research into chosen target audience

Research was carried out to find out more about my target audience as in order to create a successful music video I need to be aware of what style or codes and conventions the audience prefers. If I just made a video without even researching into the audience then it is probable the audience will not even enjoy the video as it does not contain enough of their expectations. My research was specifically catered to 15-25 year olds as this is the target audience of the artist I am using for my own music video. I asked a total of 40 people as this number means the answers will vary, which produces more reliable and fair results. In addition, asking a lot of people means it is more probable you will get a mixture of answers; some people will reach a consensus whilst others will differ majorly, based on factors such as gender or age. This creates more realistic results. On the left is a copy of the questionnaire I produced to ask to my target audience; I made 3 closed and 7 open questions. This is useful as the closed questions are simply asking basic things such as gender or age. Whereas the open questions give the audience the freedom to explain why they have chosen a specific option and therefore it allows me to gain a better insight into what the audience will really want to see in my own music video as I have asked questions relating to the style of video they prefer, the codes and conventions they like to see and questions relating to the storyline of a video. 

The screenshots below are of the pie charts I produced from asking 40 people my questionnaire. The first pie chart is an open question asking about your favorite genre of music and why; asking this question is important as it instantaneously establishes what kind of expectations the audience member wants in a music video they watch - for instance, the people who said "hip hop" will want more visual effects such as flashing lights, rather than those people who answered "indie" who will contrastingly prefer simple and natural editing. As you can see from the percentages shown on the pie chart, over two-thirds of the 40 people I questioned prefer the indie genre than the other predominant answers of pop and hip-hop. This is useful to my own music video as more of the later answers will be a lot more relevant to my own production which I can therefore use to help make a more successful video. The answers people gave to why they like that genre of music are helpful as they give more away about what the audience desires. For example, quite a few people who answered they like the hip-hop genre said they aspire to the wealth that the artist has or those people who answered pop stated that they only listen to this music as it is mainstream. These answers are helpful as if you know why someone likes a music video and what they take from it, you can mediate the content of your own music video to appeal to a wider audience.

The second question I asked is my first closed one; in order to get to know the audience more, I needed to take in their ages. This will help as I specifically interviewed people in the age range I am using (15-25). However, within this age range, I can be more specific in what age prefers what aspects to a music video as depending on your age, you will naturally prefer different things. The majority of people I found fell into the 15-18 category, purely as these were the people that I found around school. However, this age group are more likely to actually be able to give adequate answers for my research as younger people are ones that tend to watch music videos more.

The third question is another closed one, as it was simply asking the audience what gender they belong to. However, this question is still important to my research as it allows me to see how many males or females are participating in the questionnaire, as a person's gender will dramatically change the results of the other questions. For instance, the 35% of males who answered make up almost all of those 13% of people who answered that hip-hop is their favorite genre. As you can see, most of the 40 people I questioned are female, which means that the results I get for the other questions would stereotypically conform more to the codes and conventions I am aiming for in my music video as I using the indie genre. The majority of the 62% of people who answered indie as their favorite genre were females as well.

This next question is another open one; in this question, I have been a lot more specific as I have asked who their favorite indie artist is, as opposed to just artist. This is useful for research as it gives an indie of the sorts of conventions they like; different indie artists are renowned for including specific things in their music videos. For example, the alternative band Alt-J are well-known for their ambiguous and interesting storylines, whereas Tom Odell is known more for his concept based music videos that seem to always feature himself as the main character. You can see in the results that the majority of people said that Ed Sheeran is their favorite indie artist, which is not actually that surprising as he is arguably one of the most popular contemporary indie artists. However, the artist I am basing my own music video on, Gabrielle Aplin, comes up as a close second to being the most popular choice which is exceedingly useful for my research as it means that a good amount of the audience will answer the rest of their questions based upon what they have seen in Gabrielle Aplin's music videos. People's answers to why they like their artist lingered on similar lines; most people stated that they can really relate to the artist as they sing about real-life issues such as friendship or relationships. Other people said that they find artists to have quite a soothing and calming aura. All these answers are relevant to my own music video as I need to make sure I remember to always do everything I can in terms of what shots to use, the type of editing to use and what to include in the misc-en-scene, in order to create the desired atmosphere for the audience.

This closed question was important to be research as the location of a music video is one of the most vital aspects of it. It is extremely conventional of an indie music video to be set in the countryside, however there are rare exceptions where city life can work. Therefore, asking which location the audience prefers means we can see which is more popular in demand. As you can see, over twice as many people preferred an indie music video to be in the countryside, conforming to the conventions of the genre. However, what is interesting as when I questioned those people who answered "city" as to why they chose that answer, they replied that city life is a lot more realistic than the countryside as you really get a feel into the hustle and bustle of real life. I can use this research in my own production as I think incorporating both elements of countryside and city life in my music video could work. I think using countryside locations for the majority of the video will look better, however I had an idea to go to central London and leave a camera rolling on just a random pavement for a solid 15-20 minutes and then put a time lapse on the shots; speeding all the shots up together as one will mean the audience would feel the chaotic city life and be able to contrast and compare it to the countryside shots. Therefore, the city montage would act appropriately according to the pace of the music; as the tempo increases, this would be a good place to insert the time lapse.

