Firths theory

In 1988 Firth suggested that music videos could be characterized by three broad typologies, here they are below:

Performance

Performances can be used in a music video to display a sense of feeling of a concert experience and atmosphere making the video more interesting and engaging as it gives the impression of being live as well as showing how the artist acts and behaves to portray their image.

Narrative

Narrative presents connected events within a music video this is basically telling a story for example it is commonly used through love. The video is a progression or journey through the use of relating in some way or another with the visuals and lyrics/song. These videos have different types of these themes that could perhaps address some of the audiences watching in order to relate and have more of an impact on the user.

Conceptual -

Conceptual music videos create moods and different interpretations to a story or meaning being more indirect, this also includes having different meanings to the relation of the song and visuals a sense of mystery to what is going on perhaps

Audience Research - Ideal Audience Member

Name: George

Age: 22

Interests: Rock/Indie music and playing the drums

Location: London

Education: Westminster University taking a degree in Music

Outside of school: Partying, is the drummer of his own band

Other: Uses internet to download music, socializing on networking sites such as Facebook and doesn't watch much TV.


Normal daily routine: George gets up at 7.00 am at his campus in London and starts to get ready for his day at Westminster university. Between his free periods, break and lunch he checks up on the latest updates on new albums/songs  relating around various genres he enjoys and then dowmloads or purchases them via the internet either through ITunes, Spotify etc.  When the day is over he meets up with his band members and enjoys practicing for small gigs that come along from time to time while having laughs with others and discuss their favorite bands, songs etc and the latest related music news feed. He also enjoys socializing on Facebook with old friends outside of university and likes to know how they are and doing etc when he gets some spare time to himself. Around dinner time he then meets up with his fellow piers at a local bar to get a bite to eat and partying.

Survey Results

Modestep, The Consideration of Dubstep

One of our considerations of the type of genre to use for our media products is dubstep. We have already created posts about the image overall and brief descriptions about the genre in order to prepare us in the foreseeable future. One of our concerns to the music video we should do is around the band called Modestep using their song "Bite the hand." We can advantage of this as it has no music video or concept towards the lyrics and rhythm of the song allowing us to be able to use it perhaps. The song unlike other forms of dubstep has lyrics to it as well as the beat that it is known for, we can therefore use the elements of the lyrics to create a concept when coming up to making the music video through narrative and storyline, also we the main convention of music in it as well to define ourselves as the genre.













Of course we need permission from the band in order to use it as it infringes copyrights as we plan to upload our future project on youtube a video sharing site for a number of different reasons. As you can see above we managed to do this by contacting one of the group members on facebook a social networking site. He replied that we could indeed use it however they will not be able to perform for it meaning that we would have to find actors and equipment to show and have a narrative concept.

Another possible problem is that there are no music videos to analysis as there is no performance of any kind for this genre which can affect our portrayal for it in terms of getting it correct, as well as the fact of no narrative structure and no meaning making it difficult to say why we did specific techniques for example.

At this present point in time we believe that it would be best to chose and find a different genre to use in order to create a better realistic and believable music video for our project however we may keep this as  a backup just in case matters change.

Youtube rock music video statistics

Foo Fighters, My Hero:

Country/Location
- United States
- Brazil
- United Kingdom

Age and Gender
- Male, 25 to 34 years
- Male, 18 to 24 years
- Male, 35 to 44 years

Red Hot Chilli Peppers, Give it Away:

Country/Location
- Brazil
- Chile
- Spain

Age and Gender
- Male, 35 to 44
- Female, 13 to 17
- Male, 45 to 54

Nickelback, How You Remind Me:

Country/Location
- United States
- Brazil
- United Kingdom

Age and Gender
- Female, 13 to 17 years
- Male, 13 to 17 years
- Male, 18 to 24 years




Linkin Park, Numb:

Country/Location:
- United States
- Brazil
- United Kingdom

Age and Gender
- Female, 13 to 17 years
- Male, 13 to 17 years
- Male, 18 to 24 years

Nirvana, Lithium:

Country/Location:
- Portugal
- Chile
- Italy

Age and Gender:
- Female, 13 to 17 years
- Male, 25 to 34 years
- Male, 13 to 17 years





We have taken these statistics from these music videos as they are around the same genre as the band we are using for own project which is rock. We will use these statistics to pin point what type of audiences we should be meeting as well as giving us an estimate for creating a audience member who would indeed watch and follow our band. As you can see above we will consider the age, gender and country/location in order to target them however we will make adjustment for our specific band.

Survey

The link above is directed to our survey on the website "SurveyMonkey" an online website where we could make and hold the survey in order to ask candiates that visit or use the website to answer questions relating to the genre of rock which then gives us feedback for the answers that people have put in for us to analyse.

In order to help us with our research and planning for our music video project please do take time if you can to take the test it would be most appreciated, thank you.  

Methods To Find Our Target Audience and Targeting Them

Using online websites/services will help us attract more of an audience to find/see specific needs and therefore we can put this towards our research to find and target the right type of audience member who would enjoy and follow our chosen genre music video.

Youtube is a video sharing website where users can upload their own videos and people across many parts of the world can view them. Youtube has the feature to be able to check up viewer statistics on most videos, this meaning and containing the view counting over the period of time since the video was released, engagements with video such as comments, favorites, likes and dislikes made my the users, as well as the top user age group, gender and the country they watched the video in, there are also many other statistics that are included about what types of users visit the video however the ones I picked are the most relevant. We can take advantage of this by visiting each of our chosen alternative rock band video channels which are put up by their behalf and a company called "VEVO" and can therefore use the statistic information from this in order to see what types of audiences watch these videos which will help us to show what audience members we should be mainly targeting with our music video.

Survey monkey is a web survey allowing users to create their own personal survey required to their specific needs where any user on the website can answer them freely. We can also view the feedback towards each question which is displayed in a bar chart to show the amount of users picking a certain option within the question such as yes, no or maybe and so on if so as well as showing a percentage and response count for each. We can use this to find and target our right audience member by displaying a selection of different age groups which the user may be in such as 12 -17, 18 - 23 etc and then ask them whether or not they like the type of music around the genre of alternative rock as well as giving their specific response to it.

Twitter is an online social networking service that enables users to send and read text based messages. Followers can easily find updates on the site via by the page of the band and see the times and dates when they released new updates. Users can easily tweet their feedback to the page and may hopefully get a reply to their inquire

However twitter has the ability to observe  demographics on how many people are following the page, what gender and age the users are and many more which we can observe on pages such as green day and red hot chilli peppers to get an idea of what type of audiences they get interested

We can use this on our own accounts as we have other users/people following us at the moment if we do use this method.

We can use some of these to target our audience as well as we can distribute our music video on youtube like other artists and bands such as Green Day, Red hot chilli pepers, Linkin park and many more in order to promote/market our band's song to get people to buy it on the album which we plan to make a whole digipack. As well as twitter and other popular social media sites such as facebook as we can alert and update people who follow us in the future about new events and related products that the band are releasing for example.

Audience Theory

Audience Theory looks into the construct of an audience, what they intake and how media groups can target them.

Active and passive audiences are centered around the involvement in a product.

Active audiences are selective in the involvement they have in a product for example they like they watch most thriller films when being released also then buying the DVD or even go so far to pre-order it to ensure they have it. As well as perhaps liking certain thriller films Facebook pages to get updates and adding videos or clips of the related product to their favorites on YouTube so they can watch it regularly on their account not to mention commenting their opinions etc.

- Will be more dedicated to the band?

Passive audiences are more relaxed about the involvement in a product they watch or listen. For example they may have a range of interests around the media genre meaning rock, pop, dub step etc however they may be less knowledgeable about each of bands in all of the genres such as concert dates, album releases, new songs etc.

- There are more people like this?

Modern audiences

For these type of audiences I looked into the use of resources that most people have at their disposal recently:

- Influenced by new technology such as YouTube, Facebook and iTunes recommendations through Web 2.0.

- More active because of the new use of technology, as people in the 60's and 80's for example would have to get updates from magazines, radio, television etc.

Older audiences

When doing my interviews asking people in the 1960's to 1980s frame of time on how they received information around their preferred industry I could see that the methods would have be a lot different, here are some of the questions I asked to these types of people:

Candidate 1: Judy Tickle, female, aged 48

1. What type of music were you interested in during the time period of the 1960's to 1980's?
Pop and Soul music

2. Did you link yourself with the culture of music you listened too for example through clothes, appearance etc?
Yes

3. How did you make chose's in what media products you watched/listened too?
Radio stations and TV through "Top of the pops"

4.How did you get hold of these media products to watch and listen too?
Tapes and records


Candidate 2: Kevin Tickle, male, aged 44

1. What type music were you interested in during the time period of the 1960's to 1980's?
New romantic and disco

2. Did you link yourself with the culture of music you listened too for example through clothes, appearance etc?
Yes

3. How did you make chose's in what media products you watched/listened too?
Magazines and TV through "Top of the pops"

4.How did you get hold of these media products to watch and listen too?
Records

Denis Mcquail

- Theory of audience analyses
- Looks at the history of the changes and effects

As you can see I have consider all of the points that Denis Mcquail has stated above.

It is important to know what types of audience we will be targeting when we start researching into what audience members will be watching our music video such as old or young and how we are going to meet them in order for them to notice our music video. We will find out when overlooking our result graphs from survey monkey and the statistics on youtube that will show the type of people that are apart of the genre.

Todorov's Narrative Theory

Tzvetan Todorov is a philosopher who came up with a suggestion of how narrative is used overall in films, music etc. He came up with five different stages that could be portrayed in medias, here they are:

A state of equilibrium at the outset, everything starts out normally.

A disruption of the equilibrium by some action, the normal balance of things is affected  by a problem.

A recognition that there has been a disruption, things start to sink in about the problem.

An attempt to repair the disruption, trying to solve the problem.

A restatement of the equilibrium, the problem is solved everything goes back to normal.

This will help us to consider planning out the structure of own music video in order to have a purpose and meaning towards it as well as creating a storyline so that audiences can follow and relate to the music video.

Modestep Artist Image

Modestep formed in 2010 which is a live Dubstep/Electronic Rock band from London. The band consists of brothers Josh and Tony Friend who have been individually DJing for 9 years before they started allow with  Matthew Curtis and guitarist Nick Tsang. They have originally started out performing dubstep however over time incorporated elements from the genre of rock.

Dubstep is a genre of electronic dance this meaning that it has a nightclub setting and atmosphere having a loud and chaotic theme. As of this setting everybody is packed together and there are many forms of dances to the music as they can hear the beat and rhythm of the music due to the fact that there is a limited amount of lyrics being played along with it.

Graphic tee shirts, reference and meanings they stand for and portray themselves to be through their image.

Casual clothes for a nightclub, as their are bright lights around and an inclosed atmosphere they are keeping it cool by wearing a short sleeved tee shirt.

Black and white relatable to the night club scene for being dark and inclosed setting as well as perhaps hinting a dark or rebellious image through their music.

Tattoos, rebellious ( the whole point of a nightclub party is for people to express themselves and do what they want )

Face painting, party related, getting into the theme and background of it. 

Seem approachable not hiding themselves in any way or acting differently, being true to themselves and to their audience.

Have concerts adds an effect to their performance due to the genre as they are playing on the setting and atmosphere

The band are audience based through their profile videos as seen on youtube have respect from them then, this is because they create the whole experience of their music through the genre.    

A member in our group Harry Byford personally went to one their concerts and had the same thoughts (link to video)

In conclusion the genre of dubstep and modestep can be defined without the use of having music video footage to go along their music on youtube, we can therefore be able to create a concept or image for them if we do decide to use this song for example. Our group member Harry has also got from himself personally extensive knowledge around the genre and band which will help us in our research and planning as well as creating the music video.    

MTV Location acquired

Our new group member,  Josh Dutton had discussed with us that he knew a contact that worked at the Camden MTV studios we were able to therefore ask this persons permission into wherefore or not we could use and film our media product. We got a response on Facebook stating that we could indeed film in one of the studios. This would be the best location to use either the genre of dubstep or rock as it is based around the conventions and concepts of the experience and performance. We will now look into what we should do to best relate the genre and storyline into the location as it will be the most popular in order to target audiences. Luckily we can do this as we have the references and resources available to us as we will demonstrate and show in future posts.

Audience research

In order to understand our audiences I and my other group members will be conducting the following in order to find and target the wide profile and member that meets the requirements for our rock genre band.

Interviews and surveys: Asking candidates their age group, gender and characteristics/interests as well as taking into consideration how candidates receive their media, what format they buy their products in and more related questions.

Screenshots: Statistics from the viewings of youtube videos related around bands from the genre of rock already existing, picking up where they live in the world, age groups and gender.

Charts and findings: Results from both of these to overview look at our ideal audience member.

In conclusion when we have carried out these researches we will create a perspective of the audience we will aiming to attract our media video and products with.