Focus Group Profiles

Chloe Hughes, 17

• Favourite Music Genre: Indie/Alternative

• Favourite Music Artist: The Hunna

• Favourite Music Video: Panic! At The Disco - 'Girls, Girls, Boys'. 'In particular, I like the interesting concept and aesthetic of the video. The music video is very simple and switches between only four different shot sizes.'

• Most Important Feature in Music Videos: 'I like seeing the band performing their song because it makes the video seem more authentic.'

• We want our music video to relate to our target audience -  what do you suggest we do to achieve this? 'Keep the music video fast paced with regular cuts, as a teenager loses interest easily. I think narrative music videos are very good, however, in some instances they are too philosophical and not relatable to the viewer, if you are going to do a narrative music video base it around universal themes that are easy for young people to understand.'

Rebecca Bradley, 19

• Favourite Music Genre: Rap, R&B

• Favourite Music Artist: Blackbear

• Favourite Music Video: Twenty One Pilots - 'Stressed Out'. 'It catches my attention and the music video makes me relate to the song even more'.

• Most Important Feature in Music Videos: 'The quality is very important and keeping the editing simple so its easy to follow, but I like it when the music video is more detailed and elaborate'.

• We want our music video to relate to our target audience -  what do you suggest we do to achieve this? 'Listen to the song and try to live it, link that with the song and make the video with that vision'.

Abdullah Khan, 17

• Favourite Music Genre: Pop

• Favourite Music Artist: Ryan Tedder

• Favourite Music Video: One Republic  - 'If I Lose Myself'. 'It's my favourite song and I feel the director has matched the visuals to the music really well. The narrative video allows a variety of different stories to be told and intertwined in a single night, and it is a very clever interpretation of the song.'

• Most Important Feature in Music Videos: 'The artist and their character. It needs to be honest, fans of a band know when their favourite artists present their art form well, e.g. it adheres to their particular style.'

• We want our music video to relate to our target audience -  what do you suggest we do to achieve this? 'The subject of the video needs to be aimed at your target audience and needs to interest them.'

Zach Penman, 17

• Favourite Music Genre: Pop/Alternative

• Favourite Music Artist: Sam Smith

• Favourite Music Video: Sam Smith - 'Stay With Me'.

• Most Important Feature in Music Videos: 'To portray the song well and meaningfully represent the lyrics.'

• We want our music video to relate to our target audience -  what do you suggest we do to achieve this? 'Make sure it is relevant to teenagers nowadays and what they would enjoy, and make sure it's original.'

Target Audience

Our target audience is male and female 16-24 year olds, who enjoy listening to alternative music.
I created a survey in order to research our target audience. I kept it open for 24 hours, promoting it on social media, and we had 50 respondents.

These are the results we received:

I first asked two demographic questions, so I would know how much of the results came from our target audience. 63% of the respondents were female, and 72% aged 16-24, showing that the majority of the answers on the survey would be from our target audience. The next highest age group was 15 or under, with 18%, so we have to ensure that our video is also appropriate for this age group as they may be watching it too.

I then asked about the respondent's favourite genre of music. I provided 8 options of the most popular music genres, and also added an 'other' option, for people to add their own music genres. As expected, the most popular music genre was 'pop', with 34% of people choosing this option. The next popular was 'alternative', which is our chosen genre for our music video. We received a number of 'other' responses, including 'indie', which is another way to describe the music we have chosen. Therefore we know that an 'alternative' video would be popular with out target audience.

I asked how many people actually watch music videos as knowing how much of our target audience would watch a music video is important. The answer was 50% yes and 46% sometimes, so it is safe to say our music video would be watched by our target audience.

I asked what they think the purpose of a music video is, so we would know what way to make our video in. 64% of people says 'to give a visual representation of the song', so this is what we will bear in mind while making our video. 26% said to promote the single/album, which is the usual purpose of a music video. It is therefore important that the track we are using is portrayed in the best way possible to make people want to listen to it or buy it.