The next question is another open question. I asked the 40 people whether they enjoy instruments being incorporated into an indie video as instruments are part of the iconography of the genre. However, some people actually do not like the use of instruments and therefore it is important to know which answer is outweighed. In this case, more people - only marginally - prefer artists who are shown playing instruments. However, I also included an option of "do not notice" as those who answered this will not actually mind if instruments are included in a music video; this is relevant to my own music video as I plan to include the female playing both the protagonist and the artist playing the piano as a piano is featured in the music of the song I am using. I think the use of an instrument is essential to creating a more rustic and indie feel to a song and therefore it is important to note that more people do actually prefer seeing an instrument.


This is a vital question as the codes and conventions are all about what exactly the audience wants out of the music video. The audience generally hold specific expectations of what conventions should be within a genre and if they see them they feel more satisfied. When I questioned the audience, the three most popular answers were to do with the style of clothing, choice of location and storyline of narrative as these are the major aspects to an indie music video. The most popular answer was that there should be vintage clothing (20 out of the 40 people put this answer down) as a lot of those people were girls who aspire to the style of clothing the artist chooses. This is useful to note as due to the large percentage of people who gave this answer, it indicates it should be a key factor of my own music video. 

This next question is again open as it is asking if the audience like seeing a storyline in a music video why that is. As you can see nearly three quarters of the people who completed the questionnaire said that they do like a storyline. The people that answered yes said that they feel as if a storyline gives the lyrics meaning and allows you to get a real feel of the artist's emotions and thoughts behind the lyrics. This is useful as I am using a storyline in my own music video as the indie genre conventionally focus more on meanings. Within my own music video, I have interpreted the lyrics according to what I think the artist is singing about as I think it will be more appealing to the audience as they may have come up with a similar or even completely different explanation to the lyrics and then they would enjoy the music video as they can think about it more.

In the penultimate question I have followed on from the previous question to ask more about the audience's thoughts on storylines. In this question I have been more specific as I have asked what kind of storyline you would prefer. The most popular answers I received were friendship, love, hate or war and they were almost all equal. However, stereotypically the most dominating answer was "love" as this is arguably the easiest storyline to use in any genre music video as it is such an everyday concept. This is useful to me as my own music video follows a love storyline and therefore it is more probable that the audience will like the music video I will make. The answer people gave to why they like that type of storyline differed; what is interesting is those who said they like friendship - the least popular storyline choice - said it was because they wanted to see something other than your typical love story.  

The last question I chose to ask is an all-round general question to ask about misc-en-scene. I was interested to know whether people liked modern or vintage time periods as changing the time majorly changes the entire music video. Just over half of the 40 people I asked said that they prefer an old time setting to a modern one as people stated that vintage is a lot more fitting of the genre as people like the concept of an old-fashioned love story as it is a lot more "romantic". However, those people who answered modern claimed that it is more relatable to their own lives as it is naturally what they are used to seeing every day.

The theory I chose to apply to my questionnaire and vox pops is Grant McCracken's theory that the postmodern world is full of diversity, dynamism and creativity. I purposely made my questionnaire with the intention to receive a variety of opinions as I do not think all subcultures come from one culture. In addition, my music video will hopefully shy away from the mainstream culture and instead be lot more creative.

As well as making a questionnaire I also had to make vox pops to go along with them. The purpose of a vox pop is simply to gain public opinions. Therefore it is useful for research for my music video as a vox pop allows for spontaneity in a person's answer, as opposed to someone giving a rehearsed opinion which is less accurate and useful. In addition, a vox pop is conventionally conducted in public places and therefore the people who would be answering the questions would be of all different types of backgrounds, races, cultures, genders or ages, making the vox pop give extremely reliable results for research. For my own research I made five vox pops; the people I used were ages 16, 17, 17, 18 and 20 and a mix of both male and female. This way I got a more accurate perception of people's opinions on music videos, as opposed to if I just used people of the same age and gender as they would then most likely give the same or extremely similar answers.

To conclude, I found carrying out this questionnaire very helpful for research into my target audience as I interviewed people within the age group who are the target audience for Gabrielle Aplin. Therefore now I am more aware of people's opinions on music videos and I can try to incorporate as much as what they have said in my music video. For example, I now know exactly what to include in the misc-en-scene to make the music video more appealing for the audience. However, there are aspects of the questionnaire I could improve; next time I could be more specific in asking questions solely about Gabrielle Aplin as she is my main focus. For instance, I could ask the audience what they like most about her music videos. Furthermore, a good question would have been to ask what style of music video the audience prefers (concept, performance or narrative) as my music video will hopefully be both narrative and performance and therefore I should have learnt more about the audience's opinions of this.