Audience Research

For our music videos we have to collect information for part of our audience research to see what our target audience like about our chosen genre and why. I asked my target audience this question below and these are some of the answers they gave:

WHAT APPEALS TO YOU ABOUT POP MUSIC?

• Party scenes
• Young people featuring in the videos
• Upbeat, catchy song
• Performance and narrative based

Then I asked them to watch the following videos and tell me what they liked about them...

 

1. 

Lady Gaga- Applause

 

2. 

Ellie Goulding- Burn

 

3. 

Miley Cyrus- Can't stop

 

For the Lady Gaga video they said they liked it because:

• It's creative
• It has artistic features
• It has elements of performance, narrative and concept
• Brings something unique to the music industryt
• It's fun

They liked the second video because:

• It has a simple storyline
• It has meaningful lyrics
• It's narrative and performance based but still effective

My target audience said they liked 'We can't stop' by Miley Cyrus because:

• It's original
• Shows a different side to her as an artist
• It's a catchy tune
• She's a young artist so my target audience can relate to her 

Digipaks

In class we have started to look at Digipaks and the key conventions of them. Also, we have explored what it is that appeals to the audience in a digipak and what they look for and the messages they portray through the design.

I looked into three Digipaks and the first one was Justin Bieber- Believe.

 

 

Key Conventions:

- The artist's face is on the front, back and inside- this creates consistency throughout, therefore people will like seeing this because they know what they're getting and the main focus is on the artist 

- The same font and colour is used throughout the CD- an element of consistency

- Contrasting colours- black and yellow

 

 

Audience Appeal:

- People can relate to him because it has a picture of him- looks are a big part of his success

- Name of album- inspiring his audience- 'Believe' is quite a strong word and it's concise so people are more likely to remember it

- Quote from the lyrics gives the audience a bit of tease- it makes them want to buy the CD, especially if they are big fans of the artist

- Clear, simple layout- this is sometimes more effective because it's straight to the point and everything that is contains is relevant

 

 

Messages:

- Shows that he is a modern artist- reflects target audience- girls- wants to attract them

- Featured with his guitar- shows he's growing up and unique

 

The next one I did was McFly- Memory Lane.

 

                                                  

Key Conventions:

- Tea stained background gives an old effect- consistent throughout- the coloured effect used on the band works well with the background- contrasting and makes them stand out and this interests people

- Fan Art on album cover- connects with target audience

- Logo is used several times- consistency- by using the logo on several occassions their target audience will remember it more and know what to look for

- Features on the front are included on the CD

 

 

Audience Appeal:

- Fan Art- can connect with their target audience

- Artist features on the front, back and inside

- Extra, unheard content- brings a new element to them as artists and so fans will enjoy listening to them more because they've put in that little bit extra for the purpose of their target audience

 

 

Messages:

- Artist has become more sophisticated and grown up (reflected in their music)

 

The final Digipak I looked at was Professor Green- At your inconvenience.

 

Key Conventions:

- His name, logo, album name are all featured- simple features like this just add to the excitement   and it's something that if it isn't used then people are less likely to be as interested because they won't think that the artist is trying to connect with their target audience

- His face is on the front so you know who he is if you're a new fan- he's an artist that could easily attract new fans- he might not be some people's first choice of genre in terms of the music he does but he has the ability to grow on people and by having his face on the front new people may start to listen to him

- Songs don't have numbers- this is something that is unique to the artist and a lot of albums do have numbers so by going against this, it just makes him a bit different

- Simple design and layout

 

 

Audience Appeal:

- Alcohol and cigarettes are used- reflects who his target audience is- Rap attracts a certain audience- they will be able to relate to him as they will have these sort of interests and he has an element of this in his music as well so he will have quite a specific target audience

- Professor Green's audience aren't bothered about him featuring on the digipak hence the simple layout

 

 

Messages:

- Alcohol all around him, he's on his own- shows the meaning behind the music

- Not touching the alcohol- shows he's more sophisticated and mature but does it for target audience's purpose



Lyrics analysis

For our chosen song we have to do a lyrics analysis and this will help us gather ideas about the style of video we could do and help us think about what to base the video around and whether we want there to be elements of the song within the video or something completely different.

 

Whenever I'm dressed cool my parents put up a fight
And if I'm hot shot, mom will cut my hair at night
And in the morning I'm short of my identity
I scream, "Mom and dad, why can't I be who I wanna be, to be?"

