Daniella conducted market research to inform the production of a music video by distributing a questionnaire to 100 people. The results showed that the target audience is likely males aged 17-30, as they made up most of the sample. Respondents preferred rock music and watching videos on YouTube. They are attracted to storylines, songs, and live performances in videos. Daniella determined that a Kings of Leon song called "Use Somebody" would appeal to this target audience based on the market research findings.

1. Daniella Johnston
Market Research Results
The concept of audience is fundamental to the making of my music video therefore I have had to take into
account the gender, age, interests etc. of the public so when producing my music video I can make it as
appealing to the target audience as possible.Because of this, I carried out some market research by conducting
a questionnaire to get the general publics opinions on music videos. I asked several questions which enabled
me to gain both quantative and qualitative data. For example, asking the public ‘Do your regularly watch music
videos?’ doesn’t give much detail about a specific person as the question can really only be answered with a yes
or no answer. However, the data gained from this question can be counted and expressed numerically;
therefore it is quantative. I collected qualitative data from questions such as ‘What is your favourite music
video and why?’ which paid more attention to individual cases, allowing me to see what each individual prefers
and their reasons for this. This data cannot be represented in charts or graphs therefore I will be discussing my
results from these types of questions later in the report. Collecting both of these types of data make my results
more reliable and representative of the public’s wants and needs so I can ensure my music video will be
appealing to its target audience.
Firstly, I decided to hand out my questionnaire to
Current employment status? 100 people as this wasn’t too time consuming but
was a large enough number of people to get
information that I could use to influence my
decision of which track I am going to use to make
my music video. Out of the 100, 40 of them were
female and the other 60 were male therefore my
Employed market research is going to be slightly biased and
45%
50% Unempolyed more representative of the male gender. I also took
into consideration the ages and employment status’
In Education
of those who were given my questionnaire. 50%
fell into the age category 17-30, 30% were over the
age of 30 and the remaining 20% were 16 or under.
Because the majority of my data is from people
5%
aged 17-30 I feel it would be more suitable to
choose a track, which is targeted at a young
audience, and slightly more at males than females. The ages of the people I surveyed can be linked to the
employment statuses shown in the graph above. As you can see, 50% were employed with another 45% still in
education. Only 5% were unemployed. This information will be useful for marketing purposes in the future as
we can assume those who are employed, which in this case are the majority, will have access to most music
channels and online services so they will be able to view the video.
One of the questions, which I felt was most
important from my questionnaire, was the Favourite genres of males and
favourite genre of the people I surveyed. The females.
results of the male and female favourite genres
100%
are displayed in the graph. These have helped me
realise that most females tend to have more of a 80%
liking to mainstream music such as Pop and 60%
Dance whereas males like a wider range of
40%
genres, which target both mainstream and niche
audiences. However, in this case the most popular 20%
answer was rock, followed by indie and pop 0%
therefore I will take this into consideration when
deciding which track to use. For example, I will
look for songs that may have elements of both
genres in to accommodate both genders. Female Male

