Audience / Target audience

The primary audience we are aiming to target are aged from 15-20. We decided to target these ages as they are slightly more mature and may be able to relate to some of the music and lyrics.

Our secondary audience we chose to aim our music video at are aged between 9-14. This was because from our research we noticed that there was a huge fan base for a lot of pop artists from this age. It could be argued that this is because they are easily influenced and inspired to follow the trends and lifestyles of their idols.

Some examples of the type of musicians our target audience may listen to are Little Mix and Justin Bieber. They are two very different artists but often share a very similar group of fans. Our target audience enjoy listening to girl bands such as Little Mix because of their music and personalities. Also because they are young and at a similar age to their audience, it is easy for them to find things in common and relate to one and other. From this picture, you can notice the out-going style these individuals have. From the audience's point of view they see the band over all as a querky, fun and happy girl band.

On the other hand, Justin Bieber is seen as a successful, attractive and talented male artist who has a huge supportive fan base.
His target audience is also of a young age which varies widely. Justin Bieber is an attractive male, this could expand his audience further as they admire his looks a lot aswell as his music.

Target audience 

Laura Mulvey Theory

Laura Mulvey's theory ' The Male Gaze' suggests that the camera/audience always represent a heterosexual man's perspective of the scene objectifying women. Mulvey states that women are typically the objects, rather than the possessor, of gaze because the camera is controlled by the assumptions of a man’s point of view.

The perspective of women through a man's eyes has changed in many ways over the past few years for instance before men used to admire a females natural beauty as for now, for instance a man’s eyes linger over the curves of a women's body. In the recent music videos this can be shown clearly for example Robin Thicke's `Blurred Lines' has been creating controversies where University of Bolton student union has banned the song becoming the sixth to do so due to its references to sexism and non-consensual sex. 'Blurred Lines' is an example to a heterosexual male’s perspective as the music video itself and the lyrics are from a man’s perspective.

 

 

Laura Mulvey's also states that in music videos women are portrayed only in two ways these include 'virginal innocent character' or the sexy 'whore' she calls these to perspective the 'virgin/whore dichotomy'. The first music video is by Nicki Minaj, as Laura Mulvey's theory would say she is portrayed as sexy 'whore' character whereas the second video is by Taylor Swift is portrayed as the 'virginal innocent character'. Identifying the sexy 'whore' in a music video, it is normally suggested through their character in the music video as you can see in the first video the artist is wearing tight clothing that emphasises their curvy bodies and also very revealing in some areas. Whereas identifying the innocent character in the second video you can see the artist is wearing clothes that are more lady like and covered up. Laura Mulvey disagrees with the interpretations of women as it conveys women to look at themselves through the eyes of men and instead of having to try to fit into the male gaze ideology they should have their own individual image.

 

Dyar's Star Theory

Dyer's Star Theory

Th Dyer Star theory focuses on the idea that celebrities that we see are constructed. `Stars as constructions' Dyer's Star applies that the image we see is constructed or made by the music companies and institutions to target a specific audience and to get financial gain. He believes that a celebrity is built for the audience and is not an actual person.  Dyer Star suggests that celebrities are constructed making them unique and different, finding a different point to be their selling point, for example Lady Gaga. She is a very famous artist that is shown to be a extraordinarily unique wearing dresses out of meat and other unusual type of things.

Dyer star believes that celebrities  are made or created to make money from the audience for the record label. One example of this is X Factor, x factor is a popular TV show that repeatedly churn out what they think the audience want. From this TV show the record labels have to cater to the whole markets of audience who want something different. Dyer Star also believes that the stars influences new culture for example imitate a fashion trend, hairstyle, clothing which is copied by the audience. Linking back to the Andrew Goodwins theory of demands of the record label, the artist would need to include a lot of closeups of the artist which would be primarily to sell the material of the artist, also to introduce a style to which fans can relate and imitate through mise-en-scene. In both Rihanna's short black hair could be a influence as it was a huge trend back in 2009. 

Dyer Star believes that the character is formed by the record label but also the personality is formed by the them. 

Celebrities are presented as 'real' human beings this is to make the celebrity believable among the audience. The celebrities are presented as 'real' human beings, as for this when we see a star's life in magazines and news we feel as if we are close to them for example Britney Spears who had troubled few years and breakdowns. 

Andrew Goodwin's Theory

Andrew Goodwin's Theory 

Andrew Goodwin  ‘Dancing in the Distraction Factory’ (Routledge 1992)

Andrew Goodwin believes that artists use music video to demonstrate their genre characteristics, to show what category they fall in to. The artist may chose to show the genre of their music video through the use of mise-en-scene, editing, camera work or soundtrack. Hip Pop based music videos often shows what genre they fall into by mise-en-scene, for example dance choreography and the style of clothing. Where as a punk rock music video would show their genre through the mise-en-scene mostly for example hair, makeup and clothing not dance choreography. 

Goodwin also states that there is a relationship between lyrics and visuals . This could be applied in many music videos now for example Katy Perry's `Last Friday Night'. In this music video you can see there is a clear correlation of the lyrics and visuals. 

. 



Goodwin also believes that there is a relationship between the music and visual. For example, in a Hip Pop music video the editing will be quick and clean, with a tempo matching the speed of the song. However a more slow music videos for example Adele's `Someone like you' the video is more slow, fading cuts this can help emphasis the expressions of the song.  




Goodwin also suggests that due to the demands of the record label, the artist would need to include a lot of close ups of the artist. This is used primarily to sell the material of the artist, and also to introduce a style to which fans can relate and imitate through mise-en-scene. This can be applied to many popular artists but one main artist that this could be applied is Rihanna. This is because in this music video the hair style/hair cut that Rihanna has was extremely popular after this music video came out. 

   

Goodwin also suggests that there is a frequently reference to notion of looking. This is mainly used in the updated music videos, which in their mise-en-scene, features several shots where the artist are looking into the mirror. As well as this, in music videos from the present aswell as the past, contains lots of female objective. This is constant feature throughout music videos, weather it be the singer herself, for example Rihanna. In the the music video above you can see her body language and mise-en-scene that she presents herself in a sexual way. This type of female objectivism could be found in many other videos for example the female dancers in the background in a male singer or group. 

Goodwin theory also says that there is often intertexual reference in music videos. There is often intertexual reference. Many artists uses several reference to other memorable image of figure through their music videos. Those images or iconic figures could be recognised by the audience and they understand the artist is trying to replicate this for either comic effect or the their attempt to create a relationship between the artist and the original image. 

Catagories of music videos

Perfomance Based Video

Performance based videos tend to show the band or artists mostly performing their song mostly in a stage or a studio setting. The two perfomance based video are One direction's "Little Things" and Matallica's "Whiskey in the Jar"

One Direction - Little Things




This is the music video for One Direction's little things; this video is made up completely of shots showing the pop group singing. The colouring of the video is black and white which makes the video more interesting as it stays in people’s minds as most music videos are usually in colour for example other pop genre music videos are filled with bright colour. This song in particular is very different to most of One Directions music as it is a tempo pop and folk ballad whereas all of their other songs are up-tempo song which interpolates pop genres teen pop, power pop and pop rock. There is a range of camera shots being used and close ups of the group members which shows they want the audience to connect with the artists. This is due to the fact that their target audiences are teenage girls; therefore by singing about girls they’re targeting their audience. Metallica's music video Whiskey in the jar is also another example of performance based video.

 
Metallica - Whiskey in the Jar

Narrative Based Video

Narrative based music videos have a storyline, and tend to follow that storyline throughout the whole of the video. The music videos below are narrative based videos.

Carly Rae Jopsen - Call Me Maybe



Narrative based video attempts to tell a story. This type of video generally involves a main actor and maybe extras to potray the story. The narrative of the song is lyrically literal, but sometimes for some narrative based videos it isn't. In this video Carly Rae Jopsen is the main character and the others are all extras, through out the video we can see a story bulding up till the end. Rudemental's Waiting all night is also an example of narrative based video.


Rudemental - Waiting all night

Concept Vidoes

Jason Derulo - Talk Dirty



Concept based videos follow a single concept or idea, which are often usual or show a particular filming or editing technique used. A good example of a fully conceptual video is `Talk Dirty' by Jason Derulo. The genre of this music video is RnB and it is targeted towards teenagers both males and females. The female audience would find this video appealing due to Jason Derulo exposing his body parts .The male would also fine this music video appealing because of the clothes Jason is wearing and other expensive materials as they may use this sort as inspiration. There is so narrative in the music video but instead are just a performance and a dance this video more intresting for the audience. Robin Thicke's Blurred lines is also another example of concept based music video.

Robin Thicke - Blurred Lines

Music Video Analysis - Wings and One Less Lonely Girl

This is a music video by Little Mix who is a British band within the pop genre. The music video shows a clear representation of the genre pop through its mise-en-scene and sound tract especially although it's shown to an extent within the camera work and editing. For example in this music video the clothing style is very bright and eye-catching. In a medium shot one of the girls is wearing a yellow crop top with green and black triangle designs and wearing teal coloured shorts, this outgoing style could easily be picked up by the audience and influence them to follow it. There is dance choreography in this video this shows us the excitement and fun within the band and it portrays a positive energy amongst the audience.