 

This verse is about her wanting to be the person that she is and her parents don't like it- she tries her best to look nice but her parents always start an argument. She loses confidence and feels like she has lost her identity and just wants to be herself

 

I just wanna be myself and I want you to love
Me for who I am
I just wanna be myself and I want you to know
I am my hair

 

Here, she is talking about a similar sort of thing and just wants to be loved for who she is, so far this video has quite a depressive, negative side to it so I will have to think about how I will film it to put across this mood

 

I've had enough, this is my prayer
That I'll die livin' just as free as my hair
I've had enough, this is my prayer
That I'll die livin' just as free as my hair

 

She prays for what she wants in life and that is to be herself, nothing more, and she's had enough now so she says 'this is my prayer' in the hope that what she wants to happen will happen, and in this case it's about dying as free as her hair

 

I've had enough, I'm not a freak
I just keep fightin' to stay cool on the streets
I've had enough, enough, enough
And this is my prayer, I swear

 

These lyrics are all about an argument that she has with her parents about who she is and they don't like it and she tries to explain 'she's not a freak' but it's got to the point where she's had to fight to not be judged on the streets and she can't be the person she wants to be- there is a lot of repetition to reinforce her emotion and how strongly she feels about her being fed up

 

I'm as free as my hair
I'm as free as my hair
I am my hair
I am my hair

 

She talks about her hair being free because you can let your hair loose and you feel that element of freedom like nothing can get in the way and this is how she feels- in my video I would like to use someone with long hair and use the wind effect so it looks free to emphasise the feelings in the video

 

Sometimes I want some raccoon or red highlights
Just because I want my friends to think I'm dynamite
And on Friday, Rock City High School dance
I've got my bangs to hide that I don't stand a chance, a chance

 

I interpreted this part of the lyrics like she thinks about changing her image slightly so that her mum and dad accept her more and she wants to go a bit wild and be a bit different but it sort of sounds like it could just be a saying

 

I just want to be free, I just want to be me
And I want lots of friends that invite me to their parties
Don't want to change and I don't want to be ashamed
I'm the spirit of my hair, it's all the glory that I bear

 

Here she goes back to saying 'I just want to be me' and that she doesn't really intend to change because it's who she is, but she says what she wants ideally and that is to have lots of friends and be popular

 

 

Song Choice

As mentioned in my previous post I think I am going to be doing Lady Gaga- 'Hair' for my music video. There are a variety of reasons why I have chosen to do this song, including:

• Lady Gaga is a very successful artist in music so I thought it would be good to choose an artist that has achieved a lot in her career
• She is famous and lots of people know her as an artist so it won't be hard to get lots of people to view my video- she has a mass audience so people will want to see it
• I'd like to make it original and think of creative ideas and by using an artist like Lady Gaga this enables you to do that
• I enjoy listening to her music so it was a good opportunity to make a video with my own version but with her song
• It means I can make any type of video and make it whacky
• I can relate to her and her music so it will make it easier to create a video
• My target audience will be a similar age to me and they are the kind of people who listen to Lady Gaga so I will be able to make it relatable to my target audience
• Not one of her most popular songs although people still know of it- I wanted to do a Lady Gaga song but most of them have been released as singles so have videos but it still means I can do one of her songs and make it my own

INITIAL IDEAS:

- Performance and concept based elements- some shots of my artist singing but with elements of originality too
- Not much link with the song - quite different but artistic as well
- Maybe the use of paint/arty materials on the artist to reflect Lady Gaga's usual videos which are creative, whacky and interesting to watch
- Have a dark element to it- not a particularly cheerful song so I will emphasise this through the set and the lighting of my video

 

Target audience research

Over summer, I have been thinking about my target audience for my music video. I am almost certain which song I am going to be doing and that is 'Hair' by Lady Gaga. As we have already explored her videos are all very performance based and unique to her, and the target audience for her music at the moment is generally older teenagers, more girls than boys because they can relate to her more. Lady Gaga is a very whacky inidividual with lots of character so people either really like her and her music or they don't like her because they can't connect with her.

I would say a typical Target audience for my music video will be:

• Female
• Aged between 15 & 20- there will be some outside this bracket but the majority will be within this age range
• Someone who has quite a unique personality
• Has original fashion sense and likes to look a bit different
• Not a complete girly girl, with a bit of an indie style/hipster like appearance
• Someone that has interest of art and fashion

Lady Gaga in her new music video 'Applause'. Here you can see she likes to look artistic and original but there aren't many other artists like this in the music industry so people tend to like her because she brings something different to music.

 

In Lady Gaga's video 'telephone' again she looks slightly whacky but her image fits with the lyrics of the song- in some of her songs they are more performance based but others they are completely different and not related to the lyrics at all.

 



 

In other videos of hers she tends to focus on her beauty more and she doesn't go as over the top she has a more natural appearance but still with an element of originality.

 

 

My target audience will be quite popular and keen on technology and social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter because they will like to keep up to date with gossip and fit in. 

 

 

Music video ideas

For our music video that we are creating, it has to be a song that doesn't already have a video so that we don't get any ideas from the existing one, and we've been advised to do an artist that is unknown or unsigned so that it's unique. I have in mind the style of artist I will choose to create my video for and I have based this on the genre of music I listen to and that I think is quite a popular, modern style of music so that it is quite popular with the audience. 

At the moment, the type of artist's I'm looking at are pop, R&B and hip hop because as mentioned on another part of my blog, these are the genres I am most interested in. I have looked into unsigned artist's and have listened to a girl band called 4Flava who are a R&B/Pop/Rock group and so far their music sounds quite good to create a video for. In particular, I like their song called 'this ain't over' and 'so complicated' because they are quite unique sounding songs and they sound like songs which could have a really original video. Also, because they don't already have a video, it means I can explore with ideas easier and make a video I think would fit- I don't have a video to compare to or make it similar to- in order for the video to serve a purpose I will do a lyric analysis of the song and see what ideas I come up with from that on what kind of video to make for it. The URL below is a link to the webpage where you can listen to their songs...

http://www.unsigned.com/4flava

4Flava

Many people discover new artists through YouTube, however I don't tend to explore songs or artists on YouTube, therefore I'm finding it quite hard to find artists to do that aren't already well-known and have existing videos, so I'm having to research into it a bit more to find artists that people haven't heard of.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rl-wDJIxHhA- If I Die Young
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ipdbAFsiBDg - Barefoot and Buckwild
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7wPYu31VLw8 - Eighteen inches

These are songs by an artist called Lauren Alaina. I researched artists that are similar to Taylor Swift because I really like her music and think it would be a good genre to do and this was one of the artists that came up. I don't think she's that well known but has lots of songs but no videos, just lyric versions or live versions so I thought that I could create a video for one of her songs. She's a born country singer so has a similar tone to her voice like Taylor swift. Below is the link to Lauren's official site where you can listen to her songs on spotify.

http://www.laurenalainaofficial.com/music

Lauren Alaina

Year	Association	Category	Result
2012	CMT Music Awards	USA Breakthrough Video of the Year	Nominated
	Teen Choice Awards 2012	Choice Female Country	Nominated
		Choice TV: Female Reality Star (American Idol)	Nominated
	Inspirational Country Music Awards	Inspirational video — "Like My Mother Does"	Nominated
	American Country Awards	New Artist of the Year	Won

These are the awards that Lauren Alaina were nominated for and she won "New Artist of the Year" too.

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

Another artist is 'Lights' and she has a new song out called 'My boots' which fits under the category of pop and indie style and is quite similar to Ellie Goulding in some ways. This would be another good song to create a video to. Lights is a Canadian artist and won Indie Awards in the Favourite Solo Artist and Astral Media Radio Favourite Single categories during Canadian Music Week in March 2009 in Toronto. 

She also won in the best new artist category at the 2009 Juno Awards

In 2010, she was nominated in the Indie Awards for "Video of the Year" (Drive my soul) "Pop Artist of the Year" and in the Juno Awards for "Pop Album of the Year" (The Listening).

In November 2010 her debut album The Listening was given a gold certification by the Canadian Recording Industry Association for sales of 40,000 units.

http://www.last.fm/music/Lights
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lights_(musician)

Lights

I think out of these three artists the one I'm most likely to do is either 'Lights' or 'Lauren Alaina' because I think they are most like the music I listen to and the songs they do would be better to create videos for. These two artists would be fairly easy to choose costumes for because they are both quite indie so once I have decided which artist and song I am going to do I can start exploring outfits and doing a lyric analysis to get some ideas for what kind of video I will create. Now that I have made progress with the type of artists I will do I am looking forward to the progress I will make as I develop my ideas further. 

Music genres

Right from the start of this project I have had a good idea of the kinds of artists I might do for my music video, not specifically one artist but the style of music. The music genres I would like to do are pop which includes chart music because I am a big fan of the songs, hip hop and contemporary R&B. These genres appeal to me because they are the styles of music I tend to listen to so I can relate to them the most and I think I will find these the easiest genres to do because of this.


