Target Audience

Audience profiling is essentially two basic categories:

1. Demographic Profiling

2. Pyschographic Profiling 

Profiling allows the media to select the 'type' of person to buy their product.
Demographic profiling groups people on their age, religion, gender or the economic status as shown below:

Group	Description
A	Upper class; -business, professionals
B	Middle Class; -middle management
C1	Lower Middle Class; -trades Supervisory jobs
C2	Skilled working Class; -blue collar workers
D	Lower Working Class; -Manual workers
E	Subsidence; -pensioners -unemployed

However, there are obvious flaws in this way of profiling. You cannot presume people are the same just because of certain factors. For example all white, 34 year old teachers are not interested in the same type of music. This lead to the finding of Psychographic profiling. 


Psychographic profiling is aware the consumer are complex and can have many different needs. Therefore the media aim to please all the needs a consumer may have. The media may then look at Maslow's hierarchy of needs and incorporate this into their advertisement to incite the consumer into buying their product as they believe by buying such they will fulfill all their needs. 

In order to market our product and attract the best audience we can we will need to think about these factors.


Our target audience will be based in the age range of 16-25 as the younger generation are more interested in the pop-punk genre (although there is a good range of older people also interested in this genre). We will aim to target the rebellious teen and portray this in our brand image. As this is a niche market we have a very loyal fan base and should be able to portray the correct image and target the right people to enable our music video to succeed. 

Album Chart History

The End of Year Album Chart of 2008

1 Rockferry - Duffy * 1,684,944
2 The Circus - Take That * 1,446,135
3 Only by the Night - Kings of Leon * 1,181,641
4 Spirit - Leona Lewis * 1,108,369
5 Viva la Vida or Death and all his Friends - Coldplay 1,089,000
6 Good Girl Gone Bad - Rihanna* 839,524
7 Day & Age - The Killers 693,000
8 Out of Control - Girls Aloud * 591,786
9 Funhouse - Pink * 587,983
10 Scouting for Girls - Scouting for Girls 575,000
11 All the Right Reasons - Nickelback 568,000
12 The Script - The Script 544,028*
13 Decade in the Sun - Best of - Stereophonics 528,000
14 Back to Black (Deluxe Edition) - Amy Winehouse 523,000
15 Dig Out Your Soul - Oasis 500,000
16 19 - Adele 479,328*
17 The Promise - Il Divo 468,000
18 A Hundred Million Suns - Snow Patrol 424,000
19 Gold - Greatest Hits - Abba* 419,806
20 My Love - The Essential Collection - Celine Dion 398,000
21 This is the Life - Amy MacDonald 393,000
22 The Priests - Priests 391,000
23 We Started Nothing - The Ting Tings 378,000
24 Year of the Gentleman - Ne-Yo 371,000
25 Black Ice - AC/DC 370,500
26 Life in Cartoon Motion - Mika 363,000
27 Call me Irresponsible (Special Edition) - Michael Bublé 354,000
28 Home Before Dark - Neil Diamond 349,000
29 Rhydian - Rhydian 347,000
30 Let it Go - Will Young 343,000
31 Greatest Hits - Enrique Iglesias 339,000
32 Exclusive - Chris Brown 335,000
33 Beautiful World - Take That 331,000
34 Raising Sand - Robert Plant & Alison Krauss 328,000
35 The Seldom seen Kid - Elbow 325,000
36 Hard Candy - Madonna 323,113*
37 The Best Bette - Bette Midler 312,000
38 I am Sasha Fierce - Beyoncé * 311,734
39 The Best of - Sash 297,000
40 Soul - Seal 292,500
41 Chinese Democracy - Guns n Roses 293,420*
42 Uncle B - N-Dubz 290,500
43 Jumping all Over the World - Scooter 290,000
44 25 The Greatest Hits - Simply Red 277,000
45 Now You're Gone - The Album - Basshunter 271,000
46 Version - Mark Ronson 265,000
47 One of the Boys - Katy Perry 261,000
48 Dreaming Out Loud - One Republic 259,000
49 Perfect Symmetry - Keane 255,000
50 Hand Built by Robots - Newton Faulkner 250,500
51 Songs for You, Thuths for Me - James Morrison 248,000
52 Never Forget - Take That 246,000
53 Death Magnetic - Metallica 240,000
54 Sacred Arias - Katherine Jenkins 239,000
55 Thriller 25 - Michael Jackson 238,000
56 Konk - The Kooks 235,000
57 Back to Black - Amy Winehouse 234,000
58 Back again .. No Matter What - Boyzone 230,500
59 The Trick to Life - Hoosiers 229,500
60 Frank - Amy Winehouse 228,000
61 Circus - Britney Spears 225,500
62 22 Dreams - Paul Weller 225,300
63 Forth - The Verve 222,500
64 And Winter Came - Enya 222,000
65 Oracular Spectacular - MGMT 221,300
66 Because of the Times - Kings of Leon 221,000
67 The Best of - Neil Diamond 218,000
68 Lessons to be Learned - Gabriella Cilmi 216,500
69 Sleep through the Static - Jack Johnson 215,000
70 The Age of the Understatement - Last Shadow Puppets 208,000
71 (Budget) Tangled Up - Girls Aloud 206,000
72 Pictures - 40 Years of Hits - Status Quo 202,000
73 In Silico - Pendulum 200,000
74 A Guide to Love Loss & Desparation - The Wombats 194,000
75 Join with Us - The Feeling 193,900
76 In Rainbows - Radiohead 192,500
77 Vivere - The Best of - Andrea Bocelli 192,400
78 Safe Trip Home - Dido 192.355*
79 (Budget) Unbreakable - The Greatest Hits - Westlife 191,300
80 Here I Stand - Usher 189,500
81 Vampire Weekend - Vampire Weekend 189,300
82 All the Lost Souls - James Blunt 187,000
83 Shock Value - Timbaland 186,000
84 Made of Bricks - Kate Nash 183,000
85 Mamma Mia - Origional Cast Recording 182,500
86 Seventh Tree - Goldfrapp 177,000
87 Melody - Sharleen Spiteri 175,000
88 Dark Horse - Nickelback 174,500
89 Some Guys Have all the Luck - Rod Stewart 173,000
90 Voices of the Valley - Home - From Male Voice Choir 171,000
91 Breakout - Miley Cyrus 170,000
92 Only Men Aloud - Only Men Aloud 169,500
93 Perfect Day - Cascada 168,000
94 Echos, Silence, Patience & Grace - Foo Fighters 166,000
95 We'll Live & Die in these Towns - The Enemy 164,000
96 Yours Truly Angry Mob - Kaiser Chiefs 161,500
97 Robyn - Robyn 161,000
98 King of Pop - Michael Jackson 160,500
99 Eyes Open - Snow Patrol 160,000
100 X - Kylie Minogue 159,000