Finally, I asked what the respondents would want to see in a music video. This was a multiple choice question, where they could pick more than one. I added 7 choices and included an 'other' option, so people could suggest other things they wanted to see. The most popular option was 'a storyline/narrative', with 60%. Therefore we will ensure we use a narrative in our music video. 'Acting', 'the artist', and 'the band/artist playing instruments' were equal, with 30%, so we will include these in the video too. We received 6 'other' responses, where people wanted things that relate to the song and express it in a visual manner. We will bear these opinions in mind when creating our video to ensure our target audience is satisfied and will enjoy the video.

Audience Theory

New Religion by The Heydaze - Chosen Song Analysis

'New Religion' by The Heydaze was released on April 14th 2017 as a single.
'Sonically, it's a companion to our first single, 'Hurt Like Hell,' with it's jangly guitar line and anthemic chorus. The song describes the monotony of everyday life, but how meeting the right person can make life feel meaningful and exciting again.'
Since being released, its become one of their most popular songs, with over 800,000 plays on Spotify.

LYRICS ANALYSIS

The chorus is then repeated, and the song ends with echoes of 'You're waking me up in the morning'.

Island Records - Record Label Analysis

Island Records is a British record label that operates as a division of Universal Music Group, founded in 1959. When it was sold to PolyGram in 1989, it was one of the largest independent record labels in history, having exerted a major influence on the progressive UK music scene in the early 1970s.
They have three labels; UK, US, and Australia. The UK roster includes notable artists such as Ariana Grande, U2, Hozier, and Catfish and the Bottlemen.
Due to the label's previous legacy, Island remains one of UMG's prominent record labels. In a 50th anniversary documentary, Island Records artist Melissa Etheridge said: 'If you want to look at world music, music of the last fifty years that changed the world, you need to look no further than Island Records.'

Island Records most commonly sign indie artists, so their music videos would like use indie and alternative music video characteristics, as mentioned in a previous blog post. One of their most popular artists, Catfish and the Bottlemen, have music videos that are mostly in black and white. Hozier uses fated and busted colour grading, and U2's videos often feature them performing in unusual locations.
Therefore, Island's music videos usually support the stereotypes of their genre, so we will refer to these to create a video in keeping with Island's preferences.

The Heydaze - Artist Analysis

The Heydaze

The Heydaze are self described purveyors of 'windows down/stereo up' jams. They are heavily inspired by Oasis and Tame Impala, worshipping their unique sounds and anthem choruses. They formed in 2013 after meeting in college, and released their debut ep in 2015. 
They have an authentic chemistry and camaraderie as a band. 'We like cheering each other on', says Jesse, 'but we can also be brutally honest to each other without taking it personally'. This comes across in their music allowing them to create a unique blend of pop and alt-rock, with messages that truly resonate. Their lyrics are honest and relatable to their listeners. 'We want to write about, sing about, play about things that every person has felt, and then say it in a way they've never heard before,' says Alexander.
All the members are multi-instrumental, which helps their writing process. The fusion of their different styles and influences creates their evolving sound.

Alt-rock is a style of rock music that emerged from the independent music scene in the 1980s. Alternative refers to their indie origins, and the originality in the music that differentiates it from the rock genre. Nirvana could be described as alt-rock, as well as U2 and Muse. The Heydaze take influence from this genre, primarily the intense, high-energy verses that contrast emotional choruses and verses.

Music Permission

When choosing the song for our music video, it was important to first gain permission to use the track. Copyright laws state that the creator has exclusive rights to their original work as a method of preventing plagiarism. 
To avoid being penalised for using the track we had to ask the artist permission for a 'fair use agreement'. This means that we would be able to use the track for a non-profit use, so the music video on YouTube couldn't be monetised. 
Due to the artist's activity on social media, we decided it would be most effective to contact them this way. We messaged them on Facebook to ask for permission, and this means we were able to keep their reply as evidence, should the copyright be questioned.

Below is the message from my partner, Rhiannon, and the response we received: