Defining your Audience

To define your audience there are many different areas that you need to look at in order to target an audience that you feel will enjoy your music video best.



Sex
For our music video, the sex that it would appeal to more would be girls, although it could be for either sex as there are aspects involved in the video that would appeal to both sex's.  







  Age

The age range for our music video is quite broad, although it contains reference to drugs so couldn't be for very little children, 15 to 30 would be the main age group for our music video as the story line can be looked into in more depth for the older audience as there is a powerful underlying message.

Social Group

You also have to consider social groups. Our music video is more mainstream because it is a pop song. Whereas some music videos are made for the niche market.

Working Status
Our music video would appeal to a vast range of people in different working status'. This could range from a manager to a skilled labour worker.

Marital Status

Our video will appeal to a large range of people and we think that it will appeal to anyone, whether they are single/married/divorced.

                                                        Presence of Children

Our video will appeal to people with children, however we don't think it will be suitable for very young children as there is are references to drugs throughout the video.

IncomeWe do not think the amount of income someone gets effects whether they will watch the music video or not. We think our video will appeal to people with varied income.

Questionnaire

We created a questionnaire in order to find out more about what people looked for in music videos. This questionnaire is based on what most people said.

How old are you?10-15     16-20     21-25     30-40    41+


What gender are you?Male        Female


Do you watch many music videos?
Yes      No


What comes to mind when you think of a pop video?
I imagine a pop video to be colourful and with a strong story line, have lots of different scenes and a lot of costume changes.


Where do you see most music videos?
Music channels     Youtube     Other



Do you prefer upbeat music videos to slower ones?
I like both, depending on what mood I'm in. It's great when a music video fits your mood.



Do you like music videos which have a deeper meaning?
Yes, I think music videos with a deeper meaning are always more interesting to watch.

Inspirations/Influences



Our audience

To show an understanding of our targeted audience I have recruited two people who I believe would be our most likely audience.

Faye Thomas is 19 years old and currently studying psychology and English language at University. She is very sociable and enjoys being with her friends and spends a lot of her time going to well known and local gigs, her favourite genre of films is thriller and likes to go to the cinema to watch them. Faye listens to wide range of music and likes anything that is up beat. She is a keen user of social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter. Faye would be a perfect match for our target audience for our music video, as she enjoys going on Facebook and Twitter we know this could be an effective way to advertise our video.

James Davis is 16 years old, he has just finished his GCSE's and waiting to start college to do photography as this is one of his main hobbies. Like Faye, he enjoys spending a lot of time with his friends and enjoys skateboarding at the weekends. He mainly likes rock music but also enjoys pop. James has been playing the guitar since he was 10 and started his own band with his friends.

BARB

BARB stands for 'Broadcasters audience research board'. The word 'broadcasting' implies a 'mass' audience. You can use BARB to look at how many people tune in to different programmes and radio stations and to identify where the 'mass' audiences are.

This website is important for advertisers and media companies as they can look at it to find out which channels are most popular etc. Allowing them to advertise their products on the most popular channels, meaning that their advertisement will be seen by the widest range of audience possible.

 On BARB you can look at any TV channel or radio channel that you want. You can also set it to show which programmes have been most popular in the past month or week. For example, this week we can see that 'Eastenders' was the most watched programme with 9.16 million viewers.

Intended Audience

From looking at our influences of other pop artists in the charts at the moment such as Rihanna, Lady Gaga, Katy Perry and Nicki Minaj it is clear that they all have similar audiences. 

Our music video for 'Wonderland' by Natalia Kills is very much targeted at teenagers to young adults, mainly female due to the themes of  a stereotypical fairytale based around a fantasy of the protagonist. However, although this may make it seem as though it should be aimed at a much younger audience, the themes of drug use in our video that takes her into her 'fantasy' land makes the age of our target audience older.  When making the decison about our intended audience we have to bare in mind the up-beat rhythm of the song instantly attracts a younger audience. Examining the lyrics in depth, pragmatically they imply a young girl trying to escape reality.

Social grade scale

We have all discussed and agreed that our target audience would most likely come under the social grade scale 'E' as well as 'D' as these are people who are unemployed, casual workers and students who we all feel would be the people who would listen to this particular genre of music.



Demographics

Our music video is aimed at both males and females, however it is likely that more females would watch it due to the fairytale like themes. Our target audience is teenagers, therefore the people who are most likely to watch would range from about 15-20, we are creating it for people with all abilities and are not making it for a particular gender. In terms of status, people who are in a relationship or single would listen to this track and watch our music video, although obviously still aimed at married couples, it is much less likely for them to be watching our video as they would most probably be older and due to the fast pace and up beat rhythm of our chosen song we believe more teenagers would listen to it. People with children we think are less likely to listen due to specific themes within the song and perhaps would not be listened to around children, therefore not influencing them. We have agreed that people with varied incomes would listen to this song as we believe the amount of money you earn doesn't change the style of music you enjoy listening to. Again, we believe the same with the different standards of education people have, whether you have a good or poor education or whether you are of a higher education or not wouldn't change what you listen to.

