Saturday, 30 December 2017

Audience research



For my audience research, I sent out a questionnaire to around 30 people, in which I asked a variety of questions about music and the genre of electropop, making sure to use both open and closed questions to obtain both quantitative and qualitative data.
I left the questionnaire available for just over a week after sending it off and managed to receive 24 responses, which I have listed below with the questions too:

Forms response chart. Question title: How old are you?. Number of responses: 24 responses.


The results of this question weren't broad as I confined the questionnaire to people in my school. This is because I had a rough idea of what I wanted the demographic of my target audience to be in terms of age. I associate the genre of electropop with the youth, as they can be seen as adventurous and possibly festival goers where they will experience this kind of music. 87.5% of the sample are between 14-17, which I calculated is 21/24, meaning only 3 people in my sample are 18 or over.

Forms response chart. Question title: What is your gender?. Number of responses: 24 responses.


Question two in my opinion is similar to one in terms of the purpose and reason for asking. Again I wanted to know what the demographic of my audience was in terms of gender, and I also had an idea due to my possible song choices all consisting of female artists. my predictions came true in the results of the question, in which around 16 people in my sample are female.

Forms response chart. Question title: How often do you listen to music?. Number of responses: 24 responses.


From this question onward I started asking questions more suited to the topic of music, with the aim to see how my target audience feel about it, especially the genre electropop. I started with a simple question, as I wanted to find out how much my target audience are into music, and I found out that it was a lot. I made this a closed question to ensure I could use this quantitative data to be represented on a chart, as shown above. It shows that 91.7% of my sample listen to music everyday, which equates to about 22 people out of the 24 that took the survey. None of the participants selected "Never", which shows that music hold at least some aspect in all of the participant's lives.

Forms response chart. Question title: What platform(s) do you use to listen to music?. Number of responses: 24 responses.


In this question you can see that I made it so that the participants can choose more than one option for their answer. I did this as there are a variety of platforms in which music can be consumed, and as my prediction of the youth being heavily interested in music being correct, I thought that they would listen to music on more than one platform. YouTube and Spotify were at the top in terms of music consumption, which I found interesting as they are all methods of streaming music. This supports points made that streaming is becoming increasingly popular recently, especially in my target audience. This could be die to the fact that it is more accessible and free to use if a subscription is not paid. Owned copies however still have almost 50% of the sample consuming music in this way, showing that this is still a popular method of listening to music, as the audience can have their own copy on their phones.

Forms response chart. Question title: If you answered YouTube, do you watch the music videos when listening to music? (If you did not answer with YT, then select skip). Number of responses: 24 responses.




"If you answered YouTube, do you watch the music videos when listening to music? (if you did not answer with YT, then select skip)"

I aimed this video to those of the sample who chose YouTube as an option in the previous question. I thought that this question was important considering my final piece is a music video, I want to see if my target audience actually watch the videos when using this platform for music, as my purpose for the music video is for them to watch and pay attention to the narrative within it. The results from this question show that everyone whom this question applied to does watch the music video at some point, whether it be rarely or never. Very few however do always, but again around 11 people (45.8%) do at least sometimes.


Forms response chart. Question title: What genres of music do you like to listen to? (tick all that apply). Number of responses: 24 responses.

In this question I wanted to get more specific to see how many people in my sample would like electropop, and the results showed just what I wanted. 20 people in my sample listen to pop music and almost half listen to electronic music, showing that the sub-genre of electropop is something that could appeal to the majority of my sample, which in turn can be representative to my target audience in general. I did unfortunately have one of my participants use the 'Other' option in an inappropriate manner, giving an answer that had no reference to genres of music.


Forms response chart. Question title: Have you ever listened to any of these artists? (tick all that apply). Number of responses: 22 responses.


The next question focused on artists whose music can be categorised into the genre of electropop. The purpose of this question was to see if participants had listen to any electropop, to see how popular and/or well-known it. I made sure beforehand to do research in order to decide which artists I should include in this question. I made sure to include both mainstream artists like The Chainsmokers, as well as elecrtropop artists that may not be as well known but still have a large following, such as the k-pop band BTS. Once again I let the participants tick more than one box, as this is a question that requires them to give information on how much they know about artists from this genre. For this question I only got 22 responses instead of 24; nevertheless the results show that mainstream artists have the highest amount of people listening to them. For example, Calvin Harris, Charlie XCX, and The Chainsmokers all had 18 people tick the box, which is 81.8% of the sample. I included Halsey, the artist who's song I will be using for my music video, and I was pleased to see that she is popular within my sample, with over half of the participants saying that they have at least once listened to her music.


