An audience research questionnaire about music videos provided insights into viewer expectations and dislikes. Respondents expected to see musical and dance performances, as well as social traits depicted in videos. They disliked lack of movement, poor timing, and clichéd romantic scenes. The majority preferred to see stronger musical performances rather than clear narratives in videos. Most viewers also wanted to see a video to accompany a song rather than leaving it to the imagination. The results suggest audiences expect variety in videos and appreciate visual originality and synchronization between lyrics and visuals.

1. Audience research questionnaire
By Elissa Appleby-Mason

2. A wide variety of expectations are
evident within a music video, looking
at the feedback received from the
questionnaire. Typically, the notion of
‘gaze theory’ is expected, along with
musical performances, dance
performances and social traits are
expected.
Likewise, when asked the question “what
do you particularly dislike to see within a
music video?”, the responses were what
was to be expected. Typical traits, such
as no movement, poor timing and cliché
romantic scenes/narrative were just
some of the few comments received
back. Therefore this was important to
acknowledge and avoid featuring the
same typical conventions in our music
video.

4. It is clear to see that majority of the
audience agreed that they would much
rather see a stronger musical performance
within a music video, rather than a clear
narrative. Therefore this is something we will
need to take on board and focus our
strengths on within our video.

5. 12 out of 15 members of the audience agreed
that they’d rather see a music video along with a
song, rather than left to the imagination. This use
of feedback gives us an insight as to the amount
of attention payed towards music videos. The
audience do not just listen to the song, but also
take time to watch the video.

6. The results of this analysis give both corresponding and juxstaposed opinions of what an audience defines to be
the trope traits of music video. In response to question one , the majority of responses were entirely different,
providing a subtle clue as to what an audience perceives to expect within a music video- variety.
Also, the majority of responses referred to something directly aesthetic - suggesting that people have come to
expect a certain level of visual originality. It was also mentioned that many of the objects of animosity within
music videos were directly aesthetic, such as the overt sexualisation of performers and poorly synced lyrics.
Results to the last question regarding the lyrics relevance to the song, clearly provides evidence that the
majority of responses feel that in some way or another it is important for a music video to be directly relevant
to the lyrics of a song.
Altogether, this questionnaire has provided me with audience expectations of a music video, therefore I can use
this whilst planning and developing our own video, taking into account the results from this questionnaire.