Types Of Audience

Types Of Audience on Prezi

Lewis Watson Demographics

Lewis Watson is a 19 year old singer/song writer. His basic but inspiring indie acoustic sound make him unqiue and orginal as well as calming to listen to. We first noticed him on YouTube, in the suggested colum, where he did a number of covers of other indie/acoustic artists which me and my group were instantly fixed on. As we researched him more we notcied he did his own songs such as Bones and #3 which we loved however it was his song Windows which, upon hearing it, we knew we had found our song.

As shown by the image above, he is verified on Twitter which makes him somewhat famous and by the 35,479 followers, he is rapidly building up am ever increasing fan base. Through Tiwtter, Lewis keeps his fans updated with his tours, current songs he's working on and his daily life. It also provided the means for us to contact him askin his permission to do his song.

The image to the left shows that he has a large amount of female followers; mainly in their teenage years. Therefore our video will have to include or allude to specific issues which that age group and gender will understand.

Overall on YouTube, he has recieved 45 thousand subscribers (which can be seen at the top left of the video) and reached over 4 million views altogether on his videos of him playing songs. The song being shown in the image to the left, Windows, is the song we wish to create a music video for. His exsisting video has, as of present, received over 80,000 thousand views. Furthermore, the majority of comments made on his videos mainly consisted of females which has a positive correlation to his Twitter followers.

The demographics of the video can be seen on the left. He is most viewed in the United Kingdom, Australia and Ireland with his top demographics being females between the ages of 13 - 24 and  males between 13-17. In 2012, he toured round Australia breifly which explains whyhe is popular in Australia.

As of present he has recieved nearly 24,000 likes on his Facebook page which is another social media platform which he uses to puplisise himself. Like the demographics on Twitter and YouTube, he has received most likes from females between the ages of 13-24 which further backs up our research into him.

Ben Howard's Demographics

Artists similar to our chosen songs artists genre and sound are Ben Howard, Paolo Nutini, Ed Sheeran, Jack Johnson, Bobby Long, Damien Rice, Jake Bugg, John Mayer, Benjamin Francis Leftwich and Jason Mraz. To have a look at  the different audiences that listen to artists similar we looked at YouTube videos and Facebook pages in order to see the ages and sex of online audiences.

 

We decided to look at the statistics of his song Keep Your Head Up which has nearly 5 million views, with the most popular places of viewing are in the  UK, Netherlands and Jersey with females aged between 13 to 24 years old being at the top of the demographics and also males aged between 18 and 24. Most of his views are referred from other videos of his or from his facebook page.  We think that he appeals to these age ranges especially because of the content of his songs, about relationships, break ups and tough times.

To back up these demographics we looked at his facebook like page on which the most popular age group was 18-24 which links in well with the top demographics from his   youtube songs.
 

He has well over 260 thousand likes on facebook with lots of people talking about him and people are able to keep up to date with gigs, new releases and any personal updates. A lot of the younger generations use these social networks so it makes a lot of sense to use them to stay in touch with the audience.

 

We also had a look at his twitter followers with near 170 thousand he doesn't have as many followers as likes on facebook but I think that is because the majority of his audience are aged between 18-24 so they are more likely to use facebook to keep updated about his music. There is also a clear mixture of males and females within his followers which shows he appeals to a mixed audience.

 

Lyrics For Lewis Watson's Windows

I'm not here to startle you
hell, I only came 'cause you asked me to
it's such a shame that we can't renew
all those feelings that we shared back a month or two

you know, I kept everything that reminds me of us
it sounds weird but your picture's still hung up
I've tried getting distracted by other stuff
but that's not enough

I'm sleeping with a pillow, under lamplight.
freezing cold, 'cause you always liked the windows opened wide.
just so you know, I'll be here when you make it home.

I'll call you up at like 3am, again
just to make sure you know that i don't mind waiting,
although the call will end with us both saying
that we both hate this

I'm not sleeping too well, now I'm sleeping alone
and all you have to do is pick up the phone
and I'll come running to your aid but I'm sure you know
this won't help us grow

I'm still sleeping with a pillow, under lamplight.
freezing cold, 'cause you always liked the windows opened wide.
just so you know, I'll be here when you make it home.

Similar Artist Demographics

Our chosen artist being Lewis Watson, is an indie acoustic artist. A similar artist to him is Damien Rice, a slightly more established indie acoustic artist who sings and writes his own songs. Some of his most known songs are Cannonball, Blower's Daughter and Delicate each with over 2 million views.

On the left, Damien Rice's video for Delicate on YouTube which has over 2 million views. His music is popular within the United States, United Kingdom and Ireland with the top demographics showing that females aged between 13-24 and males aged between 25-34 view him and his songs the most.

To confirm this research statistics, we looked at Damien's Facebook like page where he has received 938,269 likes with the most popular age group being 18-24 years old

The next artist we decided to research into the demographics of is Benjamin Francis Leftwich who is an indie acoustic artist as well. However he is less established and well known then Damien Rice yet this makes more similar to Lewis Watson, our chosen artist and fit in with the indie scene better.

 Benjamin's YouTube video on the left for his song Atlas Hands received 1,322,917 views which is a fair amount less than Damien Rice but still more than Lewis Watson. Therefore this shows that he is an up and coming artist. 

His top locations in which he is popular in is United Kingdom, Jersey and Ireland. His top demographics are females aged between 13-24 and males between 18-24. These statistics are very similar if not exactly the same as both Damien Rice and Lewis Watson.

However he differs from Damien Rice as he has only received 49,752 likes on Facebook which shows how he is less popular, as of present, than Damien.

Indie Music Videos

In order to gain a wide knowledge of what indie artists music videos tend to contain, I researched various sub-genre of indie such as acoustic, pop, and rock so that, when it comes to filming my own music video, I know what a typical sub-genre video tends to involve.

Firstly, I looked into indie pop which 'The Neighbourhoods' - 'Sweater Weather' falls into perfectly.  There is no doubt that this video is done by an indie group due to the mise-en-scene of the two characters in the video; male wearing skinny jeans and a sweater (which links to the title of the song) and the female wearing jean shorts and a blouse. However the reason this falls into the sub genre of pop is because there is no shots of the band themselves or images of musical instruments.



The next sub-genre I research was indie rock. Here, 'The White Stripes' - 'Seven Nation Army' music video suits it perfectly for many reasons. Firstly, there is a high number of camera shots of both musicians playing the drums and the electric guitar which is a typical convention of the indie rock genre. Secondly, the heavy beat, classic guitar riff and the guitar solo make this a typical indie rock video. There if also a clever use of editing which highlights the guitarist performing his solo which links to Andrew Goodwin's theory.


Lastly, Indie acoustic is what we will be doing for our music video and therefore 'Lewis Watson's' - 'Windows' suits us well. The constant shots of Lewis playing his acoustic guitar follows the conventions of indie acoustic and the style of the video with its cut out picture theme adds to the uniqueness of the video as well as stirring away from the mainstream style of videos; something which being indie is all about!

Goodwin's Theory

Andrew Goodwin, a director of music, came up with theories which feature in his book about purposes and features for music videos.  His theory is generally based around 6 main principles..
- Links between lyrics and visuals, when the words directly link to the video.
- Genre characteristics, the visual representations of the music genre and portrayal. 
- Demands from the record label, how the artist is represented through the need of close ups of the artist and may even create motifs which occur frequently throughout their work. 
- Performance based, narrative based or concept based music videos.
- Reference to notions of looking, mostly of voyeuristic treatment towards the female body.
- Intertextual reference, the reference to other videos, media texts, artists or products within a video.
- Links between music and videos, the instruments, cutting rate (on the beat) and if the link is complementary or contradicting. 
- Voyeurism (insight into artists life, direct gaze, other people looking at the artist, mirrors and screens).

Goodwin's Theory Applied

1. Music Videos Demonstrate Genre Characteristics

The genre of Kanye West's Homecoming video follows suit with Kanye's usual associated genre of RnB. The video itself uses black and white lighting effects to give a harsh, bold and strong presence of the artist. A recurring theme in Kanye's music videos is that he portrays himself as both  physically and mentally strong. This is apparent in Homecoming as the use of the low angle camera shots make him seem powerful and domineering over his audience, as if he thinks himself higher over his audience.
The video is about Kanye visiting his 'hometown' of Chicago, therefore the panning shots and close up shots of him looking around Chicago and reminiscing on his childhood. The further close up shots of the kids could represent Kanye, himself, in his childhood. However the low key lighting keeps specific facial details ambiguous. The city is frequently shown inside the silhouette effect of Kanye and Chris performing, symbolising that the city is a part of him and he takes it everywhere with him.



2. There is a relationship between lyrics and visuals

There is a significantly detailed use of cross fading, switching from a mid/ tracking shot of Florence dancing in the centre of everyone to a close up of her hand resting on the side of her face. There are potentially many reasons why the director chose to use this editing technique however one reason could be for textual or lyrical cohesion. The song 'Rabbit Heart' repeats the line 'Raise it up' multiple times which, I believe, to have some spiritual significance. As in 'raise it up' from the dead which the seemingly not choreographed dancing implies. This theme is carried throughout the video as another time she is pushed out to sea on a coffin-like box which has biblical references.




3. There is a relationship between music and visuals

Usually, there is a relationship between music and visuals; especially in mainstream/ hip hop videos. An example of this is when there is a guitar solo being performed during the song and the camera usually focuses on the musician/artist performing the solo with his instrument. In Dappy's song 'Rockstar' featuring Brian May, towards the end of the video there is a jump cut into a mid shot and close ups of Brian performing his solo.


