefore from receiving that result our setting will be very simple or basic. Overall we believed our vox pops were very successful as we could directly see results of what people thought about music videos, this gave us deeper understanding on what we should include in our music video. 

We also studied into youth subcultures to assist us with planning our music video. A youth subculture are a group of people who come together due to the fact that they have common values for example clothes or taste. There a group of people who are positioned out of the mainstream and may be seen as unique. The subcultural gangs hold value in conformity and rebellion and have an attitude towards capitalism and consumerism. Grant McCraken believes that the modern world within the music industry is full off diversity, dynamism and creativity. He says that if we look at the array of values, and ideologies then we cant say all the subcultures come from one culture. The CCS (Centre offor contempory cultural studies) disagrees with McCraken and ignores and assumes that all subcultures come from one subculture. The CCS makes general assumptions, they don't take into account changes, don't take into account older youths mix and match styles/values from a mix of subcultures. They also don't take into account adults that can appear normal eg go to work but behind closed doors they visit raves. Hebridge is similar to McCraken and the CCCS' and says that although some people think subcultures only appear to be different but deep down they are the same. 

By researching into subcultures has been proven very useful as we can see what our music video theory follows. We believe that our theory follows Grant McCraken as our music video isnt influenced influenced by the mainstream of rebellion but it consists of new ideologies and unique elements that doesn't follow the mainstream pop genre. 

Overall I believe this task has been very useful for our group. The main things we have learnt of what conventions to add into our music video and whom to target our music video at. By asking all these questionnaires gave us ideas of what to include in our music video so that we can make it conventional and successful. Without carrying out research we wouldn't have as good of knowledge on how to create our music video then we do now. If we were to do this task again I would create more questionaires and film more poeple so I can get an even more deeper insight into what we should include within our video.