The Importance of audiences

Media companies and their audiences have a mutually beneficial relationship, meaning they both benefit from each other. Without an audience, there would be no consumption of products or media, therefore there would be no need to create them in the first place. Media companies receive their income from the audience and media that the audience uses for free (Such as social networking sites like Facebook) get their income from advertisers. Audience size and reaction is often used as a way of measuring success, advertising companies therefore use these figures as a way of deciding where and when they will advertise their products, based on their own target audience.

Audiences can be placed in different groups using many different methods, one method is
socio-economix values:

Survivors: Those that want securit and like routine

Social Climbers: Those what have strong materialistic drive and like status symbols.

Care Givers: Those who belive in caring and sharing

Explorers: For whom personal growth and influencing social change are important

Maslow's Hierarchy of needs

Abraham Maslow is an american psychologist that formed 'The Hierarchy of needs' theory (portrayed in the diagram below) it explains people having different layers of needs. Maslow argues many people stop at particular levels according to social facors that he describes as 'self actualisation'.

                                                                    Maslow's Triangle.
Maslow states that we all start at the Physiological level, then develop into different stage. This ranges from sorting out financial problems to having high self esteem, and having what you want from society. This concept is very important in relation to our intended audience.
Evaluating the table, the particular level that stands out is Love/Belonging. As our primary audience is young adults, we feel that they are best suited to this level; sharing strong relationships with their friends. Music acts as a bond for these relationships, therefore our music video will be best targetted at this level.

                                                          Abraham Maslow

Codes and Conventions of our chosen genre

Intended Institution Analysis

Once our music video has been produced, it will be ready to be distributed. In order to achieve distribution,  our marketing strategy will be key. The biggest part of this would be our Intended Institution that will constantly play our video.

When reviewing music institutions that show music videos (mainly pop) the stand out institution is MTV Music. We feel that MTV will be best suited to our genre and style. The target audience for MTV is young adults which are particularly interested in contemporary music. We feel our music video will be a good representation of what young people look for in terms of music.

Not only do MTV show music videos via T.V, they also present them virtually online via their site. I have captured a screenshot of the site (to the left of the text.) Looking at the chart, the Artists highlighted are very similar to ours (Natalia Kills) this clearly portrays that this Institution is best suited for our Artist, and music style.

Analysing the Lyrics

Detailed description of props

Cherrytree Records

I have done some research on our chosen artist Natalia kills and have found that she is signed with Cherrytree records, an American label which is an imprint of Interscope records. As these two record labels are subsidary to Universal Music and A&M records it is impossible to find contact information to ask for permission to create a music video for one of their artists tracks. Therefore I have decided to email directly to Universal music to obtain the rights to use a song that is administerated by them.

Their were many different emails for people to contact regarding different things, however this particular email was the one I need to gain permission to use one of their tracks.

Initial ideas

Idea 1

From the end of our AS year we as a group decided that we wanted to create a music video for 'Man down' by Rihanna for our A2 coursework. Once we started planning at the beginning of year 13 we found it quite easy to come up with some good ideas for the first minute of the song. We made a storyboard for the start of the song and a couple of days later we began to film our music video. We found many good locations for the particular song however, we found it very difficult to think of a storyline that went with the few ideas we already had. After discussing the problems we were facing with the song we decided to listen to some other songs as we also felt we needed a more up beat song, as we belived it would be easier to come up with a better storyline.

Idea 2

After listening to a range of other songs we all agreed that the track we chose had to be one that the whole group liked, and after realising we all like the artist Jessie J we decided that one of her songs would be a good choice, as they are much more up-beat and have strong lyrics to work with. When we all sat down and listened to 'Do it like a dude' we straight away came up with a few ideas of a house party with all the girls dressed up as men which we felt linked to the message of the song well. However, we then realised in order to create a successful music video we need a range of locations and again found it difficult to think of a storyline for this particular song, so again we decided to change it.

Idea 3

In one of our Media lessons Alex was going through the songs he had on his phone and started to play a song called 'Wonderland' by Natalia Kills, after listening to it for the first time we weren't sure and didnt feel like it would be easy to think of a storyline that would flow well with the song. However, we listened to it again along with watching the music video for it and decided as a group that the lyrics were quite strong, the beat was good and it was a song that was quite new to us as a group so thought it would be easier to work with it. We all sat down and wrote down all our ideas for the song including characters, costumes, props and locations.

Our Artist

NATALIA KILLS (born 15 August 1986)

Natalia Kills is a relatively new pop singer. She's an English singer-songwriter, actress, and short film director.
Unlike other female pop stars, she doesn't have Global Reach. This is one of the reasons our group was attracted to her as an artist, in correlation to her music. She's an English singer-songwriter, actress, and short film director. 

