Target Audiences Questions
What genre does your chosen song fall into?
Who typically buys this genre? How do you know?
I conducted a survey and found the following:
In this survey I asked 50 people of different ages and races what music they preferred listening to. From my research I found that 19 of the people I surveyed preferred the Indie/Rock genre, and all of these people were of a white race and aged from 17-29. Therefore, suggesting that the majority of people listening to Indie music are in fact young and white.
Another way of researching the Indie target audience was by looking at comments on Youtube.
On Youtube I went onto a song of a band by the name of 'The Arctic Monkeys', a typical Indie/Rock band. I looked for various positive comments from different people in order to discover what kind of people were using Youtube to listen to this band.
18 years old
This shows a positive comment of the song, as the person uses the terms 'wonderful sound'. When clicking on this particular persons Youtube profile I found that they were yet again a young, white boy. On Youtube I also found out various other statistics on target audiences for specific Indie Music music videos. For example I looked up the viewing statistics for a typical Indie artist called Jack Penate and another artist by the name of Kate Nash. Here is what I found:
These statistics back up the evidence I collected on the age of my target audience. Above there is a heading entitled 'This video is most popular with' and underneath this heading the age group that the music videos appear to be most popular with is the 17 to 24 years old, as I had previously stated.
Along with this, I researched images on Google, entitled 'Indie Music Audience' and here were a few images that I came across, backing up the research I did stating that Indie music is mainly associated with white, young audiences a lot of the time.
However, a lot of thee Indie music listeners do not buy the music they listen to, instead they will download it illegally.
The first graph shows how age is a factor in whether respondents download illegally or not. The age group that is shown on the graph to be most active in illegal downloading are the 18-24 age group, followed by the 14-17 age group and the least being the 25+ age group. The graph below that shows that 63% of the people downloading music online are actually downloading it illegally, whereas only 37% of people are paying to download the music they listen to. Along with this, the graph highlights the fact that Indie listeners do come across as rebellious and breaking against rules, it also shows how Indie listeners are mainly of a younger audience downloading music illegally as they may not have the money to afford to buy the records.
Likes and Dislikes of the Indie Target Audience:
It is clear that the Indie target audience expect certain things in terms of the music they listen to, the bands they go and see, and the music videos they watch.
As mentioned previously, the style they reflect on is certainly individualistic and unique in its own way. They are seen to be 'different' with their vintage inspired clothing and their wacky hairstyles. A few examples could be given when looking at certain Indie bands.
Above are three indie artists and bands, 'The White Stripes', 'Kate Nash' and 'Shiny Toy Guns'. From observing these pictures you can see that each band or artist has a very unique look to them which generally distinguishes them as an indie band or artist. The girl from the band 'The White Stripes' is wearing a long white lace dress and black net gloves, showing off the vintage look, as is the indie artist 'Kate Nash' who is wearing a flowery vintage looking dress with green tights. The American indie band 'Shiny Toy Guns' also have their own unique style, but three of the band members are also showing off their tattoos, which appears to be quite common in indie and rock bands. Mostly all of these musicians hairstyles are wacky and unusual in their own way, the men having long hair, some of them with cut into different lengths. The trend for women seem to be the fringes, and one of the women has different colours in her hair.
Images from the newspaper theguardian.co.uk
Something else that appears popular with my target audience is festivals and gigs such as Glastonbury and Reading. As you can see from the pictures above the people in the audience of these festivals and gigs are predominately white and of a younger age group. Not all people who go to major festivals such as Glastonbury and reading are into Indie, Rock or alternative music, however the majority tend to be. On the Reading website I was able to read a little into the history of Reading festival in particular. They explain how the festival became popular when audio was in its 'rock n roll infancy'; before the invention of music as we know it today and the time when the festival laid down its roots as the UK's premier indie festival. Along with this, the 'Jay Z' controversy at Glastonbury festival backs up the point that many still consider these events to be mainly for the rock and indie genre. Many acted negatively to the hip hop rapper 'Jay Z' headlining at the Glastonbury festival in 2008, claiming he 'didn't suit Glastonbury at all'. Looking at these festivals shows how young indie listeners do tend to come across as mischievous and rule breaking. Festivals, especially Glastonbury and Reading are known for young people camping over night and also many drug related stories which seem to be the trend throughout the years. However, it is clear that many of these people see these festivals as uniting and bonding people together by music.