Forms response chart. Question title: What kind of style would you expect to see in an electropop music video? (tick all that apply). Number of responses: 24 responses.

This question reflects a lot what kind of style I will use in my music video, as the results show what would appeal to my audience and what would be expected by them personally. I wanted to let the sample choose more than once box, as I understand that a music video can integrate multiple styles within them, especially in electropop. In the results there was a mixture of percentages for each style, with concept/visuals being the highest with 70.8%. Next came the performance then narrative, both of which had less than 50% of the sample selecting the results. I agree with the results here, as I do believe that visuals make up a big part of electropop videos in terms of the lighting and aesthetic of it (e.g. neon, parties, etc).


Forms response chart. Question title: Do you think it is important for electropop songs to have a music video?. Number of responses: 24 responses.
For this question I wanted to see if my audience actually felt that a video was necessary for an electropop song, as the previous question stated that only visuals mattered most in terms of style, rather than a narrative that could captivate the audience more- as the lyrics usually tell a story that could be portrayed in the video. The results were both very similar for the two options, almost 50/50. However the majority stated that they felt a music video was needed in order to visualise the artist's song (58.3%).


Forms response chart. Question title: Do you think that the video must follow the narrative/concept of the lyrics?. Number of responses: 24 responses.

Like the previous one, this question had very similar results between the two options that I gave. Relating to Goodwin's theory of the 5 key aspects of a music video, a relationship between the visuals and lyrics is listed as one of them. I wanted to see if this was important to my target audience for an electropop music video, however the results were quite balanced. More of the participants however did say 'Yes', that they felt it was important for the video to follow the concept or narrative of the lyrics.


These next questions consist of part two of the questionnaire, where all the questions are open which allows the participants to give their own opinion in as much detail as they want.

The first question of this section relates to the location of the music video, as I believe it is very important in order to contribute to the aesthetic of both the artist and their music. Lots of the results had some kind of performance aspect to it, with answers such as: a club, concert, dance floor, studio, etc. It also has a theme of fun and going out for the night, not caring about any commitments. Other answers also included somewhere underground, outer space and a rooftop. One person in particular stated that it depends on the artist, which I agree with as each artist has their own brand image, which can include a specific location type.

Image result for neon lights
The next question asked the sample what kind of lighting and colour that they would expect to see. My predictions for it would be that there would be a lot of bright colours with high-key lighting, which was reflected in the results, The majority of people said that neon or bright colours would be expected, as well as high key lighting. colours they expect to see in particular include blue, pink, black and purple, with the exception of a few saying rainbow/all colours. This is reflected in current electropop music videos, from which I made my prediction on the answers to this question.



This question unfortunately only got 19 out of the possible 24, however the results that I do have are helpful when it comes to planning my own music video. Props can be vital in music videos, whether it be for the narrative of the video, for conceptual imagery or even to reflect the artist's image. I got a variety of answers, few of which were 'not sure' which put together with those who didn't answer the question, I can understand, as it can be hard to try and think of props that would be in an electropop music video in particular; as there may be more of a focus on location and lighting. This can be supported by an answer from one person in particular, who said that there wouldn't be a lot due to the focus on the performer, but if there were to be props then objects that relate to the lyrics would be appropriate. Other answers for this question include: alcohol, broken cups, streamers, electric guitar, balloons and fire.



Image result for singing on stageIn electopop music videos, I feel that costume is very important in contributing to the visual theme, whether it be something dark and moody or bright with neon colours. The results reflected both of these themes, as I got a mixture of responses. Many people referred to festival clothing, with bright colours, also stating for it to be trendy and 'daring'. Few elaborated on this and said it should be vibrant but the main colour should be black, and that it should reflect an outfit worn to the club. Others spoke about how the outfit should just be casual and 'normal', with darker colours such as black and grey. Few people again said that it depends on the artist and their image, as well as the mood of the song, which I think is why I got a variety of responses, as there can be multiple moods to a video.



The last question I asked was about what kind of theme an electropop music video would have, either within the narrative or conceptual imagery. The responses all were very similar and matched my predictions, as fun and love were themes that I too associated with videos from this genre. People also referred to the theme of dancing, youth, living life fully and loving life. I agree with this as the vibe that I want associate does seem carefree and adventurous, like the characters are living their lives to the fullest. The fact that youth was names I'm pleased with as it clearly links to my target audience, and tis theme can appeal to them and their interests and/or aspirations.



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