Case study analysing the audience for my music video to promote jonny Dylan Hughes' 'Bravery', with comparisons to Alanis Morisette's 'Everything' (2004).
16-20 UK & Canadian audience for Jonny Dylan Hughes' Bravery
1. Age demographic for music
video to promote Jonny Dylan
Hughes' Bravery
Jamie Debenham
2. I used internet shopping website Amazon UK to search for artists similar to Jonny Dylan Hughes. I began by searching for the
album 'The Midsummer Station' by Owl City which I previously identified as similar to my media product due to the similarities
in genre. From this, I could find a list of other products which customer's had also bought, which allowed me to confidently
pinpoint my target audience for my music video.
These other suggestions included albums from artists such as Adam Lambert, Nicki Minaj, Maroon 5, Imagine Dragons and
Carly Rae Jepsen. The most significant thing I can identify here is that all of these artists have music which is currently, or at
least, has very recently been in the UK music charts. If my likely audience is fans of chart music, I can state that my target age
for my music video to promote Jonny Dylan Hughes' 'Bravery' is those of age 16-20 as this is within the typical age
demographic of media promoting music of 'Top 40' genre.
A UK commercial radio station which plays predominantly chart and dance music, Kiss, owned by Bauer media, which would
most likely be the station of choice for my target audience, states on it's website that it's 'audiences are characterised by the
emotional connection they make with the music'. Young people, are in general, the age group who would have any sort of
emotional appeal to pop music. This tells us that it appeals to the young demographic that I am promoting Hughes' Bravery to.
Further to this, data from RAJAR ( Radio Joint Audience Research Limited) Q4 2014, tells us that the audience for Kiss UK is
56.9% female, compared with 43.1% male. This provides some interesting information about my possible audience for my
music video to promote Jonny Dylan Hughes' Bravery. It could suggest that music of the pop/mainstream genre, where interest
for my media text would come from is more appealing to a female demographic. However, it could also be argued that the
male protagonist in the video, alongside the male artist of the song would give it much higher appeal to a male audience.
Alongside this, the data points towards the age demographic of the station to be 15-30 years old. I would suggest that this age
range is too broad to apply to my music video, due to the age of the actor in the music video being 18 years old, thus making
the appeal most predominantly restricted to 16-20, however this data tells us how this age demographic is not wholly inclusive
and that appeal could possibly come from both male and females between 15 and 30 years old, as this audience hold the most
interest in music of the genre.
(Source: http://radio.bauermediaadvertising.com/audience-finder/#results)
Interestingly, BBC Radio 1 which consists of a playlist made up of predominantly new music, has an audience demographic of 33 years old
on average, despite it's target audience being 15-29. This data tells us how far reaching this music genre can be - being mainstream it
could potentially appeal to virtually anyone as it is the music of the time. In the case of Radio 1, there is sometimes added appeal to other
age demographics due to the well known DJs and presenters who work at the station as well as the long running reputation it has as an
institution meaning that even older listeners will stay loyal to it throughout time. As a result, the audience for my music video to promote
Jonny Dylan Hughes' Bravery is not only restricted to the 16-20 age group, although this age group will be the primary audience.
3. The ethnic group of the audience for my music video to promote
Jonny Dylan Hughes' Bravery is going to be made up predominantly
of a mixture of Canadian and British. Due to the artist, Jonny Dylan
Hughes' English Canadian ethnic background, the music video to
promote his track Bravery is going to have strong interest with those
of an English Canadian background. Being based in the province of
British Columbia is only going to add to the interest from this
ethnicity, as the province's population is predominantly made up of
Canadian's who identify themselves as English Canadian.
The diagram on the following slide shows the ethnic groups in Canada.
My music video to promote Jonny Dylan Hughes' Bravery is most likely
to have interest from young English Canadians living in British
Columbia. There may also be strong interest from audiences in Alberta,
Saskatchewan and even possibly a little interest from Manitoba and
Ontario, where there are large and sustained English Canadian
communities.
4.
5. As well as a large Canadian audience, my music video to promote Jonny Dylan Hughes’
‘Bravery’ will attract huge interest from a British audience. Being a commonwealth realm,
Canada is formally united with the United Kingdom, as well as the other commonwealth realms
such as Australia and New Zealand, in the voluntary sharing of the institution of the British
monarchy. This effectively means that Queen Elizabeth II is ceremonially the head of state of
Canada. This rich and long-standing historical tradition within Canada means that there is
significant interest in British culture and lifestyle, and most especially the royal family. Likewise,
I believe that the artist, Jonny Dylan Hughes’ Canadian roots, coupled with the English location
which features in the mise en scene will mean that there is strong interest from both British
and Canadian audiences, strengthened and maintained by the poignant cultural connection
between these two commonwealth realms.
The British location used within the music video, Caister-on-Sea seashore (left) and the Edith
Cavell memorial at Norwich Cathedral (right), will add to the interest from a British audience,
particularly those living in the English county of Norfolk, as the entirety of the media product is
filmed here, and so the recognisable location will interest them.
6. Alanis Morisette - Everything
(2004)
Alanis Morisette is a Canadian-American alternative rock singer who released her
first album Jagged Little Pill in 1995. With the artist, Morisette, as well as the
protagonist of the music video to her single 'Everything' being of white Canadian
ethnicity, the media text would attract a largely British Canadian audience, in the
same way that my music video to promote Jonny Dylan Hughes' Bravery would,
due to the artist being of a British Canadian ethnicity. With the singer born in
Ontario, this media text would definitely have wide interest within the province,
as well as with British Canadians in general, with Ontario having a substantial
population of Canadians with British heritage. In contrast to my music video,
'Everything', directed by Meiert Avis, may also have large appeal in the US due to
the artist being granted US citizenship in 2005. As well as this, the pop/rock
genre of the track makes it appealing to a mainstream audience in the US as well
as in the UK at a time when such a music style was largely popular, in the same
way that Dylan Hughes' Bravery taps into a mainstream audience due to it's
hugely popular electro pop style.