2. Daniella Johnston
What attracts you most to a music How do you watch music videos?
video?
Storyline Television
19% Characters 22% YouTube
25% 26%
Lyrics/Song Vevo
13% Location 13% Fan Sites
12%
Editing 9% 26% Mobile
3%
28% Live Performances Social Networking
4%
After eliminating the people who said they rarely watch music videos from my results, I have produced two pie
charts showing the features of a music video, audiences are most attracted to and how they view them. For the
first question, the lyrics/song was the most popular answer chosen by 28% closely followed by the storyline,
chosen by 25% of those asked and live performances, chosen by 19%. Because of this, I will choose a song for
my music video that has a meaning behind it, which will allow me to incorporate a storyline and live
performances from the artist into the video. Although not as many people chose features such as editing,
location and characters, I will ensure that these are still carefully considered to gain the widest audience
possible.
The traditional method of watching music videos was usually through the television via music channels
whereas now, due to the advancements in media and technology, my results show that there are many
alternative ways of viewing music videos. Television was one of the most popular answers. This could have
been chosen by the majority of the over 30’s category as those who are older tend to be less in touch with
modern technology as opposed to younger generations who have to use it everyday. Joint most popular answer
was YouTube, closely followed by Social Networking sites. Less popular answers were Vevo, fan sites and
mobile. However, all of these are interconnected. For example, those who use mobile to view music videos may
access Vevo on their phones. Moreover, it has been proved that the rise of Facebook, Twitter and other social
networking sites, have accelerated the growth of YouTube as they all enable discovery and sharing of YouTube
videos. Because of this, 500 years of YouTube are watched on Facebook alone everyday and the app ‘YouTube’
for mobile gets 600 million views everyday. Lots of these views are of music videos and therefore all of the
above methods of viewing music videos are connected. Despite the results above, I feel that they are all equally
important and for a video to get a wide audience as possible, it needs to be available on to watch on every one
of them.
What people are attracted to most in a Favourite genres of people who do
music video that said it's not not think that it is important for
important for the artist to be featured the artist to appear in the video.
0%
in it.
Storyline Pop
17%
Characters 33% RnB
33% 33%
Lyrics/Song Rock
Location Indie
33%
Editing 0% Dance
0% 17% 17% 17%
Live Performances Other
0%
Another thing I have to take into consideration when filming is who is going to star in it. To see what audiences
prefer, I asked those who completed my questionnaire whether they think it is important for the artist to
appear in the video. 70% answered yes meaning 30% answered no. Because my music video will more than

3. Daniella Johnston
likely have the artist featured in the video, I am going to take into account other things the 30% want to see in a
music video other than the artist to ensure it is appealing to everybody. Those who do not think it is important
for the artist to appear in a music video are most attracted to the storyline and editing and favour the genres
Pop and Dance the most. Because of this, even if I decide not to use a track that is of these genres, I could still
incorporate some of the typical conventions of these into the video to please all viewers and also include a
storyline and a wider range of editing effects.
Do you feel most music videos have these styles?
90 Conceptual
Pecentage of people/%
80 Narrative
70
60 Performance
50
40
30
20
10
0
Yes No Yes No Yes No
I also asked them whether they felt most music Which type of music video
videos have conceptual, narrative and performance
styles within them. For conceptual, 85% answered would you say is the most
yes, for narrative, 70% answered yes, and for important/effective?
performance, only 55% answered yes. However, I
wanted to also know which type out of the three
Conceptual
audience found the most effective and important in a 20%
28%
music video so that was something else I asked on my Narrative
questionnaire. As you can see, narrative and a Performance
combination of all 3 were the most popular answers 28%
24% Combination
with 28% choosing each of them. Performance was
the second most popular with 24% choosing it and
with 4% less than performance, conceptual was the
least popular answer.
People who recognised the video Where people first saw the video
'Gangnam Style' 'Gangnam Style'
6% 6%
20% News
19% 19% Music Channels
Yes
YouTube
No
80% Social Networks
50% Other
To get an insight into how aware the public are of recent and modern music videos, one question involved an
image taken from ‘Gangnam Style’. South Korean rapper Psy made social media history when this viral hit song
became the first video on YouTube to reach one billion views. This showcases just how powerful the Internet
can be in being able to virally spread content across the global and make it into the public eye. The question
asked them to name the music video and say where they first saw it, if they had. 80% named it correctly, and
then 50% of these people said they had first viewed the video on YouTube, again showing how society has