In January 2008, Will.I.am signed her to Interscope Records via his will.i.am music group imprint.

Natalia Kills music style is fairly absurd in justification. When analysing her music videos; she relates to other female pop stars due to her common conventions to pop such as her change of outfits, voyeurism, and colour use.  However, the messages presented within them are much more psychological. For instance, her music video 'Zombie' portrays humanity as a disease. We are building on this idea on our video to her song 'Wonderland'. We're going to convey the pressure of family and society on a young girl's life. Also, how this plays with her imagination to create a state of chaos, and illusion.

Codes and conventions of a music video

When analysing a music video there are many codes and conventions that need to be considered. I have analysed Britney spears' music video 'Toxic' to help explain these.

Lyrics-

The lyrics are the words in the song; specific lines to a song are associated with her actions that you see on screen. When analysing a range of pop videos I came to notice that the lyrics are mainly about relationships, love or the opposite sex. 

mise-en-scene-

a lot of music videos for pop songs are based around a fantasy world, taking katy peryy's 'California girls' for example, although her video consists of her being in an almost make believe world which helps it attract young girls, the sexualisation of women in this music video would also attract men. The sets and props for most pop videos would mainly be very colourful and quite exaggerated. When watching pop videos I noticed that a lot of the female artists used direct address to get the audience engaged.

Costume

When watching a range of pop videos I noticed that the female artists were mainly dressed in very little or tight clothing. This would attract their male audience, however is a bad influence to their younger audiences as they may believe this is how women should be seen. The costumes in pop videos are also fairly colourful which helps represent the lyrics of the song.

Editing

The editing for most pop videos I found was very similar. I noticed a lot of rapid editing which would go along with the beat of the song as pop songs would usually have a faster pace. Many videos would use parallel editing; the shot would quickly go from one singer or dancer to another. Most pop videos also use a high key lighting to give a happier vibe to it overall. 

I also noticed that most of the videos I watched had a dance routine, which the video kept cutting into which gave a overall better pace to the video, making it more entertaining to watch.

Camera angles

Editing has a big part when creating a music video. Music videos use a large variety of camera angles as they are very important so it doesn't become boring to watch. I noticed that there were a lot of mid shots of female artists as they sang into the camera, this engages the people as it uses direct address and makes people want to keep watching. The cinematography can help show the emotion of the song, for example if the track had a slower beat and had quite a sad feel to it like in Rihanna's 'California king bed' there are many close ups of her face to help state her feelings. However, I also noticed in Nicki Minaj's 'Super bass' video there are a lot of long shots to show her whole body, showing off her body and costume. 

Textual Analysis (Lady Gaga - Yoü And I)

When analysing a Music Video in the genre Pop. There are certain codes and conventions the music video must have to establish the genre. I feel Lady Gaga  reaches these requirements in her video 'Yoü And I' which accounts for the proliferation of her fans. I will break down this analysis into different sections.

Star Image & The Brand & Costumes

Lady Gaga is one of the biggest female pop stars in the past decade, one reason for this is her star image.Lady Gaga presents herself in an individual & different way, which creates interest. This reflects on the majority of her music videos. One way we notice this is through her costume choice.

 She wears a range of various costumes, which can be quite absurd and sometimes dark. However, this has a distinctive effect.We are going to use this idea in our video, as we feel it will portray a symbolic interpretation of the emotions and atmosphere. 



To further this idea of individuality, Lady Gaga has even disguised herself
as a male in certain scenes. It's this sort of mind frame that keeps the audience constantly engaged with the video. It also helps symbolise the lyrics of how she is devoting herself to the guy she loves. This is common  convention of a pop music video. We are thinking of dressing some of the girl characters as guys in our video.

Hair colour & style is also very important in pop videos. In a music video especially in the Pop genre, hair should be changed to maintain engagement to the audience. It's also useful in expressing the change in atmosphere. We are planning to change Anna's hair in every location we use, to express her change in personality. Similar to Lady Gaga in this video.

Voyeurism

The semantics of this word is sex appeal. Most pop music videos, contain some sort of 'sex appeal' in them to target a larger demographic. As the primary audience for pop music is women, (young adults in particular) Artists have to think of ways to target larger demographics such as males. A way of doing this is through Voyeurism in music videos. Lady gaga is quite renowned in this area, and there is a clear representation of this in her video.

Dance

Dance is a common convention in all pop videos. It establishes a happy and lively atmosphere, which the audience will enjoy. In relation to dance, the editing of dance sequences should be rapid, like Lady Gaga has done. Quick editing, makes the video flow more coherently with the music and actual lyrics of the song. In our video we have choreographed a 'puppet like' dance for Anna, which represents the lyrics and atmosphere of the video.