2. Research into music video demographic
Upon researching my audience demographic I thought it would be beneficial to look at academic research which has been conducted in the
area in order to give my prediction of my consumers audience some objectivity. I found an article called The Structure of Musical
Preferences: A Five-Factor Model by Peter J. Rentfrow, Lewis R. Goldberg, and Daniel J. Levitin which suggests there are 5 factors effecting
our music preference and consumption, and also that these factors are influenced by social context. From this I must consider my
demographics social class status, social interactions, exposure to popular media ,cultural trends, ethnicity , gender and country of
residence.
(Extract taken from general discussion sections regarding the summary of the research findings):
- “Research replicates and extends previous work on individual differences in music-genre preferences (e.g., Delsing et al., 2008; Rentfrow &
Gosling, 2003), which suggested four to five robust music-preference factors. We examined a broad array of musical styles and assessed
preferences for several pieces of music. The results from three independent studies converged, revealing five dimensions underlying music
preferences. Although the pieces of music used in Study 1 were completely different from those used in Studies 2 and 3, the findings from
all three studies revealed five clear and interpretable music-preference dimensions: a Mellow factor comprising smooth and relaxing
musical styles; an Urban factor defined largely by rhythmic and percussive music; a Sophisticated factor composed of a variety of music
perceived as complex, intelligent, and inspiring; an Intense factor defined by loud, forceful, and energetic music; and a Campestral factor
comprising a variety of different styles of country and singer-songwriter music. Each of these factors resemble those reported previously,
and the high degree of convergence across the present studies and previous research suggests that music preferences, whether for genres
of musical pieces, are defined by five latent factors.
The findings from Study 4 extend past research by informing our understanding of why particular musical styles covary. Indeed, we found
that each factor has a unique pattern of attributes that differentiates it from the other factors. For instance, Sophisticated music is perceived
as thoughtful, complicated, clear sounding, quiet, relaxing and inspiring, whereas Mellow music is perceived as thoughtful, clear sounding,
quiet, relaxing, slow, and not complicated. The results from this study also suggest that preferences for the MUSIC factors are affected by
both the social and auditory characteristics of the music. Specifically, musical attributes accounted for significant proportions of variance in
preferences for the Mellow, Urban, Sophisticated, Intense, and Campestral music factors, over and above music genres. These results
suggest that preferences are influenced by both the social connotations and by particular auditory features of music.
music preferences are shaped by psychological dispositions, social interactions as well as exposure to
popular media and cultural trends. Thus, preferences for a particular style of music may vary as a
function of personality traits, social class, ethnicity, country of residence, and cohort, as well as the
culture-specific associations with that style of music.”
3. Gender of ideal target audience
• Due to the absence of lyrics meaning there is not
a certain sex performer in which an audience
could identify with, meaning that the text is left
open for interpretation from a mixed gender
audience. The music video does not utilise the
‘male gaze’ theory in order to get a male
audience to identify with the text, and the
representations of gender are rather equal and
progressive.
4. Age of ideal target audience:
• The audience for trip hop/ down-tempo focused
instrumental music is rather niche and would not widely
appeal to a younger generation (12-18) who predominantly
endorse popular culture, such as chart music. Rather the
audience for this product would be young adults (18-30) of
whom can afford to buy the product, and statistically do
buy more music, rather than downloading etc. Another
reason for this is the actors who feature in my production
are ages 18 and would be identifiable by a similar age
group or older. Older people may identify with the
production as they may identify their past selves with the
actors and feel a sense of “nostalgia” of life at the
beginning of adulthood. This is something we aimed to
achieve so as to fit and reference the title of the song used
in production “Nostalgia”.
5. Ethnicity of ideal target audience
• Although the audience for the production is aimed
predominantly at people living in the UK so that the
audience identify with the culture depicted in the
production. However although there is only white
British actors throughout the production, this is not
intentional, and despite this I believe the ideal
demographic would disregard ethnicity as a factor and
the audience would be of mixed ethnicity.
This is a shot of early group “massive
attack” who were at the time called
“the wild bunch”. It has been argued
this group were at the dawn of ‘Trip
Hop’ and attracted a multi cultural
audience.
7. Social class of target audience
• The social class of my desired demographic is not that
specific however it would consist of predominantly D’s
C1’s and B’s. E’s consist predominantly of elderly who
would not identify with the product. It has been argued
that C2’s are primarily technical thinkers put little
priority to the arts or music. C1, and B’s would be the
majority in the audience for the product as I believe
they are the ones who are stable enough to endorse
the product financially. Although, disregarding financial
constrains class status would have little preference on
my audience in comparison to if we had made a more
politically focused production.
9. Audiences favourite films
• Niche art-house films such as:
- Subject films like ‘Fish Tank’, ‘This Is England’
and ‘Control’.
- Art-house films such as ‘Submarine’ and
‘Tinker, Tailor, Solider Spy’
10. Profile of ideal fan (a friend who is already a fan of
‘Drakefrancis’ of whom I asked a few relevant questions)
• Name: Summer Aisha’Mae
• Age: 19 Gender: female
• Occupation: Green peace fundraiser
• Lives: In Norwich, UK
• Four of your favourite artists? Etta James,
Portishead, Janis Joplin and Bonobo
• What draws you to those artists? They are
what I listen to when I want to relax in my
own space, all make great music.
• What draws you to the music of
‘Drakefrancis’? Its sophisticated, chilled out
and I think he leaves his music mostly open
to interpretation.
Reflecting on this, two of her favourite artists
are considered down-tempo/ trip-hop and are
similar to drakefrancis. Her reason for liking
his music fits with how I represented it
throughout the production, as well as the fact
I used a montage style in order to achieve an
open text, open mostly for interpretation
(Barthes's code of open and closed text)
11. Conclusion on audience demographic:
• Age: 18-30
• Gender: mixed
• Class: working and middle class
• Music preference: most genre’s, chilled out
• Preferred artists: Tricky, Massive Attack,
Portishead, Dj Shadow, Bonobo.
• Media preference: niche art-house films,
guardian newspaper.