Although our genre isn't the most popular featured in the 2008 charts we can see that there are a lot of albums of our genre and similar in this chart listing which gives us a clear indication that our genre is popular and pop-punk is becoming more mainstream every year.

top 10 singles chart

These are the top 10 UK singles from  15/11/2009 - 21/11/2009  

1.BLACK EYED PEAS: MEET ME HALFWAY

2.LEONA LEWIS:   HAPPY

3.JLS:  EVERYBODY IN LOVE

4.CHERYL COLE:  FIGHT FOR THIS LOVE

5. N-DUBZ: I NEED YOU

6. KESHA: TIK TOK

7.BRITNEY SPEARS:  3

8.SUGABABES: ABOUT A GIRL

9.JAY SEAN FT LIL WAYNE: DOWN

10.ALEXANDRA BURKE FT FLO RIDA:  BAD BOYS

From looking at the recent singles chart i can see that the music inndustry singles sales are mainly domiated by maistream pop songs. This is because the pop genre is very big and appeals to both a young audience and older people. However some of these songs and artists also gain alot of publicity through tv shows such as the xfactor creating a wider audience and therefore get more sales. Seen as pop punk is not as popular as the pop genre it is harder for them to get into the singles chart. this may also be because the audience of the pop punk genre might prefer to buy albums and also prefer to download music. 

steph

Target Audience & Sub Genres of Punk.

        I believe that our target audience will be of the ages 10-25 year olds and adults interested within the punk genre of music.

        The band will usually consist of three or four band memebers, two on vocals. The music uses simple but very effective riffs and chord combosm which is some times seen as 'Feel good music'. from a broad prospective it can offend people who like slightly heavier music. this genre was created when punk rock was split into many different and new catagories in the late 90's, creating sub genres of the like.

        People these days have become so over run with choice in the music industry that they are getting confused with the names Punk, and Pop-Punk music. Punk is the genre of the music which was considered the most 'hardcore' and original of the rebelious sound we know today as actual 'punk'. 

       Pop-Punk is a term used to name the music style of bands like Green Day, Blink 182, Good Charlotte, or Simple Plan.