4. Daniella Johnston
advanced away from using traditional methods such as television. From viewing the video myself, I can see it
uses lots of different locations, has fast editing and there is lots going on. However, if I were to carry more
market research, in more depth, I would perhaps use this video as an example to ask the public why they think
it has become so popular worldwide and what they enjoy most about it and use some of these ideas in my
video.
All of the results mentioned above have given me quantative data. One question which I asked which I haven’t
been able to display my results numerically for is ‘What is your favourite music video and why?’. This is an
example of qualitative data. Because of this, I have taken some of the answers and put them into the table
below.
Favourite music video Reasons why
Take That ‘ I found heaven’ Reminds of when I was younger. Find all the members
of the band attractive; they are shirtless in the video
and on a beach.
Katy Perry ‘California girls’ Find her attractive, idolize her. Setting is in a fantasy
‘candyland’. Find the video fun and cheerful.
Michael Jackson ‘Thriller’ Interesting to watch because of the costumes and all
the characters have been made to look like zombies.
Also there is a dance that is associated with the video
that can easily be learnt by anyone who watches it.
£1 Fish Man ‘One pound fish’ Humorous and easy to sing along to, was first seen
auditioning with the song on X Factor. Overall good
entertainment.
Tindersticks ‘Until the morning comes’ Simple yet very effective.
Bingo Players ft. Far East Movement ‘Get up’ Unrealistic, funny and weird etc. Never seen a music
video like it before.
Kanye West ft. Rihanna ‘All of the lights’ Strobe lighting and colourful when it is fast, black and
white and slow at the start. Text to show the lyrics so
you know them then shots going back to the artists.
Red Hot Chilli Peppers ‘Californication’ Like a 3D video game with a 3rd person point of view
of each band member going on adventures through
America. It's a very creative and imaginative video and
contains many homages to video games of it's time.
After taking into account all of the data gathered above, I feel that‘Use Somebody’by alternative rock band
Kings of Leon will be suitable to use. This is one of the tracks on their album that could be considered ‘less
harsh’ and a softer form of rock in comparison with their other songs. There are also many cover versions of
this song e.g. from pop artist Pixie Lott showing that it will be widely recognised, and can be associated with
other genres. Because of this, I feel the song will cater for both genders, males slightly more than males, and an
audience consisting of teenagers and young adults. When generating ideas for the music video, all of the
information above will be used to try and make it appealing to the widest audience possible.
Audiences may want to view the video for their own uses and gratifications. Researchers Blumler and Katz
proposed their theory to focus on reasons why audience choose to view media texts for other than their
content, for example, to shape their needs and expectations. This could include as a diversion to escape from
the everyday problems and routine, to find them reflected in the text creating a sense of personal identity, to
gain information that could be useful through surveillance or to simply use them for emotional and other
interaction to build personal relationships. Taking this theory into consideration, we have chosen a song with
an ambiguous lyrical meaning. ‘Use somebody’ implies needing somebody, whether that a friend or a love
interest. Audiences may be able to relate and feel personal identity within the themes of the song including
love, relationships and loneliness. Having a well known band star in the video will allow audiences to divert
away from the problems in reality and enjoy life from the perspective of a celebrity. Filming a day in the life of
the band will give the video a more exclusive feel to it, educating the audience on what it is like to be a star
whilst also allowing them to build relationships with the band.

5. Daniella Johnston
The ideas above may be encoded into our video to attract audiences. This relates to the encoding and decoding
model, wrote by cultural theorist Stuart Hall that suggests that the relationship between a text and audience
focuses on reception theory, where there is scope for the ‘negotiation’ and ‘opposition’ on the part of the
audience when viewing a media text. The ideology that anyone can get lonely at times will be encoded in our
music video. Audiences may interpret this meaning of the video based on their individual cultural background
and life experiences. For example, when decoding the video, they may understand the gaze employed in which
the lead singer is lonely and needs someone, even when he is living his dream and a life of success and luxury.
They may be able to empathise or feel sympathy for him. Sharing the same viewpoint with the character and
understanding how he is feeling is the preferred reading of the text. However, if audiences recognise and
oppose the gaze employed by the video they may take a negotiated or oppositional reading. It may be decoded
with some audiences objecting to the ideology that the lead singer should be lonely, as he is always in the
company of the band and has a wealthy lifestyle. A sense of jealousy could be created too through the audience
viewing the video from his perspective. Audiences may not feel sympathy for the character perhaps because he
has a better lifestyle than most people. This would lead to an oppositional reading of the text. To prevent this
when filming our video it may be best to have several shots of him in an empty room, alone and singing to the
camera so there is nothing else to distract the audience.