Another example is in Drake's video 'Take Care' featuring Rihanna. The song itself is about taking care of a partner or a person in which you are in romantic relation with. During the video, Drake, himself, and Rihanna show signs of affection between each other as they are sitting close together and touching each other in a romantic way.




4. The demands of the record label will include the need for lots of close-ups of the artist and the artist may develop motifs which recur across their work

Lady Gaga is a great example of a record label's influence as in her video 'Bad Romance' she demonstrates her signature hand gesture of her 'Monster Claw'. To her fans, she identifies herself as 'Mother Monster' and all her fans are her 'little monsters'; this keeps them involved and they feel apart of her and her videos. Below is the video for 'Bad Romance' where she demonstrates this:

Song Choice

The song we are going to create a music video for is Lewis Watson's 'Windows'. The song falls into the indie/ acoustic sub genre which perfectly suits our preferred choice and our individual strengths.  The song itself is instrumentally simple, as it only consists of a guitar and Lewis's vocals. Lyrically, the song is rather melancholic and seems to be a very personal song to Lewis presumably about a break up and the feelings which coincide with that. However the rhythmic pattern and style in which Lewis plays the song is rather positive and, with the absence of lyrics, would be a happy melody.  Therefore we are not confined to portray a particular mood or emotion throughout which allows us to be more creative with what we create. Below is the song which we are going to do:

Permission For Song Choice

In order to create a music video for a song, we needed to gain permission from the artist who wrote and performed it. We asked Lewis Watson, the artist, on the social network; Twitter. He replied to us fairly quickly and said he'd "be honoured" for us to do it. Below is a screenshot from Lewis himself giving his permission to create a music video for his song 'Windows':

Artist Research: Ben Howard

Benjamin Howard, 1987, is an English singer-songwriter who is signed by Island Records. His musical influence originates from his parents love of acoustic soul musicians from the 1960's and 1970's such as Bob Dylan and Joni Mitchell.

Ben Howard's indie/acoustic songs along with his powerful renditions of pop songs like 'Call me Maybe' and 'Video Games' make him a strong indie artist with an ever-growing fan base.

Music Career

Despite only establishing himself in late 2011, Ben Howard has already released his first ablum - Every Kingdom - in October 2011. His record label Island Records signed him due to their previous history with UK folk singers such as Nick Drane. His singles 'Old Pine', 'The Wolves' and 'Keep Your Head Up' have been performed on shows such as BBC Radio Live Lounge and Later With Jools Holland. In the past year he has played at Latitude and Glastobury as well as performing multiple gigs all over England.

Artist Image

Another aspect which highlights Ben Howard's indie/folk image is his appearence. The rugged- folk look comes from his casual and loose clothing accompanied with his preferred instrument; the acoustic guitar. As mentioned before, his inspiration comes from artists like Bob Dylan which show in his appearance.

Music Video Analysis Of: Linkin Park What I've Done

The genre of my coursework will be Indie, however in order to gain inspiration and a greater knowledge of how different genres, such as hip hop, pop and heavy metal, produce music videos. Therefore the music video I have chosen to analyse is Linkin Park's What I've Done as the yare a hip hop/ alternative rock band from America. This video was nominated for the 'best hard rock performance at the 52nd Grammay Awards' which comes as no surprise as the band and production team have clearly produced a inspirational music video.

Narrative

The music video has a strong political and historical motif carried throughout with its editing technique of cross cutting from a live performance from the band playing in a desert interspersed to clips of infamous world leaders such as Hitler to enviromental problems; thus dealing with the worlds issues surrounding global warming, racism and other crimes commited in the world. The opening clip shows a revearsal of grass sinking into the ground which is juxaposed at the end of the video when it is growing again. This visual editing technique gives the impression that the band has to let the world hear its video in order for it to be 'reborn'. The establishing shots of the live band performance within the baren desert emphasises the abscece of life as if to imply that if the world carries commiting these sins against hummanity then the world will indeed become a desert; a desolate world of nothingness and destruction.

Prsentation of the Band

The picture on the left highlights the Mise En Scene choices in the video, the close up shot of the lead singer, Chester Bennington, wears avaitor style sunglasses to cover up his eyes which can be interpreted in numerous ways. Firstly, sunglasses restrict the audience from seeing his eyes however allowing him to see his audience. This implies a unwanting of puplicity or personal recorgnition from his audience. Secondly, the songs meaning resolves around the ammitance of past sins and being able to "face [yourself]" for what you "have done", therefore the glasses could be used as the artist is ashamed for what he, himself, has done that he cannot bare to reveal himself fully. Or thirdly, he is disgraced at how hummanity has becoming and it's colelctive sins that he cannot bare to look at them or for them to look at him. The band themselves are all dressed in black clothing which has connotations of a funeral (where everyone wears black suits). Therefore it could be concluded that they are hinting or foreshadowing, as their video suggests, at the inevitable destruction of the world.