       This bands were influenced by the skatepunk bands like Bad Religion, Nofx, Nirvana and many others. They then took their influences and  made the songs with more of a melodic sound, so that it would become more listenable for its audiences, so it would become projected into a mainstream audience, thus making the music more popular, and more well known. This is where the name of the sub-genre Pop-Punk comes from.
        As Pop-Punk has become more main-stream through out time, it has caused the rejection of it by many of the original hardcore punk-rockers, who are now against corporate, popular, and mainstream music brands. But to be honest, this is rarely ever the case as most punk and pop-punk bands are mainstream.

Nowadays pop-punk is influating other bands to create new styles of music like rock-pop or new hardcore-pop better known to the audience as 'emo music'

      Pop-Punk was always considered as this tyle that was around in the 80's, 90's and early 21st century, thus heavily influencing many of the great bands today. Pop-Punk also influnced fashion through-out the time it has been around. Compleing bands such as The Towers Of London, to dress in the way to make there image appear how their music is taken in.
      Alot of the first Punk music had dirty vocals, which consosted of swear words, and also dirty jokes. Where as Pop-Punk music only contains clean vocals, especially as their audiences range from as early as 10 years old to about 25-8 years of age.

Feedback 23/11/09

Very good research group - good links and references to songs/images etc...

Genre: Try to include the conventions of music video in your own words (e.g. use of close ups etc..) and what media critics have said about conventions of music video - references to Andrew Goodwin and Pete Fraser needed - see packs -  a little more on this required - include quotes etc...

Genre: Also what are the conventions of the punk music video subgenre? What makes them distinctive from general music video conventions?

Target audience - you need an age range, gender bias, race and socio-economic status (demographics)  - you can have secondary audiences that are wider but you need a specific target - dont forget to use Young and Rubicon for your psychographic profiling too. Dont forget to put all your questionnaire results on here also.

Now move on and look quickly at your other key concepts and we should be starting to see some planning - location shots/casting shots/storyboards and animatics etc... 

Remember to outline your artist/band and the brand image you are trying to create/push through your products.

The Conventions of Music Videos

This is a music video for the band Blink 182 they are a successful pop-punk band and they have broke into the mainstream market. In this video we can see clear typical conventions of this
genre.
They had a brand image of anarchy and having fun. I think they definitely follow this in the video. Punk videos are very similar to rock and indie videos as they usually consist of a live band performance and also a narrative that overlap and cut between each other. This is very common of rock and punk genre.



Whilst researching the conventions of music videos we found the work of Andrew Goodwin very useful. He said there were 6 points...

- there is a relationship between the lyrics and the visuals.
- particular music genres may have their own music video style and iconography
-there is a demand on the part of the record company for lots of close ups of the main artist/vocalist.
-the artist may develop their own star iconography
-there is likely to be reference to voyeurism
- there are likely to be intertextual references


We also discovered the work of Pete Fraser he said :

(Pete Fraser Teaching Music Video 2005)

 LYRICS: Tend to establish a general feeling or mood rather than offering a  coherent meaning. Key lines may play a part in visuals associated with the song but very rarely will a video mirror all the lyrics of a song.

 MUSIC: A music video tends to make use of the tempo of the track to drive the editing.

 GENRE: While some videos transcend genre, others can be easily categorised. These features may be reflected in the types of mise en scene, themes, performance, cinematography and editing style.

 CINEMATOGRAPHY: As with any moving image text, the way the camera is used has a significant impact on meaning. Camera movement, shot and distance all need to be analysed.

Camera movement may accompany the movement of performers (Walking, dancing) but may also be used to create a more dynamic feel to stage performance e.g. consistently circling the band as they perform on stage.

The close up predominates music video, partly due to the size of the screen but also due to the desire to create an intimacy for the viewer. It also emphasises the commodity on sale – the artist and voice.

- EDITING: Although the most common form of editing used is the fast-cut montage- rendering many of the imaged impossible to grasp in the first viewing- ensuring multiple viewings- some videos do use slow pace and gentler shot transitions/cuts to establish mood.

- INTERTEXTUALITY: “ Music video as incorporating , raiding and reconstructing.” (J.Stewart)

Music videos often use something with which the audience will be familiar with to create nostalgia and associations with e.g. Beastie Boys Sabotage and TV Cop shows, Madonna's Material Girl and Marilyn Monroe’s film Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. It is not unusual that many videos draw on cinema – as this is usually where film school graduates start in music video.

 NARRATIVE AND PERFORMANCE:  Narrative in songs, as in poetry, is rarely complete and fragmented. Music videos tend to suggest storylines and offer fragmented non-linear narratives- leaving the audience with a desire to see them again.

