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: