Target Audience Research - Evaluation Sub Culture
What is the purpose of a target audience?
A target audience is a significant element that a music video is aimed at in order to guarantee its success. A target audience is a specific group of people who the music video is aimed at. These people are usually of a certain age group who all commonly enjoy a certain music genre. The purpose of the target audience is to create fans of a artist. These fans watch the artists music video increasing their popularity, encouraging them to invest in the artists music. Without a target audience there is no one specific to aim the artist at, and therefore they wouldn't get as many people watching their music videos and buying their album. Different target audiences expect to see different codes and conventions in different music genres. We are able to catch a certain target audience attention by including these codes and conventions in the music videos.
What types of research did you carry out and
why?
To gain a better understanding of our target audience we carried out some research. One element of research we conducted was questionnaires. As a group we designed both open and closed questions in order to gain a better understanding of what the target audience prefers to see in a pop music video. We wanted to find out whether the target audience would prefer the music video to be conventional or diverse, what their favourite music genre was, and their opinions on our chosen artist. Through the data that we collected we were able to import this information into pie charts and through some consideration, make improvements to our ideas for our music video.
Further research was done to gain an even better understanding of our target audience. We then went onto, as a group create Vox Pops using the questionnaire we had previously designed. We interviewed a variety of people asking them the same questions. This was effective as we found that the close questions no longer restricted their answers and we were able to collect more qualitative data.
Further research was done to gain an even better understanding of our target audience. We then went onto, as a group create Vox Pops using the questionnaire we had previously designed. We interviewed a variety of people asking them the same questions. This was effective as we found that the close questions no longer restricted their answers and we were able to collect more qualitative data.
How many people did you survey and why?
As a group we collectively interviewed 40 people of a variety of age groups. We did this through distributing the roles between each member of the group. Jagoda took on the responsibility of asking the interviewees questions whilst Dipika filmed them. I had the responsibility of giving them questions to ask each individual. We decided to interview this amount of people as we felt that it would be a good number of people to get a variety of answers. Our findings are more likely to be accurate as it can be applied to a larger population.
Were the vox pops successful and how will you
with planning your music video?
The vox pops were successful as we got valuable information about our target audience and what they expect to see in a music video. This information will be beneficial when it comes to making our own music video as we will be able to apply this knowledge to improve our work. We have gained a more specific idea of the codes and conventions the target audiences expect to see in the pop music video which we are going to incorporate in our video. These codes and conventions consist of elements of symbolism such as fire.It is crucial that we use this information when creating our own music video as it will help ensure the success of our music video.
Pick 3 different questions and discuss the
results that you received. Explain how your results will assist you and your
group with planning the music video.
When researching the target audience, through the questionnaires and interviews we asked 'What is your favourite music genre?'. We decided to ask this as we felt that it was important to know what the most popular music genre is. Therefore we could pick a song from this genre and guarantee the largest target audience.Our data concluded that Pop and Indie were the most popular music genres. This was effective as the artist we had chosen was James Arthur, a pop artist. This therefore shows that we would have a target audience that would be likely to watch our music video. Depending on the findings, we would have considered the answers and altered our genre if pop wasn't the popular choice. This is because we wouldn't have a large target audience which in turn wouldn't guarantee the success of our music video.
Another question we asked was 'what type of music video would you prefer to see: conventional or diverse?' This was asked as we wanted to see what type of artists the audiences would rather watch. For example artists such as Lady Gaga subvert conventions of the pop genre to make her stand out and be different. Artists such as Ed Sheeran conform to the codes and conventions of the music videos however still have a large fan base. The findings we collected showed that they would rather watch a music video that was conventional. This is going to assist us when making our music video as we are going to follow the typical codes of conventions of a pop music genre in order to attract the target audience. If the findings had shown that a diverse music video would have been the preferred choice, we would then had to consider subverting the codes and conventions of the pop music genre in order to make the music video and artist stand out from the rest.
We also went on to ask 'What is your favourite single?' by our chosen artist. The reasoning as to why we asked this question was because we wanted to get an idea of how well our artist is known. The artist is consisted to be 'new' as he is only just releasing his first album following from him winning a talent show 'The X Factor'. If the audience was aware of who the artist was, we wanted to know how many songs did they know. Our finding went on to show that the most favourite song choice was 'impossible'. We found this information beneficial as this is our chosen song choice that we had decided to create a music video for. These results therefore show that our song choice is popular and well know reinforcing the idea that the target audience is likely to watch the video.