The video allows a more varied access to the performer than a concert can. The mise en scène in particular can be used …

 As a guarantee of ‘authenticity’ of a bands musical virtuosity by showing them in a stage performance or rehearsal room.

 To establish a relationship to familiar film or TV genres in a narrative based video

 As part of voyeuristic context by suggesting a setting associated with sexual allure, such as a sleazy nightclub or boudoir.

 Or, as John Steward suggests, to emphasise an aspirational lifestyle, as in the current emphasis on the latest gadgetry.

beth, steph and danny

Institution

Our media text is a music video, this means it belongs to the music industry. The band that we are using would be signed to an independent  label such as domino music.

Typical traits of independent labels: 
- financially and stylistically independent 
- they sign small unknown artists 
-less clear genre definition 
- a niche audience
- music seen as an art form


Typical traits of major labels:
- the industry is dominated by 4 major companies, which are made up of several labels who own between them between 70-75% of the world market share. These companies are: Warner Music, EMI, Universal and Song BMG.

-  mainstream genres 
-manufactured music
-big artists 
- a wide audience
- usually part of media conglomerates 
- global domination








Beth,Danny and Steph

Research - History of the Music Video.

      Music and moving images have long gone together. Since the beginning of film in the 1920's and 30's films were always accompanied by music. As well as this the development of the musical as a genre for example: Singing in the Rain.

  

1960's Promotions

   

    In the 1960's many Bands created films which included the Beatles. They released a film called HELP (right) which promoted the Beatles and in turn made them even more successful.

1970's Promotions

     Top of the Pops began to use music videos while the bands were away on tour but they were still very experimental.

The Beginning of  MTV.

Artists began to see the need for promotions on each new release and changes in technology created a gap in the market and this led to the boom in music promotions in the 1980's.

     The growth of genre based channels such as MTV BASE, MTV DANCE and several others.

      This led to the music video being a useful way of promoting bands and musicians and is used widely throughout the industry.

Inspirational Videos

Whilst researching into brand image we have watched many videos on Youtube to help us visualise what we want to achieve in our video. For this reason we looked at bands of a similar genre to what we are working with so we could see if there were any specific conventions we would have to put into our final product


teenagers by MCR





Warriors Dance - The Prodigy





Billy Talent


In these videos there are clear conventions portrayed for a punk pop music video for example the use of close ups on the vocalists and live performances. There are also elements of individuality shown which through the videos which emphasises the rebellious attitude and image the punk pop genre implies through the music. There are also elements of narrative inter cut between the live performances, during our research we have discovered that this is very typical of our genre and the brand image they are attempting to create.

beth

Our trip to Bradford Media Museum

On the 17th of November, we attended a seminar by the Creative Director of Poison Pen Films. (Paul) http://www.poisonpenfilms.com/




     It was an exciting insight into the production of music videos both and high and low budget. We watched several videos that he had directed and he told us how he came up with the ideas and then produced and edited the final video. This helped us understand the pressure and difficulties of working in the music industry. We learnt about how music video budgets are becoming considerably lower due to illegal downloads and music piracy. We were also told about the 'triangle', where basically there are 3 factors in creating a music video, money, time and quality and as long as you have two of the three factors you can create an effective music video. 

This is Danny, Beth and their friends outside Bradford National Media Museum.
We enjoyed our trip and found it very useful and a great insight into the world a music video. 

Branding Research

      Branding is similar to product, they are not the same but they are closely related in the media.
For example, chocolate bar are products, but Mars, Galaxy and Cadbury are all brands, so these are all brands of chocolate. This is the same in many other aspects inclusing music.
      "... competitive branding became a necessity of the machine age - within a context of manufactured sameness, image- based difference had to be manufactured along with the product (Naomi Klein, No Logo)".
      These days consumers have so many choice throughout every product category that exists in the world today. Comapnies try to make their products stand out and give their products own unique personalites to get their brand name well known, and make the consumers choise their produce over another brands. So primarily branding is about creating an image for companies or even produce, that makes the comsumer stay loyal and buy it over an over again from the same companies and brand name.
      Every well known band has a brand image. A branding image is what makes the product (in this case the band its self) well known. It is what makes the band unique and distinctive. A brand image also gives consumers the choice to which bands they want to. People generally listen to the bands which they identify with. For example, in some cases, branding tends to go over the top to publisize their image. With a lot of bands, they create band merchandise to get thee band out there into the world and also so their fans can support them and be like their heros. 
       Throughout times bands have been known to change their branding to fit with the times of the years. As time has gone on we have seen many changes in things like fashion, technology and even music.