Music Video Analysis - Hot N Cold Reasearch

Katy Perry is one of the most well known artists within the pop genre. Hot n Cold is one of her very well known songs. This is a narrative based video because it has a story line of two couple that is about to get married. This music video is a pop genre it is shown through the mise-en-scene as there is pop of colours and dance choreography through out the music video, and also the clothing and makeup is the key essentials in this video as the main character has many different outfit changes from a wedding dress to many more and her makeup as well changes along with her clothing for example her green eye shadow at the end. There are some aspects in this music video that could relate to Andrew Goodwin's theory for example there are many close-ups of the artist and also there is a relationship between the music and visuals as there is dance choreography for some scenes. There is also intertextuality in this music video for example at 2.52 of the video the main actor is found looking at artist singing on his phone.

The target audience for this music video would be from 15-18 year old this is because the artist is singing about how guys would change their minds, and at 15-18 people are most likely to experience this as well. The audience might enjoy this as it can entertain them with the dance choreography and the fun aroma

The video gives you.

Music Video Analysis - Stepped on my J'z Research

Nelly’s music video ‘Stepped On My J’s’ is targeted towards a certain audience. This music video is mostly targeted towards both male and female but mostly men. We can tell this through the means of mise-en-scene. The artist in the music video is wearing clothing that are iconic in the hip-pop/rap subculture for example the baggy clothes and the main point, the kind of shoes the whole video is based upon. This would target male audiences more than female audiences because the male audience would want to follow the style and wear similar clothes.

This music video is also targeted towards female audience because the artist in the music video is half naked and showing his muscles and tattoos, this would attract more female audiences, as they would find it more attractive. This adapts Andrew Goodwin’s theory strongly as there is a relationship between the lyrics and visuals. 

Music Video Analysis - Sweet Child O' Mine Research

Genre is established in ‘Sweet Child O’ Mine’ by Guns N’ Roses through the means of mise-en-scene and camera work. This is a performance based music video and through out the music video it is made clear as they are performing on stage. The genre of this music video is rock ’n’ roll and that is portrayed by the mise-en-scene and camerawork. This is because the artists are wearing iconic clothing from this subculture; leather jackets and long hair. We can tell the music video is a rock ‘n’ roll subculture also because of the camera work and the editing that has been used for example the music video is in black and white and a different kind of effect has been used that makes the video look like it is a old film. The instruments are shown through many medium and close up shots in the music video but keeping the focus on to the electric guitar and base; signifying the genre again as rock ‘n’ roll. 

Music Video Analysis - Take back tonight Research

Justin Timberlake - Take back tonight

Genre - RnB


Justin Timberlakes music video has a jazzy and RnB feel to it, it is targeted towards a wide range of audience as he has fans of all ages. This particular video I beleive is targetted towards 17-24 year olds this is because the jazz and iconic landmardks shown in the video would intrest that age group and his clothes correspond with this.

At the beginning of this music video there are quick cuts being used as the music is also parallel to it. In the quick cuts there are images of New York and in tilt and then a zoom we can see the artist driving an old classic car. This shows us the genre of the music video is RnB as it has a jazzy feel to it and New York City’s sky crappers being shown in the night views. In the long shot the Yankee stadium and the empire state of mind is being shown this shows us the modern version of RnB is now more Jazzy and Blues, which is at the heart of New York.

The artist has his hair combed back and is wearing a white half sleeved shirt that has a black waist coat kind of design on it this shows the genre being RnB as he is setting a new trend and also going with the classic look but also making it more fashionable. The artist’s body language in the video also has an RnB feel to it as he’s dancing in a jazz and more classic way as he’s standing on the both of his toes.

Copyright Permission Letter

Dear Copyright Holder,

I am an A-Level student and I am writing to request your permission to use one of the latest tracks by........... The track I chose to use is........

With your permission, this task would be used in my current A-Level Media Studies project, which involves creating a music video to a popular music track, as well as producing an album and a magazine advert for the artist.

If I received your permission, this track would ONLY be used in an educational context and be viewed by our media class, our teacher and the OCR exam board moderator. It would not be realized to a large audience.

The artist and your company would of course be fully recognized throughout pre-production and the final video itself. A copyright notice with wording supplied by you can be included in the records of the project. If this is required, please send full details.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Regards
Susan Gurung