Case study Blue Neighbourhood

1. Audience Case Study. Blue Neighbourhood – Troye Sivan
Blue Neighbourhood is the first studio album by
Australian singer and songwriter Troye Sivan. It was
released internationally on 4 December 2015 via EMI
Music Australia and Capitol Records America. The
album is preceded by Sivan's fourth extended play Wild,
which served as a 6-song opening instalment to Blue
Neighbourhood.
Upon its release, Blue Neighbourhood was lauded by
local critics and was succeeded by the singles "Wild",
"Talk Me Down", and Youth, with the latter being a
commercial release in the United States.
Troye Sivan was born on the 5th of June in 1995. He is a South African-born Australian
actor, singer, songwriter, and YouTuber. Sivan also regularly makes YouTube videos, and
as of 26 September 2015, has over 3.6 million subscribers and over 203 million total
views.
Most of his music falls under the ‘Pop’ genre category. This one in particular is
classed as ‘Dream Pop’.

2. The album is accompanied by three music videos following the storyline of two male childhood friends
involved in a romantic relationship, and the struggles their same-sex relationship faces.
The last video for "Talk Me Down" was released on October 20, 2015. It portrays the death of Sivan's
childhood love interest by him jumping off a cliff after his father's funeral, having suffered through
years of homophobia. Sivan provided suicide prevention hotlines (for countries where they are
available) after its release.
It was oublished on Youtube on September 3rd 2015 and currently has 12,124,710 views. It was
produced by Alex Hope, SLUMS, Alex JL Hiew, Caleb Nott, Dan Hume, Pip Norman, Emile Haynie, Bram
Inscore and Jack Antonoff.
Blue Neighbourhood.
Blue Neighbourhood received general acclaim from music critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a
normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average score
of 80, which indicates "generally favourable reviews", based on 4 reviews. Everett True from The
Guardian gave the album five stars, commenting that "it is difficult to find fault with Blue
Neighbourhood" and praising Sivan
for "capturing the sound of now so
well".
Neil Z. Yeung from AllMusic praised
Sivan's "sultry and effortless,
wounded and breathless" voice as
well as noting the album's themes
of "heartbreak and affirmation" that
make it "a sparkling, triumphant
experience". Overall presenting a
generally positive review and
feedbacks from various sources.

3. Audience Case Study - Primary Audience Demographic
The audience demographic will be open-minded and have no objection to
gay relationships, as it is the main focus of the music video and that Troye
Sivan is openly gay himself.
The genre of music is ‘dream pop’ which is a subgenre of alternative rock
that developed in the 1980s. The style is typified by a preoccupation with
atmosphere and texture as much as melody, often resulting in an ethereal
or dream-like sound. Pop as a whole including dream pop is often
associated with a younger audience as it is upbeat, but has a slow tempo
do it. Also due to the fact that Troye Sivan is widely known and is famous
from his YouTube channel and has been in various movies (Spud and X-
men) he already has an established audience ranging from 16 – 25 years
old.
AGE:
This music video in particular will target an audience
demographic of ages around 16 to 25 years old (young
adults) which is a similar age to Troye Sivan himself (20
years old).
Troye Sivan is known to use extensive and different forms
of social networking sites, like Tumblr, Twitter, Facebook
and his most famous form, YouTube. Because of this it
reinforces the young audience demographic, as their age
and generation is normally associated with the internet,
technology and the networking sites that come with it.

4. Audience Case Study - Primary Audience Demographic
GENDER:
The videos from Blue Neighbourhood feature two boys as the main characters that we follow.
Due to this it seems that the majority of the viewers would be male as they can more easily
identify with the characters.
But as the main concept is to do with love and
relationships
it suggests that they also want to attract a
largely female audience. This is because
generic stereotypes suggest that the female
audience prefer more romantic genres in film,
books and music than males.
Not to mention that the main theme is to do
with ‘forbidden love’ as the boys are both gay;
which in the video is looked down upon by the
parents. This is an issue that can relate to both
the male and female demographic , which they
can identify with.

