Target audience

Having completed our questionnaire, we are able to use our results to influence the decisions that we make about our video. 

We will use this information to decide what to put in our music video so that people will like that video.

We had to think carefully about our sample size for our questionnaire.

It had to be a manageable size, but still large enough to give a spread of views that would allow us to spot trends. We had to consider variations like age, sex, social class, gender.

From our information that we will collect, we will create a target audience profile.

In our target audience profile we will include demographics, psychographics, lifestyle and choices of brands. We will try to get a complete picture of a member of the audience at which we are aiming our video.

This will enable us to identify who our audience is likely to be for our music video. By considering this, we will be able to aim our video at this sector, taking into account their likes and dislikes, and we will include elements that will appeal to them. -Peter Godwin-

The target audience for our music video is the teenage years from 16-25 years of age as this is the general age group aimed for with our genre, Punk Rock. The video we will create will also follow this genre which will generally use rebellious messages and violent actions to help get across their idea of anarchy, commonly seen in members of this age group. Also this is not a theme which should be exposed to younger children so the age restriction from 16 upwards, which includes a more mature audience who aren't going to be as easily affected by this, will be more appropriate.

This rebellious ideology is generally associated with a lower working class type as they stereotypically disobey the rules of the society provided by the upper class. Therefore our audience would be between lower middle class and lower class. This is also the common audience for a Punk genre.

Within this genre there is no predefined genre or ethnicity associated with it and our video and the song doesn't target a particular one of these therefore we are aiming our music video at any audiences included in these.

- Peter Godwin and Joseph A Luck -

Consequently, our music video fulfils the Uses and Gratification theory need to be entertained, as the narrative is very dramatic, by incorporating verisimilitude with the naturalistic settings and basing the story around a relatable circumstance: relationships. In correlation, the performance shots provide 'entertainment' for audiences who are particularly enthusiastic about the

Music video brief

We chose the punk rock genre because our group was already familiar with that particular musical style, and therefore were aware of some of the stereotypical conventions from the start. As seen in examples such as Evanescence and Nickelback, punk rock music videos also appear to be quite simplistic, in terms of the narrative and visuals, which fits our criteria of lacking a budget to finance this production. Verisimilitude is often incorporated so that there is more of a connection between the lyrics and the visual element on screen, thus referring to Goodwin's media theory. We will apply this, by the narrative being based around and progressing at the rate in which the lyrics of Cyanide develop. This helps to keep our video simple, grounded and also make it easier to structure our music video in a way that makes sense for the audience. Similarly, we plan to use naturalistic settings, such as a restaurant, as a way of conveying the narrative as more realistic. By contrast, the performance shots will having bigger scope, connoting a more epic feel to embed the idea that this band is highly praised and respected in the music industry. In correlation, we also plan to utilise a more outlandish location, which is at this time a car park, relating back to Nickelback famously performing on a roof top for their music videos to Hero. Furthermore, our group hopes to follow the stereotypical conventions of the punk rock genre throughout our devised music video, foreshadowing mainstream artists in all technical areas as a way of presenting our chosen artist as more legitimate.

- Ryan Chapman, Peter Godwin -

Initial Ideas

This is my initial ideas for the music video. We have chosen the song Cyanide by the punk rock band TFI (The Fake Imposters).

-Peter Godwin-

Codes and conventions of punk-rock videos

CONVENTIONS OF PUNK ROCK MUSIC VIDEOS 

Punk rock developed in the 1970s. It is a hard edged, usually fast paced style of music, very successful in the UK. America and Australia. It is a fusion of the styles of rock, punk and some elements of pop. This genre of music became very successful in the 1990s and 2000s. It usually features vocals, and includes bass guitar, lead guitar and drums.

Early bands of this genre would include The Jam, Generation X and the Buzzcocks. By the mid 1990s Green Day and The Offspring had become very popular . Blink 182 were also very successful.

In order to look at conventions of punk rock music videos, I have studied videos from an assortment of artist. “The Anthem” by Good Charlotte, “In Too Deep” by Sum 41 and “Feeling This” by Blink 182 are examples of performance videos of this genre. “Jesus of Suburbia” by Green Day, “Sk8er Boi” by Avril Lavigne and “Sugar We’re Going Down” by Fall Out Boy are examples of narrative videos in this genre.

By studying these videos several conventions of this style of music have become obvious.

The video always features the band or artist at some stage either playing on their own or performing live in front of an audience. There are close up shots of the artist which would be required by the record label in order to promote the artist. This would boost sales of the album.

The artist is often playing with great passion and emotion.

The clothing is often inspired by the punk genre, and can consist of suits, casual clothes, heavy footwear, dark clothing. The tops often have torn off sleeves.