Lighting

The live performance from the band is emphasised by the artifical light from the spotlights beaming onto the band as if they were performing to a crowd and a festival or gig.  However, as shown by the establishing shots, there is no audience in which they are performing to therefore, it can be interpreted as if they are performing to everyone and anyone who listens to this video.

Camera

At the start of the video, there are various camera shots such as panning around the musicians, close ups and low angle shots which highlight each musician within Linkin Park and the role in which they perform in the band. This way the audience are able to gain a greater knowledge of each individual within the band and not just focus on the lead singer; a typical feature for this hip hop/ alternative rock genre.
The injection of other close up shots of cogs and wheels which are used in clocks adds another insight to the narrative of the music video; how people are easy to fixed a routine and live their lives  like clockwork.

Following this is a series of time lapse shots (which is when a camera is fixed on a specific location and films for hours upon end and then in the editing process, the footage is sped up) which deals with the idea of time and how it is forever progressing. Alike the clockwork point, the time lapse shot also implies a fixation on a certain way of life without change as well as how time is forever progressing, quicker than everyone can grasp; which the enhanced speed at which the shot is being played at implies.
There is also a frequent use of establishing shots showing memorable and well-known locations from around the world which are highlight from the use of jump cuts to them. This, therefore, allows anyone watching the video to be able to relate to it in some way; as a result of this, the audience are able to share a common ground with the band themselves and feel a part of the video. The image on the right taken from the video shows Stonehenge, a well known yet mysterious location in England.

Editing

Editing, like most music videos, is a big part, especially in this video. Here, editing techniques such as jump cuts are used frequently and at a high cutting rate in order to convey as many images of either environmental issues, historical events and locations around the world as possible. Reasons for this could be to give the impression that there is so many issues which are taken place as we speak such as famine, unpredictable weather disasters like hurricanes and poverty, that the world needs to 'face [it]self' and see 'what [it's] done' to their planet. This is a very strong message the band is trying to highlight and the editing is relied on to emphasise the importance of the topic being raised.

Below is the video being analysed:

Choice of Genre

As my media group as been comfirmned, we were able to decide firmly on a genre: which is indie. The reason for doing this is purely because myself and each member in my group has certain and specific strengths in which they can bring to the music video and which will be well-suited for indie style. For example; from researching what it is to be 'indie' I found out that there is a heavy reliance on artistic skill such as vintage, watercolours and filters. Futhermore we also have a passion for symbolic lyrics which Indie songs have a strong inclusion of. Also, this will allow us create an artisitc video which can relate to the lyrics being sung.

Interview Number 2: Gill Willson, 44

What music were you into?

"I enjoyed listening to soul artists such as George Benson, Luther Van Vandross and Dione Warick. I also liked the groups Sister Sledge and Cool In The Gang"

How did you access it? 

"I listened to the radio. On sundays Top of The Pops station was played and I use to tape the songs so I could listen to them freely on my cassette player. I tended not to go to gigs. However I read smash hits magazine"

Did you consider yourself a follower of a sub-culture? 

"For a short time I was a modette, so I wore lots of black and white which were the 'mod' colours at the time. Style Council were a group that I loved it while I was a modette and we were known to ride around on scooters and vespers, a common thing that they were associated with it"

How long did this phase last?

"I stayed as a modette for a couple of years for the Style Council type of music. But I still follow soul music to this day, I always get excited when I song I used to listen to comes on the radio!"

Interview Number 1: Andy Willson, 45

What music were you into?

"I liked to listen to punk rock, psycho billy and new wave music. Bands included; The Clash, The Cure, The Smiths and The Cramps"

How did you access it?

"I accessed it through records and LP's, live performances where I went to numerous gigs. Around every week I saw a new group as it only cost around £5. The odd TV program had some bands which I liked listening to however there were few and far between. I read the 'new musical express' (NME) because it contained news and reviews on bands albums and concerts as well as offering adverts about when they were playing. As it was not always that easy finding out when bands were playing"

Did you consider yourself a follower of a sub-culture?

"I was heavily influenced by punk music but not just then music; the style, clothing (I had drain pipe jeans and combat trousers), hair cut, places we would go and visit; I visited Camden market various times and I didn't go to night clubs as it wasn't the punk scene as such. Even the way I acted was influenced by the punk bands and music I listened to!"

How long did the 'phase' last?

"The punk style only lasted a few years, 3 years at most, as mainstream started becoming more popular as I grew up so I went to a fair few concerts to see bands such as Madness, The Pretenders and The Jam"