L02 - references to intended audiences: Age, Socio-economic status, Psychographics.

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L02 – Reference to intended audience:

My short narrative music video entitled ‘Upside Down’ has been created with a specific audience in mind. I liaised with my client Graham Woolley and we had a meeting, during the meeting I took notes which would inform me of my script, I also did question and response with Graham, trying to investigate his thoughts behind the song and feedback on what the song’s key themes were.

During this meeting we discussed the age of audiences who would watch the video, gender, psychographics, socio-economic status and the type of genre the narrative music video was.

Graham’s notes and comments on the idea of the video:

The song is the feeling of isolation and sadness that if felt when we are alone in life. It is also about a girl giving him a small dose of her...her love, her affection, her attention, but then pulling away. Either because she is guarded, has another object of her affection or because she is not a nice person. However, this dose is most painful as his girlfriend leaves him for another person and I am was left to deal with the feeling of loss, I went into periods of isolation in which I would feel like the place I lived was my only friend.

During the meeting Graham outlined to me that the song was based on a real experience Graham had, this experience was very tender and also difficult to get over as Graham had a huge attachment to this girl.

The theme of the song is a relationship in which two people care for each other but they cannot get along because they argue with each other too much, importantly Graham spirals into depression and cannot understand why he is alone. The link in the song ‘with the birds I will share this lonely view’ outlines that Graham has no longer got anybody to call his own and that feels like he needs somebody. The song also features the theme of finding yourself and also relenting yourself to the universe and being truly free, the end of the song outlines that Graham is basking in the sunshine of his existence and is happy.

I performed a question and answer response session with Graham and have outlined the answer to the responses below:

JR (Interviewer)

GW – (Interviewee)

Question 1 JR – For the song who did you create this song for, was it about sharing your own emotions or explaining a story to the world?

GW: This song was about a personal experience, which I had, I suffered from loneliness anyway and used to go through phases of feeling alone. I understood that everyone lived and dealt with loneliness so I wanted to share a song, which outlined how I felt about it.

JR: Did you have an age group in mind when you created the song?

GW: I wrote the song after coming back from a recording session, I had just recorded an album and found out about my girlfriend, this experience compelled me to write about my feeling as I drove through the hills, I came up with this song which outlined my pain and loss. I created the song with a male audience in mind, but also came to the conclusion that anyone who has experienced loss would resonate with the song.

JR: What genre would you define the song?

GW: The song is a folk/rock song that incorporates various styles and instruments including guitar, flute and banjo.

JR: You mentioned the gender for the song was for a Male audience, why do you feel this?

GW: This song was about my girlfriend being forced to have an abortion so I feel that it will be most relatable to male audiences who have lost a child, equally a female audience would also be emotionally affected as it involves a girl who has been forced to have an abortion and live under strict parents.

Which socio economic group do you believe would watch the video?

This song was not created with a specific socio-economic status in mind, I am a working class guy but I created the song for all socio-economic classes who had been affected by this kind of loss. This kind of situation does affect working class audiences more than working class audiences but there is not fact to prove this.

What ethnicity do you believe would watch the video?

Ethnicity was equally not something that I planned before creating the song, it could relate to audiences of all ethnicities and all works of life as the theme is universal. The song was released in Britain so will have related to a British audience more than most but it is also created for all other nations.
 

This is a scale of psychographics which denotes the different types of members of society. During my interview with Graham I asked him what was his psychographic status?

http://www.parkerassociates.com/Emailers/ParkerAssociates-NewsRelease-SmallIsBeautiful-100128.htm - This link outlines the Psychographic Scale.

GW: I am an explorer as I value differences in people and I also enjoy adventure, I am not a member of high management or professional would be bracket E as a casual worker.

JR: Did you create the song for a certain psychographic group?

GW: I would classify myself under the branch of reformer or explorer, however the video could be viewed by any of the groups, strugglers view the video as they want to seek escape but mainstreamers may also feel connected to the emotion of the video if they have experienced this in their lives.

 GW: I would classify myself under the branch of reformer or explorer, however the video could be viewed by any of the groups, strugglers view the video as they want to seek escape but mainstreamers may also feel connected to the emotion of the video if they have experienced this in their lives.

JR: What would you classify your make up or personality as and did this inform you when you created the song?

GW: This song was created from my soul and defines me as a person; this was created from a personal experience of mine. My make up is defined by my upbringing, social status and environment. I was raised in a working class area and hold working class values, which did reflect the song that I created, however many groups in society could also view this song.

Feedback from question and answer response:

From reflecting upon the information provided in this question and answer session it outlines that the song was created largely for a male audience but also created for female audiences who have been affected by abortion. Equally Graham created the song with the idea that any audiences could watch the video, however the genre of the video is folk and can be likened to musicians such as Ben Howard, Newton Faulkner and Noah and the whale.

I did some research into the types of audiences that listened to these musician’s and also the types of audiences that listened to Graham’s music by asking him.

JR: Which type of audiences do you believe listen to your type of music and which musicians would you say you are similar to?

GW: Audiences that enjoy folk and pop largely listen to my music. I have not done studies into types of audiences that listen to my music however I do feel that audiences who listen to YouTube or actively seek to find folk will listen to my music.

Using this information this will inform the style of my narrative music video, also I did research and case studies on musicians and the audience demographic that listen to their type of music.

Case Study – Ben Howard:

I conducting research into Ben Howard as he performs a similar style of music, although this will not be an exact reflection of Graham’s style of music it is an audience response to the same type of genre of music. Acoustic magazine (online 2013) outlines the audience demographic of Ben Howard’s music and the impact of his music on audiences, “Ben brings a crisp freshness to the world of acoustic troubadours, he’ll make you feel like it’s the first time you’ve ever heard anything like it, but still having a rootsy lustre seemingly as old as the country side in which he wrote the songs. His authenticity as a love for the classic songwriters of the 60s and 70s, has ensured that many audiences resonate with his work, largely folk musicians and pop fans will connect with the waltz melodies.” This outlines that Ben Howard’s musical style largely inspires audiences of all demographics but particularly connects with audiences who are interested in 1960’s and 1970’s folk music. In conclusion having collated my primary research, information on socio economic status, age, gender, psychographics and make-up I have outlined the target audience for my narrative music video is the 16 – 25 age group and in particular folk fans.