Musical instruments are played by members of the band such as close up shots of guitarists and drummers playing their instruments.

There is a lot of movement and energy in the tracks, shown by crowds dancing at the live concerts or the artist jumping up and down on the stage. The artists often appear to be enjoying themselves and having a good time.  .

The scenery tends to be quite simple as it is the performance that is important. It is often set on the stage.

The band’s logo is often featured in the videos. Also particular artists often have a particular trademark style which is associated with them and which we see in the videos.

Punk rock videos often contain a narrative. This sometimes illustrates the song but can be completely different from the lyrics.

There is often a rebellious edge to the music and the video.

We chose this genre as it is a genre that we are familiar with. It also has some themes that we can easily recreate in our music video. This was also the genre of the band that we have chosen to use.

-Peter Godwin-

Codes and conventions of music videos

CODES AND CONVENTIONS IN MUSIC VIDEOS

The codes and conventions in a music video are the methods and techniques employed to produce the video and give it a meaning and a coherence. These techniques can be split into two areas, technical techniques and symbolic techniques.

Technical techniques refers to the way in which the meaning of the video is made clear using the technical equipment, and would include camera angles, variety of shot, sound editing and genre.

Symbolic techniques talk of ways in which the meaning of the video is conveyed using gestures, facial expressions, props, poses and attitudes, and mise-en-scene.

Each genre of music has its own codes and conventions, and an audience becomes familiar with the different conventions within the genre. The conventions also give a sense of structure to the video helping the audience to understand what the video is trying to say. They also help the lyrics to fit well with the video that the audience is seeing.

There are two types of music video – performance and narrative. Performance is when the video consists mainly of the artist or band performing the song, and no other scenes are included. A narrative music video tells the audience a story which relates to and helps the audience to understand the message of the lyrics. A linear narrative video tells a story from beginning to end, a fragmented video jumps from one scene to another. In reality, music videos are often a combination of these two techniques.

Artist often put in cameo appearances in a video, but do not actually perform.

The use of the camera is a key part in the successful production of a music video. It is possible to create so many different effects through a variety of shots, angles and movements. They play a massive part in the portrayal of feelings and emotions. Shots tend to be fast paced in music videos.

There are a wide variety of camera shots used in music videos. Wide shots show the artist, but only in the sense that they are relating to their environment. The emphasis is on the setting and location. A mid shot usually portrays the artist only down to the waist, but still gives some indication of the setting, giving a reality and meaning to the shot. A close up focuses on the face of the artist and is used to show expressions to help us understand feelings and emotions. It can also be used to focus attention on a particular prop or part of the setting. An extreme close up is often used to centre attention on a particular feature of the artist’s face, and can be used in lip syncing. It shows deep emotion. An over the shoulder shot is often used in narrative videos, where we can see beyond the person acting to concentrate on another person or part of the setting which is relevant to the story line. A cut in shot can be used to help to interpret the lyrics to the song, where an object is cut in to the shot in relation to the lyrics.

These shots can then be developed further by the use of creative camera angles. An eye level shot shows a reality, as that is the way we are used to seeing the world. A high angle shot shows the subject from above. It makes the object less powerful and influential, and tends to be used to show the insignificance of a person or object. A low angle gives the opposite impression of grandeur and power. A bird’s eye view is a shot taken from high up, directly above. It allows the audience to see a different perspective on the scene and to see what is happening in a way the characters would not be able to. A slanting shot shows the horizon at a slanted angle and can be used to create some very dramatic effects.

Editing is the final process in the production of a music video. It involves the cutting and amalgamating of the scenes, the addition of any special effects, and the adding of the lyrics.

Sound can be diegetic or non-diegetic. Diegetic sound is present in the film, but non-diegetic sound is sound that is edited in. The sound is an intrinsic part of the music video – it is what draws the audience to the video in the first place. The music video would try to match the mood created by the lyrics.

The mise-en-scene of the music video includes lighting, props, costume, hair and make up, location, and colour. These would very much depend on the genre of the video. They are intrinsic to the video and can be used to create many different effects.

Lighting is hugely important in the video. A scene can be lit using natural or artificial light and very much fit in with the genre of the video. Natural lighting would be used in a video for a country song whereas strobe lighting would be used to show a concert atmosphere in a dance video.

Costume is also hugely important and is used to portray the genre of the video and character of the performers. This is enhanced by hair and make up.

The location also firmly determines the genre of the video.

Colour can be hugely significant. It can create a mood, be used to identify special things which the audience need to notice, it can be used to emphasise feelings and show a time lapse.

There is often in a music video a notion of looking.

