2. Artist and Audience Relationships
‘Pop stars are, to some extent, symbolic vehicles with which
young woman understand themselves more fully, even if by
doing so they partly shape their personalities to fit the stars'
alleged preferences’ –Paul Willis 1990
From this quote, I can gather that Paul Willis believes that artist is
somewhat a catalyst for the audience to become more knowledgeable
about themselves in an attempt to find their identity. The artist is seen as
an influence who has some power over their audience in controlling and
understanding themselves.
I agree with this quote as I feel in today's society, a lot of people, especially
young girls have become influenced in both their actions and identity as a
result of their “symbolic” role models. However, from observations, I have
these actions and identities can either be good or bad.
3. Beliebers
Beliebers are a fan base of Justin Bieber, one of the biggest pop stars of today.
Having amassed almost 46 million follower's on twitter, his fans are the epitome
of crazy. They mainly consist of a demographic of 11 – 15 yr old girls who are
undoubtedly obsessed with Bieber as evidenced by some twitter observations.
Just under a year ago, his fans got trending #CutForBieber which meant they cut
themselves because Bieber supposedly dabbled in some drugs. Although Bieber
didn’t ask his audience to cut themselves, this is a prime example of how
audiences value and respond to the actions of their idol.
4. Our Artist as a Role Model
We feel our artist would be a great role model as she wouldn’t be
setting a bad example for her audience to be influenced by, but
would essentially be creating and sending good messages for
her audience to be inspired by. We also feel her image is a great
way for her to connect with her audience as it would typically
represent the core audience we aim to target.
We also feel the wider audience we hope to target will see our
audience as a good role model which will convince them to
listen to her music and get others to listen along.
We feel our audience are a mix of both mainstreamers as they
have goals and ambitions whilst they are reformers as they
don’t generally have an obsession with labels and would
consider a less quality of living in terms of clothing, food etc..
5. Our Core Audience
Our core audience consists of 16-18 yr olds girls who are mainly in the
working or middle class as our artists image is similar to theirs
therefore it helps create a rapport. These girls could be students who
are in the process of deciding on what to with their life and future,
we feel our artist can help as she is all about chasing dreams and
spreading your wings. Our audience could potentially live in an urban
city like London which is where we could base our music video to
create that urban city feel for all our audiences.
6. Our Wider Audience
We also aim to target our wider audience which are 11-15 yr old girls
and slightly older than our core audience so a range from 18-28 yr
old who are either mothers, aunts, older sisters etc..). Although we
haven’t got a specific ethnic group we want to target, I can see
some attention gained from Asian groups (Indian, Bengalis etc..) as
our artist is an Asian artist trying to chase her dreams.
7. Example of Our Core Audience
In my free time, I generally
go out with friends or do
some creative writing as I
want to be an author when
I grow up so I do read a bit
of the local newspaper but
don't really read magazines
as they’re filled with trash.
My name is
Chantelle Smith and
I am 18 years old
white girl living in
London with my
parents and 2
sisters.
I am student studying
for my A Levels and I
don’t do much for the
household as I don't
work so my parents do
all the grocery
shopping and stuff like
that.
I listen to a lot Pop
music as I feel they
are more fun to
listen to and they
make me feel good
about myself.
I use my bike to travel a lot
and I tend to use my iPhone
for when I listen to some pop
music and I use my laptop for
my writing. I’m not fussed
about labels but I do like the
clothes at River Island which is
where I normally buy my
clothes. I tend to drink a lot of
coffee and when I’m older I
hope to go to Germany as I
love the atmosphere.
8. Example of Our Wider Audience
My name is Sarah
Jackson and I am 15
years old, studying for
my GCSE’s as I live
with my mum and 1
brother.
My mum generally
does the grocery
shopping but when I do
tag along and not
playing with my DS and
reading books we go to
Sainsburys by my
mums car.
I tend to spend a lot of my
time playing videogames on
my DS or my brothers PS3,
but I do listen to music on
my mp3 player. I like to
listen to a bit of pop and
some RnB music as it makes
me feel alive and motivated.
I tend to shop at
Primark and
H&M when I go
shopping with
my mum as I
normally have a
drink of Coke or
Sprite with her in
the local
McDonalds.