The final way in which we gathered information on our target audience was by allowing 15 boys and girls from the ages of 17-24, to have a discussion with us about what they expected from an Indie video. Here is what a few of them said:
'I like the way in which Indie videos appear 'different' from other videos, they have something extremly unique about them'. - Female 18
'For me its the style of the artist that makes an Indie music video, for example Florence and the Machine for me is unusual yet fascinating with the vintage clothing she wears'. - Male 20
'My favourite thing about Indie videos is that they use concept ideas and most of the time you do not understand exactly what is happening, and this makes you want to find out more'. - Male 22
'I love watching the performance parts within a music video, for me festivals are amazing and the music videos I tend to like are usually based around the band or artist performing their song at a gig or festival to a large audience'. - Female 19
Does the song lyrics meet the needs and desires of your target audience?
I am so sure you left me to dry with these roses,
that you gave me before you went on a plane.
Oh you went to Chicago to be with the girl you don't know,
and left me in St. Paul to be with the ghost in our home.
OH OH OH, OH OH OH, OH OH OH.
I am so sure guys just like you are the same,
as I walk down the streets everything just reminds me,
that you went to Chicago to be with the girl you don't know,
and left me in St.Paul to be with the ghost in our home.
OH OH OH, OH OH OH, OH OH OH.
But Jamie won't you please, Jamie won't you please come home,
But Jamie won't you please, Jamie won't you please come home.
OH OH OH, OH OH OH, OH OH OH.
I've kept all these photos, I keep all these photos of us,
I've kept all these photos, I keep all these photos of us.
But you went to Chicago to be with the girl you don't know,
and left me in St.Paul to be with the ghost in our home.
OH OH OH, OH OH OH, OH OH OH.
Jamie won't you please come home,
Jamie won't you please come home,
Jamie won't you please come home.
In a way these lyrics meet the needs and desires of the our target audience as the story within the song is quite unusual as we do not know exactly who this 'Jamie' person was, or what relationship this girl had with this person. The lyrics 'you went on a plane...' and 'oh you went to Chicago', may relate to the target audience as there is an issue of travelling which works well with the point that a lot of our target audience will be free spirited and rebellious in their ways. The song also creates a sense of mysteriousness, especially when the girl starts to sing about the ghost in her home. As I discovered from research our target audience also tend to enjoy being unique and 'different', therefore this is another example of how the lyrics in this song responds to the needs and desires of our target audience. The words 'to be with the girl you don't know', highlights the fact that the person this girl is singing about seems to be quite unconventional and eccentric, going to another place for somebody he doesn't even know. Again this will meet the needs and desires of our target audience as this also shows someone being individualistic and someone who likes to take risks. Lastly, this will appeal to our target audience as from research we found that our target audience is of a younger age (17-29), and therefore the song which appears to be some kind of love story may attract audiences, especially girls.
How would a concept/narrative/performance video meet the needs of this audience?
I believe that for this particular song a narrative and performance music video would meet the needs of our target audience for the same reasons the lyrics in this song would meet the needs and desires of our target audience. The idea of having a love story with a slight mysterious twist in our music video will attract our target audience and intrigue them greatly. Along with this, the fact that it is a love story alone will attract our younger audience. However, in our music video we plan to have the main female singing at various parts throughout the video as we believe that we need a good mix of both narrative and performance, and especially because this is a typical convention of a Indie Music video. Along with this, the audience will be able to become familiar with this new artist if we allow them to perform in the video. From research, I found that newly established Indie bands more than often included their band members in their music video in order for audiences to understand who they are, whereas well known artists and bands can afford not to appear within their music video.