Analysis of results

I gave my questionnaire to a sample of thirty males and females, ranging from 16 to the over 35 group. I have looked at my results. Some I have recorded in graphical form, in some cases separating out gender and age ranges in the responses. I have then analysed my findings.
 

1.     Gender

The pie chart shows that 18 male and 12 female took part in my questionnaire. I feel that the fact there are more males than females is reflected in some of the answers.
 

2.     How old are you?

I split the age ranges into 5 categories, 16-18, 19-21, 22-24, 25-35, and 35+. I felt that these bands reflected people who would be likely to have similar interests and tastes so that I can compare them.
 

3.     What genre of music do you listen to?

I was interested to see that more males than females liked to listen to both rock music and hip-hop music. This I would have expected as both these genres are more male orientated, in particular hip-hop. I was surprised to see more females than males preferred metal as I would have thought this was a male orientated genre.

I also looked at the different genres of music which appealed to different age groups. Jazz was chosen only by the 35+ age range. I am not surprised by this as jazz is not a popular genre for younger age groups. Rock and pop were popular with the 19 – 21 age group. This was again what I would have expected.
 

4.     What radio stations do you listen to?

I gave the choice of five different radio stations, and the option to choose none.

Kiss FM – specialises in hip-hop, R+B, Urban and electronic dance

Capital FM – plays the latest hits and a selection across genres

Kerrang – plays metal, punk and rock

Heart FM – plays a selection with certain times being set aside for shows such as Club Classics

Absolute – plays 1990s music
 

I would expect people to choose a radio station based on their preferred genre. People who preferred rock or metal listened to Kerrang which specialises in these genres. More males than females preferred this station. Kiss FM was preferred by females. Capital FM was a popular choice for age groups between 19 – 24.
 

5.     What music channels do you watch?

Viva, Kiss and 4Music are all channels featuring videos from the charts and music that is currently in demand. Kerrang specialises in metal, rock and punk, while The Box specialises in being the first to air big hits.

I would anticipate that people would again link the genre of music they prefer and the radio stations they listen to to the music channels they will watch. I was surprised to see that Kerrang was not chosen by many people, even though many listened to Kerrang radio. The Box was a popular choice with 19 – 21 age group reflecting their interest in current music.
 

6.     What music videos do you enjoy watching?

This was an open question which got a wide variety of answers. The oldest age range did not in general watch music videos, and were only able to comment on odd extracts they had seen as clips on the television. People up to 24 watched music videos mainly on You Tube although some watched on
 

7.     The question which asked why do you enjoy watching music videos provoked some interesting results. Narrative was important to females, while good lyrics and meaning was important to males. The song and band members were important to both sexes. Good narrative was very important to 19 – 21 year olds which was interesting – they are looking for the content. Lyrics was also very important to this age group. It was interesting to see that the song was the only important factor for the 25 – 35 age group, showing that possibly this group enjoy hearing a song and becoming familiar with it. The song did feature in the answers for every age group.
 

8.     The answers to the question Do you go to music festivals and concerts was interesting. This is obviously a popular thing to do for all age groups, as some from all age groups said they attended these all the time. Interestingly it was people from 19 - 24 who said they never attended music festivals or concerts, whereas I was surprised that people over the age of 35 did. I think this age group may possibly not have money to spend on these activities as they are expensive and many would be at university at this time. However on further questioning, this was attending concerts rather than music festivals, although one had attended the V festival last year.
 

9.     Why do you go to music festivals was also interesting. The most common answer was by far related to seeing the bands first hand and enjoying the live music. Some said that they attended each year with the same group of people and enjoyed all meeting up – for them it was a real social occasion. One said they also enjoyed all the other tents which offer other activities as well.
 

10.This again was an open question. About half the people said that they were looking purely at the music content of a music video, and were interested in purely the performance of the band and the music itself. The other half said they wanted the video a story relating to the song and real life drama.

Questionnaire

The aim when carrying out audience research is to find out information about the likes and dislikes of your audience. It can be used in order to specifically target a chosen group of society and to get feedback in order to see that a particular product is successful when launched into the public domain.

Audience research is a primary form of research.

The results from audience research can be either

·         Qualitative – features the use of closed questions

·         Quantitative- features the use of open questions which allows for people to express their opinion in an original way

This will depend on the way that the research is carried out.

The aims of our research into target audiences were

·         To see why people choose to listen to the music that they do listen to

·         To see if the success of a particular song is linked to he music video or whether they are independent of each other

·         Why people like certain music videos

·         Why people don’t like certain music videos

Before creating our own music video, we will now be able to examine the answers to our questionnaire and use this information to make sure that the video we create will be directly targeted at the audience we have chosen. 

 -Peter Godwin-