Audience Feedback: Genres

To help me gain an idea about what genres people like and specifically what aspects of the indie genre people like, I created a short survey on Survey Monkey to gain some generic information. I decided not to ask for the person’s gender or age as at this time we haven’t decided who our target audience is, therefore I kept it very general.

The first question was 'What Is Your Favourite Genre?'. Out of all the options, 'indie' was the most popular with 10 out of 21 people picking that option. the other favourites were: 'pop' with 5 responses and 'rap' with 2 responses. I was surprised with this result as I expected pop to gain the most votes as it is the genre you hear most on a daily basis eg. on the radio. However, this could be linked to trends within the music industry.

When I was looking at the other answers, I decided to filter the results to just view the people’s responses who had chosen indie as their favourite genre as this is the genre I hope to film in.
The second question was 'Do You Prefer Bands or Single Artists?'. Out of the 10 respondents that chose indie as their favourite genre, the most popular option was 'single artists' with 6 responses and the rest went to 'bands' who got 4 responses. I expected this as the indie genre is currently dominated by single artists as opposed to bands in the past. This again can indicate trends within the industry.

The third question was, 'Do You Prefer Female or Male Artists?'. The majority of the responses were for the ‘female’ option with 5 responses. However, the rest of the votes were split fairly evenly between the 'males' and 'either' options. This makes it clear to me that people prefer female artists. However, this could also be because there is a chance that the gender of the people that completed the survey has an effect on the choices eg. Female people prefer female’s artists. Therefore, if I chose the indie genre, I will ensure I do another survey like this and see if there is a correlation between genders and their preferred genders. This will also help me to target my primary audience more effectively; if my primary audience are females, I can look at their responses and not focus as much on the males.

The fourth question was, 'Who is Your Favourite Singer/Band?'. In this response the indie artists that were named were: 'Two Door Cinema Club', 'The Kooks', 'Amy Winehouse', 'Birdie', 'Lorde', 'The Smiths', 'The Arctic Monkeys' and 'Lana Del Rey'. However, there were also artists who are pop but can vary into the indie sub-genre: 'Selena Gomez' and 'Arianna Grande'. There was also a response of 'I don’t really know'. Overall I expected these sort of artists, however I was surprised there was a significant lack of males. Also, conforming to the previous response that they preferred single artists to bands, this is shown again here as only 3 out of the 10 responses were bands.

The final question was 'Do You Prefer Popular Artists or More Niche Artists?'. Overall, there was an equal response for the options 'niche' and 'popular' with 3 responses each. However, the 'either' option was most popular with 4 choices. This showed me that people in general, don’t mind whether the artist is mainstream or niche.

How has this helped me?
This has helped me as it has helped me understand what people, in general, like within the indie genre. It has suggested that:
• People prefer single artists to bands.
• People prefer female singers to male singers.
• People don’t mind if the artists is mainstream or not and the artists I should focus on within the indie genre are: Amy Winehouse, Lana Del Rey, Lorde, The Arctic Monkeys, The Smiths and Birdie.
• Also it has shown me that using survey monkey, I can conduct further research and filter the responses to suit my primary target audience. For example, If I am conducting research into the brand identity of my artist and their primary audience are 16 year old females, I can only look at those responses. This ensures I am gaining the correct feedback and it allows me to make effective decisions to suit them.

Music Genre Mood Board

To help me understand the codes and conventions of different genres, I decided to create mood boards for the genres of music videos I am most interested. This will help me see if there are any consistencies in terms of their general aesthetic. I used a variety of different artists and music videos from each genre to gain the best understanding possible.

                                       

First of all, I decided to look at country. After looking at the mood board, I realised that the general colour scheme throughout the videos were greens, browns and reds. This was because of the setting used in most of the videos. They were often outside in green locations or inside wooden barns and buildings which created this colour scheme. Also, in terms of props throughout the videos, there were a lot of tractors, cowboy hats and wooden guitars used, which are all related to the countryside. In terms of characters in the videos, there was a consistency in terms of the artists were present but were nearly always accompanied by other characters. The other characters were typically dancing, socialising or playing instruments along with the artist.

When I looked at the indie mood board, there was an obvious low key colour scheme using blues and blacks. Low key lighting with spotlights and black lights were also commonly used to conform to the mysterious tone that was created around the indie artists. There were also filters used commonly through the videos. 

There was a mixture of videos with just live performance of the artist and with a live performance and then a narrative accompanying the song. When there was a narrative, it wasn’t a typical love story, there were often semiotics used to give connotations and act as symbolism for certain events. This was the most complex genre in terms of narrative.

The pop mood board was the most varied in terms of colour schemes. Many vibrant colours were used to make the videos seem more lively to accompany the music. The artist was also the main feature of each video; there were no significant narratives. Instead of this, in nearly every video there was a dance routine or some sort of dancing. In terms of costume, it was either simple ‘every day’ costumes or it was unique and at times controversial.

R&B was the most controversial genre in terms of narratives. In all the videos, women were sexualised and wore highly revealing costumes. When the artist was male, the females were represented as dependant and obsessed with the male characters and when the artist was female, she had a male ‘chasing’ after her. The lighting and colour schemes were low key and used a lot of blacks, whites and blues to create a sense of intrigue around the artists.

How has this helped me?
This has helped me as I now understand the general aesthetic between the genres. This means when I decide the genre I want to create a music video for, I have a better idea of what props, colour schemes, lighting and characters I should use.

My Brief

As part of our A2 media course, we were given the choice of two briefs of which we could choose between.

Out of the two briefs, number one appealed to me the most. This is because I watch a lot of music videos and keep up to date with mainstream celebrity news meaning I have a good knowledge on branding and public profile of stars and artists. Also, the fact we made the opening sequence of a film in AS media, I feel like choosing a different form of media will give me more creative opportunities as I may be influenced by my AS choices when making a trailer.

In terms of the ancillary tasks, the ones that appeal to me the most are the website and the digipack. Although the website will be harder and take more time, I feel like I understand the codes and conventions of websites and have more experience within this area rather than in posters or digipacks. However, depending on my artist and genre I decide to go with, a poster may be more appropriate and I may change my mind later on in my course.

Review Of Last Year