5. Audience Case Study - Primary Audience Demographic
Ethnicity:
Both main characters in the music videos are
white males and is the main ethnicity seen
throughout. This can suggest that the primary
ethnicity of Troye’s audience would be white
males, but the audience is quite likely to relate
to the characters than those of other
ethnicities.
Lifestyle:
The audience of Troye Sivan are probably avid social media uses and apart of popular culture. They
regularly use social networking sites, like YouTube, twitter and Instagram, all of which Troye uses, therefore
they are able to keep up to date with any changes or events in Troye’s life/music. It also allows them to be
able to see the newest trend in music and when certain festivals and concerts are on.
The audience will also be interested in fashion, mainly new and ‘in’ brands like Topshop and Forever 21,
presenting a new and even vintage feel, which is presented in the music video.
The audience will be open-minded and allow to change, especially a main theme in the video is the boy’s
gay relationship which can by many been seen as wrong, however this audience will be understanding and
progressive in that sense.

6. Audience Case Study - Uses & Gratification Theory
Uses & Gratification Theory:
Media theorists and suggest that audiences are able to make their own choice about what they watched and
didn’t , rather than being ‘fed’ as a large mass or group the same thing. This presented how audiences were in
fact made up of individuals, people who had their own unique view, thus effected what each person
consumed..
Surveillance, correlation, entertainment and cultural transmission ; these were the functions most media texts
had for most individuals and society as a whole (Lasswell).
For Blue Neighbourhood some of these functions do apply. For example there is a story line throughout the
videos presenting the entertainment function, where the narrative is engaging and entertains the audience
when the connect with the characters and feel emotion for them when things do and don’t work out.
Blulmer and Katz, expanded Lasswell’s theory and suggested that individuals can chose texts for other
purposes. This includes diversion, which is a personal ‘escape’ from their normal lives and problems. This
purpose could be evident in Blue Neighbourhood as it could help create a diversion for the audience and
create an escape, while even helping improve their mental state as those within this video are having a tough
time in their lives as their love is rejected and seen as wrong, therefore helping the audience value their lives
and situation more.
Another purpose that Blulmer and Katz suggested was ‘personal identity’, which is where one finds
themselves being reflected in texts. In this case the audience may understand how hard some homosexuals
have it and learn to accept this way of life, not to mention those who are homosexual or of are of an identity
that is LGBT and find the courage from the video to come out themselves and help others understand that the
way you feel, regardless of how it is, isn't wrong.

7. Audience Case Study - How This Relates to my Music Video
I feel that the audience for my production (Gather and Run) will relate quit closely to that of Blue Neighbourhood.
The main aspect that makes me think this is the main themes and concepts of the productions both evolve around
the idea of a homosexual relationship, this then suggests that both audiences will be quite progressive and accepting
of gay/homosexual relationships in music videos. My production appeals to the progressive youth, who have grown
up with these new and accepting views and the portrayal of a same-sex relationship being less emphasised and more
normal may encourage those who are LGBT to come out. However Blue Neighbourhood presents the homosexual
nature of the boys to be a stigmata and seen as wrong, therefore may not cause youths to open up about their
sexuality as they fear they will receive the same reactions and treatment of those from the homophobic father in the
music video.
Both productions perpetuate Lasswell’s idea of texts having functions.
Both videos present the purpose of entertainment as they follow a
narrative and plotline that engages the audience, both bringing
emotion and feeling as the characters go through hard times. My
video connotes to the idea of having cultural transmissions, this is
seen in the form of British signifiers, like various landscapes presented
(Cromer beach).
Also the gender of my production of Gather and Run may be slightly
different than that of Blue Neighbourhood's as they both present two
different leads; ours is two young females, while Blue
Neighbourhood's is two young males. However I do feel that both will
attract audiences of the same age demographic of 16 to 25 years old,
similar ages to all actors in our production and the leads in Troye’s
video.
Our music video will mainly target young white females as both actors
are of that ethnicity and will therefore be easier to identify with.
Similarly Blue Neighbourhood targets a young white audience
however could be more predominantly male.