The conventions of pop include:

• Lyrics tend to be based around love or relationships
• Artists express the unity associated with teens because they are the main target audience  
• Pop music tends to follow current trends rather than being independent and making something new and unique
• The song usually follows a verse-chorus-verse structure and uses hook lines which are catchy
• Promotion of pop songs are via radio stations and radio stations- they are well known because they get played a lot so they stick in the audiences head
• Songs usually include beats that are dance-orientated

http://www.slideshare.net/zahraaliyah64/conventions-of-pop-music

The conventions of hip hop include:

•  Includes rapping, a rhythmic and rhyming speech that is usually quite catchy for their target audience to remember
•  Nearly always has a specific meaning/moral in the song
• The video is usually performance based featuring the artist a lot in the video and this is often the main focus
• Location tends to be in clubs or in a party like atmosphere with dancing scenes
• Expensive clothes and cars used with recognisable brands
• Use of attractive women, seen as the sexual object

The conventions of R&B music include:

• Sexual videos that usually fit with the lyrics
• Mostly the artists in R&B videos are African Americans as they founded this genre
•  Break dancing or hip hop is usually featured
• Fast paced music often with a defined beat or repeated part of the song

These genres are the ones that I am focussing on at the moment, because they are fairly popular so it would be easy to have a mass target audience, they're all quite current genres and modern so people will know about them, and the songs from these genres tend to be catchy and stick in people's heads which is an advantage. Also, as mentioned previoiusly, these three genres are the types of music I tend to listen to most, especially the charts music because it's very modern and up beat and the songs are always catchy. It would be easier to do a genre that I am familiar with and listen to a lot because then I know the kinds of songs I could do and think up some ideas.

I am likely to do a song either from the pop genre or hip hop, although R&B and hip hop are quite similar anyway. Videos that fall into these categories include 'Mirrors' by Justin Timberlake and 'Live it up' by Jennifer Lopez ft Pitbull.

This video by well known artist Jennifer Lopez is the typical pop/ hip hop music video. There is lots of focus on the artist herself with her sunglasses on at the beginning of the video looking glamerous. There are lots of props used to big up her wealth including Swarovski to make her look posh and expensive. Then when Pitbull starts in the video, the atmosphere changes from in a posh, built up place to out on the beach so you get this summer vibe and a lot of videos use this where the artists wear little clothing. Pitbull has lots of girls around him to bring out his flirty side and this is often featured in videos with lots of girls to create a sexual environment. Jennifer is wearing slightly abstract clothes so that she stands out and looks different, but she can pull the outfits off. This is very much a performance based video where the focus is on the artist and it involves her dancing and singing which is a feature of pop/ hip hop videos.



This is a good example of a hip hop style artist but the video goes against the conventions in some ways compared to what you would usually expect for this genre. However, approximately 30 seconds into the video there is a scene where they are playing poole in a pub which is quite stereotypical of this kind of video because they tend to use these sorts of settings to demonstrate the alcohol and partying atmosphere. The video is very much related to the lyrics, in that there is use of the mirror and reflections and through the whole idea of this mirror it tells a story through both the video and the lyrics. There's the use of attractive girls used but they aren't portrayed in a sexual way and dancing like in the video above, but one of the women is in her bra which men may like so they don't try to portray her in this way because she's upset but she is still seen as pretty and attractive still. 

Mackelmore is an artist that would be really good to make a video for because he is a hip hop artitst and a rapper and his music is very modern and popular. His videos are really original and creative and because of this he has a mass audience. This is shown in the video 'Thrift Shop'.

At the beginning, you know that the video is going to be slightly strange because of the outfits they are wearing and it's all a bit of a weird scene, but because it's different, people find it funny and enjoy it. Macklemore is fun and makes good music so I think this would be a good artist to use, because making the video for an aritst like him would be really fun. In the video it has the typical scene where Macklemore is partying in a club which is very stereotypical for hip hop videos and usually rappers are black but macklemore isn't so it's quite funny to see him rapping but it works well. I like things that are slightly abstract and involve originality which Macklemore and his videos are, however the only problem is that it would be quite a hard video to create in some parts, e.g. the car scene and in the club. 

Another of Macklemore's videos is 'Can't hold us' which again is a bit strange, and doesn't really have much relation to the song or lyrics but sometimes this is more effective. This video would be quite hard to create as it involves helicopters and other things that it wouldn't be physically possible to film, but this is the type of artist that I will choose to do a video for because it's the style of music I listen to so I will have more familiarity with these artists and therefore the videos as well.

Beyonce is another artist that I would be quite interested in doing or someone similar because everyone enjoys her music and she is very well known and famous. Her videos usually involve some sort of dancing because that's what she likes to do and her videos are very much performance based of her singing and the focus is on her and her figure when she's dancing. This is shown in her video 'Single ladies'. The video is very much related to the lyrics, because it's all about being single, and this is reinforced through the costumes the ladies are wearing- they are trying to attract attention for the male gaze and they will enjoy watching it due to their lack of clothing and sassy atmosphere that's created. The video is all dancing, so it would be quite easy to video, and it's quite a simple video too so this makes it easier as well. Sometimes the simpler videos are more effective so this would be quite a good idea.