Coursework Evaluation on the R&B genre

1. EVALUATION
QUESTION
THREE

2. WHO IS OUR AUDIENCE?
An audience is an individual or collective group of people who rad or consume
any media text. Whilst genre are widely recognised principles for selecting and
organising material that provide practitioners with a patterned approach to
content which many parties working in a mass media industry agree contain the
elements of success. Though separate definitions, these two concepts link
together in order to produce great products in an industry. Stated by theorist
Turow, a genre allows products with a good chance of success in the market
place to be easily produced, whilst providing creators with comfortable moulds
in which narrative can be explored while character, setting, even action remain
the same. Having conducted research into the Rhythm & Blues genre, we were
able to gather information that told us that our target audience would be
predominately young females aged between the age 15 to 30. Being that the
message of the song depicts a strong independent woman, we felt that our
product would be best suited to continue targeting the female audience as the
lyrical content within is more relatable to those in that age group allowing them
to connect to both the artist and her music; an aim that would we hope to
acquire in order to make the artists debut album a success.

3. When it came to the construction of our audience feedback questionnaire, there were
key elements that we had to take into consideration in order to get the best response
that could actually help our product improve in fitting the mould of a successive R&B
product.
One of these elements was the audiences perception of the song itself, in terms of lyrical
content and its overall meaning and message. This was an essential element as we
aimed to challenge the typical conventions of the R&B genre by choosing a song that
provided us with a fast tempo but the lyrical content usually associated with slow
tempo song. Wanting to have a message that goes against the stereotype of a weak
female character singing about heart break, we wanted to make sure audiences could
see the message of the product whilst challenging some R&B conventions and
maintaining others in order to create a character that audiences can feel inspired by
whilst not diminishing the creative mould that allows for a successful product to be
developed.
Another element that we considered to be a key, was simply finding out what people
thought of our idea which we were driven to create after countless research into the
genre and its icons similar to Tyler. Being a form of exposure for Tyler, we wanted to
see what others thought of our idea including the artist herself as it was her chance at
exposure and we wished to create a product that looked legitimate and to Tyler's liking.
QUESTIONNAIRE CONSTRUCTION

4. BEST WAY TO MARKET OUR PRODUCT
Living in an era where technology has a foothold within everyone's lives, I
feel that the best way to market our product would be through the use of
social media such as twitter and Facebook. With nearly every individual
having access to the internet through broadband at home or 4G on the go,
promotion through these sites would be the best option to make especially
since Tyler has both a Twitter account and a Facebook fan page where
fans post comments daily. With each member of our group owning both a
twitter page and facebook, our product has a total of eight different
promotion locations meaning a higher rate of exposure to work with
especially since we as well as our friends all fall in the R&B genre age
range meaning we directly target our audience.
Aside from social media websites, we also have the resources we use to
present our work through out our work. Using Slideshare, all content in
the form of presentations are made available to the public meaning that
any slides related to the R&B genre and Tyler would cause one of our
groups many presentations to appear in the recommended section on the
left. This means that we can continue to see exposure to audiences
interested in the R&B section community of slides in Slideshare.
Being teenager that still go to school, we also have access to word of
mouth as friends and fellow students look at products to see people they
know on the internet. Usually an attempt to poke fun, since all of our cast
were friends from school social groups associated with each member of
our group were inclined to check it out.

5. THE EFFECT OF AUDIENCE FEEDBACK
“We hardly get to see the male antagonist in the music video” – This was something that took
large amounts of consideration and had a massive impact on our product. Due to lyrical
content, as a group we struggled to implement the antagonist, as a lack of characterisation
made him difficult to portray as a ‘bad guy’. To counter this rather than simply adding
multiple shots of antisocial behaviour, instead we would pick and add shots that showed him
disrespecting the protagonist. This would allow us to show his antagonistic ways whilst not
hitting the audiences with too many flashback shots that would decrease the narrative and
turn our product into a montage of antisocial behaviour rather than its intended female
independence aim.
“Lip syncing out of place in a few places”- This is something we had to sort out as a group.
With the rendering issues speed and issue completely different with that of Final Cut Pro, our
product had sections where lip sync was against the lyrics leading to a reduction in quality
and flow in the music video. From this, we had to go back to Final Cut Pro and ensure that
editing was precise to meet the rendering issues.
“Change the colour of the video to a darker colour, to give it a more emotional look”- Being a
product of the R&B genre, a lot of people asked why and advised that we use the use of dark
colours particularly the combo of black and white used by the typical conventions. Taking this
on board, we used these dark colours only a small fraction more than before, this is due to the
fact that we aim to juxtapose the usual conventions of the genre rather than completely
harbour it. Meaning that we used it for shots where we wanted to add realism and show the
negatives of the relationship but continue to use bright colours to connote her joy in
revelation.

6. THE EFFECT OF AUDIENCE FEEDBACK
“Does he leave? LOL” – The question of questions asked by many and almost all who viewed the lyric and main
pitch of our product. Not knowing our selves due to the song explicit title being a question itself, we felt that
this is something that we should leave for audiences to decide and interpret the end themselves. Whether
audience want to follow the independent route and come to the conclusion that she leaves him because she is
sick and tired of all the disrespect or follow the undying love route where she forgives him and stays because
of the years they have been together however she will maintain this new attitude and perception on the
relationship because she is ‘way too grown’. Though we hoped with the implementation of scenes that show
disrespectful actions by the antagonist, perhaps audiences would be slightly swayed to follow the independent
route that we hoped.
“I think you should get rid of the little dance. It doesn’t fit with the music video”- During our first draft of the
music piece we had a scene where the protagonist did a little dance in front of the mirror as she reflects on the
relationship and her maturity. When we showed this to our classmates many were against the scene as they
felt it took away from the R&B feel and more of a Pop product. Seeing this we removed the scene in order to
maintain the R&B appearance we aimed for and appeal to the audience we were targeting.
DIGIPAK FEEDBACK- When it came to the development of a digipak; being a group of three, we each had our
own opinion on what we think would be the perfect cover. This lead to the development of three separate
digipak cover drafts each by one of us. Once completed, we asked people within our target audience age range
as well as Tyler herself to choose a cover they felt was better to fit our product. With a large majority choosing
the still image with the protagonist back against the antagonist we asked why and were met with something
we did not consider which would be that “The second digipak cover would be better suited to the single as it
gives us a clearer concept of the song's content. Especially since Tyler Noel is an unsigned artist, most people
don’t know who she is” After hearing this we chose to go with the audience favourite as we realised clouded
by our own creations we forgot that this is a promo album for Tyler not us and if the audience lack the
knowledge to know who she is we must make sure to promote an image that she deemed fit.

7. Theorist Maltby stated that formats and formulas help to guide audiences in their
viewing of products, though this is mostly revolved around the film industry it has
application to the music industry as well as the codes and conventions of a music type
genre help guide an audience in the viewing of a product. With the juxtaposition of
some conventions and the maintenance of others within the R&B genre, we strived to
guide our predominately female audiences to see that this isn't your usual R&B product
but one with a twist centred around female independence and power. In a whole, I
think that our music video is successful in achieving what we aimed for it to achieve.
However, there could be some room for improvement if we want our product to be a
complete success. For example, the use of a continuous storyline narrative that showed
the male antagonist being more antisocial in order to clearly distinct the distance
between the two characters within the music video. Things like this could have made
the video increase in quality and look more like a successful product. However, the
audience feedback did help increase the videos overall positive aspects that would be
liked by our target audience.
OVERALL REFLECTION