     Genre is also strongly linked to branding. Here in our product we are working with the "pop-punk" genre of music. This works with the image of anarchy and this is what we are going to show. the band i am choosing to look at it is Nirvana, one of the most influencial and inspiring band os all time in the music industry. Even after their front man Kurt Cobain's sudden and tragic death. Many people still go on to be inspired, which in the bands right they should.

  

 

 

        As You can see Nirvana has a very strong brand image, it was that they where rebelious, they was linked in with anarchy at the time it was very popular. There are many strong and visual merchendise to show this, including albums that they have created, as well as advertising with posters, help show how they were non-comforming as can be at the time the band was released. 

    We will now create a brand image within our media project. Our chosen band is Middle Finger Salute.

Branding

A brand is not the same as a product but a particular make of that product. For example their is the product of bread which has brands such as warbutons and Hovis. The need for distinct brands occurred as a result of mass production in the industry. From food to music, everything has a brand image and a message to get accross to the targeted audience. which therefore helps to sell the product because of the positive advertising in the media industry. The brand image of Green day is represented as being a rebellious pop punk/ rock band. This is created through their confident, rebellious attitude within their music and also their dark, moody style. The use of the brand image is therefore iconic of the band and is represented though all products of their media including music videos, posters, wesites and album covers.

http://www.greenday.com/ the website also fits in with the brand image and also the conventions of the punk/rock genre.

From the American idiot video their clear punk/rock image is shown with the use of branding which also uses their band logo of the heart which also appers the main image of the album cover. This portrays a horror look which links to thr rock genre of music. 

The use of brand image is particularly important in the music industry as the image is what sells the artist or band to the audience, as the audience can understand their music more and relate to the artist. As our band is from the 'pop punk' genre the brand image will conform to the conventions of this genre through brand image as similar to Green day the brand image will be seen as young, rebellious, talented musicians who have fun in their music videos.

Steph

Brand Image

Every artist needs a brand image, something significant to them that will allow them to get recognised and show the world who they are and more importantly what their music is about.
As our genre of music is 'pop punk' we have researched the brand image of similar artists, for example the Clash.
Their brand image is portrayed not only through their style of music but through the way they dress, their personalities and most obviously the style of their posters and other advertisement products such as album covers.

As you can see from the products above there is a strong visual brand image from this group which can be seen through the use of colour and also clothes. The only colours used in these advertisements are black, white and red, and the band are predominantly shown wearing what can be described and typical 'punk' style, which would be seen as rebellious and young.

This brand image is also shown in the promotional music videos by the band as you can see in the clip below:

The band are still dressed as they are throughout their brand image and are filmed preforming live which is common for the genre of music as we descovered during our research. There is also sections that are filmed in a slight narrative way out of performance which is seen in a lot of pop-punk videos.

Beth

Branding Research.

What is a brand?

    A brand is not the same as a product. A brand is the particular make of a product. for example instant coffee is a product but Kenco, Nescafe and Tesco's Own are all different brands of coffee.


... competitive branding became a necessity of the machine age - within a context of manufactured sameness, image- based difference had to be manufactured along with the product (Naomi Klein, No Logo).
    
     Consumers have so much choice with each product within a category for example coffee that companies have to give the product a different personality to make people want to buy that particular make and not any other.
     A brand often refers to many products. For example the quality and freshness of Kellogg’s cereals is highlighted across a range of products including chocolate bars.
     Branding is about creating an image for a product or for a band that people link to a particular product and compels them to be loyal to this product and buy it over and over again.

    We going to create a brand image for Middle Finger Salute so that the fans will instantly know that this is Middle Finger Salute and this will in turn boost the success of the band and the notoriety.

Here are a few examples of Band Branding in the Punk genre:

   


          The Sex Pistols were a controversial Punk Band in the late 1970s and they often tackled Taboo subjects and they had a definite brand image of anarchy and that they generally didn't care what anybody thought about them. Just by looking at these images we can see this brand image and we will know what to expect from their music. We can tell that they are pursuing the image of anarchists as one of their posters contains taboo language and the 'God save the Queen' Poster is instantly showing that they don't care what the public think about them as the queen is a recognised and loved public figure and they have blatantly de-faced he. As well as this the same logo has been used throughout which instantly lets us know that it is the same band and we know what to expect from the music. The music video video that I have used is again showing that the Sex Pistols had the definate brand image of anarchy.

    These features have made a controversial yet very effective and successful brand image.