Were there any answers that you had to reconsider and why?
The questions we asked all displayed the results in which we thought they would. For example we had a idea that pop was one of the most popular music genres and so we chose an artist that was from the pop genre. Therefore when the results showed this, we didn't have to reconsider our chosen artist. We also felt that the narrative and performance are both popular element that the audience would prefer to see as they are generic conventions of a pop music video.
Another question we asked was 'what type of music video would you prefer to see: conventional or diverse?' This was asked as we wanted to see what type of artists the audiences would rather watch. For example artists such as Lady Gaga subvert conventions of the pop genre to make her stand out and be different. Artists such as Ed Sheeran conform to the codes and conventions of the music videos however still have a large fan base. The findings we collected showed that they would rather watch a music video that was conventional. This is going to assist us when making our music video as we are going to follow the typical codes of conventions of a pop music genre in order to attract the target audience. If the findings had shown that a diverse music video would have been the preferred choice, we would then had to consider subverting the codes and conventions of the pop music genre in order to make the music video and artist stand out from the rest.
We also went on to ask 'What is your favourite single?' by our chosen artist. The reasoning as to why we asked this question was because we wanted to get an idea of how well our artist is known. The artist is consisted to be 'new' as he is only just releasing his first album following from him winning a talent show 'The X Factor'. If the audience was aware of who the artist was, we wanted to know how many songs did they know. Our finding went on to show that the most favourite song choice was 'impossible'. We found this information beneficial as this is our chosen song choice that we had decided to create a music video for. These results therefore show that our song choice is popular and well know reinforcing the idea that the target audience is likely to watch the video.
Were there any answers that you had to reconsider and why?
The questions we asked all displayed the results in which we thought they would. For example we had a idea that pop was one of the most popular music genres and so we chose an artist that was from the pop genre. Therefore when the results showed this, we didn't have to reconsider our chosen artist. We also felt that the narrative and performance are both popular element that the audience would prefer to see as they are generic conventions of a pop music video.
Sub Cultures
A youth sub culture can be identified as a group of people who are united through common value and tastes such as clothes, music, politics etc. It can also be considered a group of people who are positioned outside the mainstream; people who go against what is seen to be popular.
One of the theories that I looked at was proposed by Grant McCracken. He suggested that post-modern world is full of diversity, dynamism and creativity. He said that if we look at the array of values and ideologies then we can't say all sub cultures come from one culture.
A second theory that I looked at was proposed by CCCS. This theory completely ignores McCracken's views of diversity, Dynamism and Creativity. Instead it suggests that all sub cultures come from one sub culture and that differerent sub cultures are due to the mainstream.
A final theory that I looked at was proposed by Hebdige. He came to the conclusion that although some people think that sub cultures only appear to be different but deep down they are the same. He suggested that if you look deeper, there is enough richness to warrant renaming 'sub cultures' to 'little cultures'.
The genre of music that we have chosen to create a music video is pop. Therefore the theory that bests supports our video would be McCracken. This is because our music video is going to be diverse. Through editing and mise-en-scene elements we are going to make our video creative which coincides with McCrackens theory.
A final theory that I looked at was proposed by Hebdige. He came to the conclusion that although some people think that sub cultures only appear to be different but deep down they are the same. He suggested that if you look deeper, there is enough richness to warrant renaming 'sub cultures' to 'little cultures'.
The genre of music that we have chosen to create a music video is pop. Therefore the theory that bests supports our video would be McCracken. This is because our music video is going to be diverse. Through editing and mise-en-scene elements we are going to make our video creative which coincides with McCrackens theory.
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Your evaluation, demonstrates some understanding of all the primary research that you carried out and you have also evaluated your research well. Now you need to explain how your research will assist you with planning your own music video.
ReplyDeleteYou have also started to explain the different subculture theories, but you need to provide further evidence to explain why your music video, will follow McCraken's theory. This can be achieved, by considering the style and content of your music video.