Audience research analysis

I created a survey for my audience research to gain an insight into what the audience would expect. I sent this survey out to friends and over Twitter so that I could try to reach a variety of people.

I explained in the description of my audience research survey that the aim was to collect information on which audience I will be aiming to please, and to see what type of music video they would like to see.

I received 18 responses from doing so. The majority of my responses came from females, which I expected. This means that the views I discovered in this are mostly from the female perspective and I should take this into consideration. All participants bar one were in the 16 – 20 age range, with one in the 11 – 15 range. With responses from a teenage population, this shows how it will reflect on the responses later in the survey. I should also consider this in the production of my music video as the audience as expected will mostly be teenagers.

Gender of Participants

Female

Male

As part of my survey, I asked people to specify their favourite genres from a list shown on the left. Alternative, indie, rock, and pop were chosen as favourable genres. I left the option for people to state any other genre of music they are interested in. I received the responses of country, trap, Americana indie, instrumental, electronic, space rock, hip-hop, smooth jazz, grunge, space rock, and blues. This is a very wide range which tells me a diverse range of people responded to this survey but generally they also like pop, indie, alternative, and rock. This bodes well for me in terms of choosing an indie-pop band to base my coursework upon.

I asked people to name their favourite music videos as part of audience research. I received a variety of results genre wise, and for a lot of different reasons. Four people mentioned The 1975 (two naming Robbers), which tells me that I should look at their videos and try to take inspiration from them. One participant left this reason:

“The 1975's "Robbers" also has the same verisimilitude as "Love and Drugs”. There are essences of light-hearted atmosphere formulated by the potentially detrimental activities the actors are partaking in. The heavy atmosphere is again instilled in the music video, but once again the juxtaposition of the two atmospheres create the music video's appeal. It creates tension and piques the interest of the audience because of its relatively new and creative approach to portraying a new outlook on how the youth of today functions. Perhaps the music videos are subject to perception, but that's why I like it. Not to mention the cinematography is well done as well, it adds an aesthetic appeal.”

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Pop Rock Indie R&B Alternative Dance HeavyMetal

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This is really useful to me because some of the reason why this is a favourable video corresponds with what I want to do. I want to show the audience an element of youth and young love, and use a juxtaposition of the weather to portray moods and emotions. Many people responded that they liked music videos they perceive as simple; examples of Towers by Bon Iver, Love and Drugs by The Maine, Make a Beast of Myself by Twin Atlantic, and Single Ladies by Beyoncé were given. Each video is quite simple yet have a good meaning behind them – this is the type of video I’m aiming for. Some said their favourite videos rate so high to them because the video relates to the song and/or title. Other reasons for videos are that they’re almost cinematic and ones that tell a story. I will take all of this into consideration when making my music video.

Responses: Bon Iver- Towers. Simple, beautiful scenery, almost cinematic like / Heart

Out - The 1975: it's nostalgic and it tells a story / #Beautiful by Mariah Carey because

the colours are so nice / Right now probably the Shake It Off music video because I just

think its super happy and like cute and it can really lighten up my mood / Fancy - Iggy

Azalea because it's supposed to be the movie clueless, Far Away – Tyga because it tells a

story and has a plot twist that you wouldn't expect / I like the editing for Arctic Monkeys - Do

I Wanna Know (so original I know). I like how the beats go along with the movements in

the video and how it's not just the musician/band singing their song for the camera – that’s

unoriginal and boring to be honest / I really like The Maine's "Love and Drugs". I like

how it takes a simple-everyday outing and turns it into a huge backstory. The cinematography is really appealing, too. Nevertheless, there's a heavy, rather tragic atmosphere the music video creates with the characters portrayed and the backstory eventually revealed -- such is juxtaposed with a light-hearted atmosphere created by the essence that the 'teenagers' in the music video are out having fun (in a rather illegal way). But the light-hearted yet 'damaged' (for lack of a better word) atmosphere created by the story being conveyed adds the

verisimilitude to the story, which makes this music video appealing to me / my favourite

music video is Hard Out Here - Lily Allen as I like the satirical elements of it and I think it's

very out there and different, and definitely addresses the issue of sexism. / Little Things -

One Direction, I like how simple it is and meaningful / Robbers - The 1975, I like how the

video relates to the songs and how intimate/fast moving it is / Make a Beast of Myself by Twin Atlantic because it's such a simple idea that takes the title seriously but is executed in

a creative way / Daft Punk - Around the World, OKGo - Here It Goes Again,

Radiohead – Just, Nirvana - Heart Shaped Box / My all time favourite music video has

to be the Single Ladies music video by Beyoncé. It's so simple yet genius.

Next, I asked for people to assess music video criteria and judge how important it is in making a music video interesting. The criteria was:

Telling the audience a story (narrative)

Performance from the artist

Editing matching the beat of the song (thought beats, etc.)

The artist's 'star image'

Special effects/editing techniques

Featuring the musician in the video

Making the audience think and wonder

Distortion of reality

A distinct ‘digesis’/world established, in which the music video takes place

Intertexual references to other media products

Addressing relevant issues in the world I gave them a scale to base this on; very important, slightly important, neither important nor irrelevant, not important, completely irrelevant. The results for each music video criteria are:

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Telling the audience a story(narrative)

Completely irrelevant (0)

Not important (0)

Neither important norirrelevant (2)

Slightly important (7)

Very important (9)

0 2 4 6 8

Performance from the artist


Not important (3)



Very important (6)

0 2 4 6 8 10 12

Editing matching the beat ofthe song (thought beats)

Completely irrelevant

Not important (1)



Very important (11)

0 1 2 3 4 5 6

The artist's 'star image'


Not important (3)



Very important (3)

0 2 4 6 8 10

Special effects/editingtechniques


Not important (3)

Neither important norirrelvant (2)


Very important (3)

0 1 2 3 4 5 6

Featuring the musician in thevideo


Not important (4)



Very important (5)

0 2 4 6 8 10

Making the audience think andwonder


Not important (1)



Very important (6)

0 2 4 6 8

Distortion of reality


Not important (4)



Very important (2)

This research tells me that the most important things to try to get into my music video are thought beats, using a narrative, performance from the artist,

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A distinct 'digesis'/worldestablished, in which themusic video takes place


Not important (0)



Very important (3)

0 2 4 6 8

Intertextual references to othermedia products


Not important (4)



Very important (0)

0 2 4 6 8 10

Adressing relevant issues inthe world


Not important (1)



Very important (2)

addressing relevant issues in the world, a distinct digesis, good and interesting editing techniques, and making the audience think and wonder. The rest of the criteria didn’t have such an important as the rest to the participants, however I will still aim to show off the star image because I feel that this is something important for my particular artist if I present her as a solo singer. Best Coast are generally in their music videos and have a performance element but obtaining the instruments could be hard.

As part of my audience research, I asked why people watch music videos. The options were given of:

To be entertained

To identify with the artist

To see if the lyrics can tell a story

To feel an escape from reality

To learn something People were allowed to choose as many of these as they want for I feel that there are different reasons for people to watch a music video. The results are as follows:

This tells me that mainly, I need to focus on making it an entertaining music video so that I can entertain my audience. I also should really focus on the narrative and try to link it with the lyrics because this would make it better in the long term. I will again aim to use the artist in the video and play on the ‘star image’. People wanting to identify with the artist now gives me another reason to do this.

Why do you feel you watch music videos?

To be entertained (15)

To identify with the artist (7)

To see if the lyrics can tell astory (7)

To feel an escape from reality(6)

To learn something (3)

My next two questions were about the genre conventions and actual content of the music video. I asked if people would rather the video stray or follow indie music video conventions. 16/18 people said they would prefer if it strayed from the conventions. I then asked if people would rather watched a narrative based video, a performance based video, or a mixture of the two. The majority voted for it to be a mixture of them both whilst the rest said narrative based which again tells me to focus on the narrative because it seems to be very important when watching a music video. However, I still plan to use performance aspects in the video because I think it will add to the authenticity and carry on themes.

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Would you rather an indie music video follow or stray from the typical conventions?

Follow conventions (2) Challenge conventions (16)

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Should an indie music video be mainly narrative based, performance based, or a mix of the two?

Chart Title

Narrative based (4) Performance based (0) Mixture of both (14)

My penultimate question was about the fashion of the music video. I asked what was expected for people in an indie music video to wear. The most common response I received was that they could wear ‘anything’ which I interpret as relevant clothing, simple things that fit the genre. Someone used the description ‘shabby-chic’, stylish but a little bit off so that we can see the indie influences. I got back responses of ‘things considered grunge’, ‘trendy’, ‘plain’, ‘fashionable but ever so slightly quirky’, ‘something appropriate, representing their personality and image, and something fitting the video’, ‘loose clothing’, and ‘ʺvintageʺ clothing’. I think most of these fit into each other and will allow me to base the clothing on all of these responses as well as past ideas and other music videos. My final question was whether people had heard of Best Coast or not. Participants generally said they weren’t aware of the band – understandable as they’re not very ‘mainstream’, this is a relatively unknown band in popular media but still have a strong base of fans. Regardless, I still think this is a good song choice and I believe my music video can still appeal to people who are fans of similar artists and existing Best Coast fans.

This research has helped a lot as it’s allowed me to see what people expect from my music video. I will consider all of this in the planning and production stages.

Audience research analysis

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