Target Audience - by Josh

 Target Audience is a very important factor for companies to consider when making a music video as different genres will have different looking videos, e.g. a heavy metal music video will look extremely different from an indie rock video. This is important to consider as fans of different genres can react badly to an artist's video if it doesn't fit in with the genre's particular style. However, videos can share particular concepts, popular themes being extreme anger and a loss of sanity, as well as death. These tend to be popular as they are interesting topics and engage the watcher, which can lead to it being watched over and over. A good example is the iconic and thoroughly unique Michael Jackson's 'Thriller' (image above), which is widely considered to be the best music video of all time. This is due to the video being unlike any other,and due to its length it allows a short story to be created and is the only music video to this day that features dancing zombies. When the video was made zombie films were very popular and would have greatly interested people if they featured in a music video. 
  The video relates a lot to zombie films and incorporated Jackson's unique dancing style, for which he was very popular - combining zombie films and his legendary dancing would be considered incredible at the time and even now, making it a timeless classic. An interesting thing about this video was that it was extremely popular with fans of all genres, however it did receive some critical reception from people saying it was too violent. Although the actual song is more Pop and R&B, because of the video it became very popular with people of all music genre tastes.

 Music genres will tend to stay with either narrative or performance, e.g. a band such as Metallica (image right) will nearly always use a performance video instead of narrative since they are a Heavy Metal band. This is generally because a performance video will concentrate on the band members playing their instruments. Heavy Metal is largely appreciated with fans because of the skill it takes to play guitars and drums at such a high level (a guitar solo in a Rock song will be appreciated more than a simple beat in a Hip Hop song). Thus, videos will be centered on the instrument because this is what the fans want. Click on the video below to see a guitar solo in the Heavy Metal band Metallica's song: 'Enter Sandman'. Notice how the camera focuses on the band member and the guitar, as well as featuring the audience to show how much they are enjoying the solo, thus influencing how someone feels when they watch this particular solo.

 Metalheads (or grungers, rockers) are the group of people who primarily listen to Heavy Metal music and little else. The tend to frown upon other music which they deem as being unskilled and share a deep hatred for Chavs and Rap music. Some of the bands they listen to are well known and established - Metallica, Slipknot - but a lot of their music derives from local, unknown bands, which is where their relatively heavy use of the internet comes into play (image left). Above is a picture of the typical Metalhead, mostly dark in apparel, usually with a band t-shirt with chains and other such jewellery.

On the other end of the spectrum, it is very rare to find a Rap music video in which the video is closely looking at the instruments. This relates to when Public Enemy launched their video for 'Night of the Living Baseheads' (image right). This was a pinnacle turning point in music videos as it allowed videos to present themselves as a form of cultural expression for Hip Hop artists. Therefore most Hip Hop and Rap artists will make use of their videos as a way to express themselves, a good example of this being 'Love the Way You Lie' by Eminem ft Rihanna which addresses a serious, relatively little-known-about topic: domestic abuse. Eminem and Rihanna use the video as a way to inform people about this, to which the video was received with great critical response. You can find this video on my post: 'Conventions of Music Videos'.

The group who listen to Hip Hop are generally the Urban crew, young adults with a fondness for tracksuits, bling and music. Some aspire to become musicians while others try to make it big as fashion designers. They are driven by money and like to show it off through their big name label clothing and jewellery. As you can see from the image on the left, the Urban group mainly uses TV as their media outlet, some radio and very little use of magazines and newspapers. Above is a more modern look of an Urban person, still retaining the baseball cap, the coat has more of a mainstream, fashionable look.

  


 One of my favourite genres purely for the music videos they serve up, Indie Rock is one of the most progressive genres for music videos as artists in this genre are constantly exploring new ways of presenting themselves in videos, which also adds to their unique style and image. Below are two examples of Indie Rock music videos. The first is 'Little Talks' by Of Monsters and Men. There are a few music videos that use animation but this one is rather unique as it uses an very particular animation technique using real-life images all in black and white apart from a vibrantly coloured supernatural woman who protects the male band members from monsters. Another interesting thing about this video that although it is mostly animation it uses the band members faces to express feelings and emotions

 The next music video is completely different in terms of the actual video but the song shares the same genre as the last song. By Foster the People, the song is 'Houdini', and I found this video particularly interesting as I have never seen one like it before or since. As you can see from the video, it feature the band members who are killed in a stage accident and eventually turned into robots so they can carry on playing. This video raises some important notions of the music business, especially from the point of view of the artist(s). Here Mark Foster (the band's lead singer and songwriter) is trying to express how sometimes the music industry and artists are controlled by the producers, and how they are willing to go to any lengths to make sure they get money out of the artist (as seen by the band's boss in the video)

  A reasonably popular group, this type of music is home to the Alternatives, teenagers and young adults trying to be different in tastes of music, clothing and other such things. As you can see from their media consumption (image left) they are heavily dependent on the internet and on magazines such as NME and KERRANG! Below is the typical image of an Alternative teenager. Skinny jeans, long styled hair and a print t-shirt are among the most popular forms of fashion amongst this group.

 The last group (or tribe) I am going to talk about is the 'Ravers', the main target audience that the song for my music video is aimed at. These people are all about the club atmosphere, with tribal icons such as Fatboy Slim, The Chemical Brothers and Armin Van Buren, Ravers are a relatively rare tribe, clubbing is the centre of their life and go out to various venues at least fortnightly, mostly every week. They also enjoy mainstream music festivals such as the Wireless, iTunes and V Festival. Below is the typical image of a Raver or Clubber. For guys its graphic t-shirts and jeans, for girls either dresses or t-shirts or tank tops, sometimes adorned with neon lights and accessories.