Target Audiences

The Mass/Mainstream Audience :

Some media texts attempt to appeal to a broad range of people. Although difficult to achieve, this is an ideal way to create very large audiences and, therefore, maximize the potential for success and ultimately profit. This group, consisting of males and females, young and old and a wide range of social groups is often called the mainstream or mass audience.

Niche Audiences :  

The mass audience is not the only one that can make a lot of money for media producers. Some media texts are created with a specific sub-section of the audience in mind - a niche audience. Whilst a niche audience is likely to be smaller in number than a mass audience, there are many ways appealing to a specific group can be profitable. Niche audiences are ones which have a specific interest in the content of the media text. This means they are more likely to:
• be loyal (watching or reading on a regular basis)
• purchase other products related to the media texts – merchandise/ DVDs etc.
• respond to advertising which is targeted towards their interests

Target Audience vs Actual Audience : 

Even though media producers may have a specific audience in mind when creating a media text, this is not to say that only those people targeted will access these texts.
Men are known to read women’s lifestyle magazines and women will watch Fifth Gear even though they may not be the target audience for these texts and are in the minority.
The actual audience may end up being quite different to the intended target audience.

The Importance of Audience.

One of the most important concepts within Media Studies is that of audience.

Every media text is made with a view to pleasing an audience in some way.

Success is measured by the audiences response to a media text and those that do not attract and maintain an audience do not survive. At the heart of this is the fact that all media texts are created in order to make money. They do this in a number of ways: 
• Films – via box office takings, DVD and other related merchandise sales 
• Newspapers and magazines – via advertising revenues and sales 
• Television programmes (commercial TV) – via advertising sales, sponsorship and audience participation 
• Television and Radio etc. (Public Service Broadcasting) - The BBC are not funded by advertising but they need to be able to justify the money they receive via the licence fee.

The way they gauge the popularity and the success of the television and radio programming is through the viewing/listening figures.

If a media text is deemed successful it needs to attempt to ensure it offers appropriate pleasures (gratifications) its audience. Each media text will be targeted towards a specific group and the way it is constructed will be carefully considered in light of who the target audience is.

Music Video Conventions.

1. Camera Shots: 

• Long shots to create emphasis on the location of the video.
• Close ups to emphasise the emotions of the artists which often show the artist lip syncing the lyrics, this is common with emotional ballads (eg. Sinead O'Connor - Nothing Compares 2 U)

•  Camera movement such as panning, tracking and ariel shots are used to follow the artist, especially if the music video is telling a particular story.

1. Mise-en-scene: 

• Mise-en-scene puts importance on the representation of something.
• In music videos, the mise-en-scene is important because it usually reflects the mood of the song through the use of atmosphere. 
• For example, a music video for an upbeat dance song would have a happy mood and atmosphere. (eg Mark Ronson - Uptown Funk, this video uses bright colours and the mood is very happy)

• Lighting, props, camera, editing and storyline all make up the mise-en-scene of a music video.
• Music video producers use all these methods to convey the meaning of the song.

Editing: 

• Jump cuts is the predominant editing technique used in music videos. This is because this allows a sudden change from one scene to another. 
• Similarly, transitions such as fade and dissolve are very common in music videos as they create a different effect to cuts. 
• It is common is music videos to cut between a storyline and shots of a band/artist lip syncing.

Lighting:

• Some music videos are black and white which help emphasise a particular mood and some videos have artificial lighting which put the artist/s in an enhanced look.

This is an example of a black and white video, in this case the lighting is meant to convey a cool 'rock and roll' mood:



Sound:

• Sound is mainly the vocals or the song but in some cases such as Michael Jackson – Thriller, the producers can make the music video into a short film.

 

 Props:

• These are a vital in aiding to add to the scene and create significance on particular objects or people.

Conventions in Indie/Rock music videos:

• black and white
• The artist/band is shown throughout the video
• Use of extreme close ups and long shots are popular 
• Dark locations 
• Fast paced 
• Some use of special effects

Conventions in Hip Hop music videos:

• Location usually in clubs/parties with dance scenes
• Use of alcohol
• Recognised brands and clothing
• Expensive cars and houses
• 
  

  Camera shots tend to long and establishing to show the money involved.
• Close ups to show the jewellery and assets of the artists.
• Attractive women seen as objects/dancing for men
• Usually does not follow a storyline, only follows the genre conventions

Conventions in Pop music videos:

• Bright and colourful
• Very upbeat
• Close ups of the artist usually lip-syncing, showing the happy and upbeat and happy emotions  
• Aims at the teenage audience

Andrew Goodwin: 6 key features of music videos.

Andrew Goodwin, in Dancing in the Distraction Facotry (1992), identified the following features of music videos:

1. Music videos demonstrate genre characteristics (eg stage performance in rock video, dance routine for boy/girl band)
2. There is a relationship between lyrics and visuals (either illustrative, amplifying or contradicting)
3. There is a relationship between music and visuals (either illustrative, amplifying or contradicting)
4. The demands of the record label will include the need for lots of close-ups of the artist and thhe artist may develop motifs which recur across their work (a visual style)
5. There is frequently reference to the notion of looking (screens within screens, telescopes etc) and particular voyeuristic treatment of the female body
6. There is often inter-textual reference (to films, TV programs, other music videos etc)

Our Group.

Today we got put into our groups for making our music videos. We got to choose who we wanted to work with so me Sophia and Wini decided that we wanted to work together.

We all thought we would work well as a group because we all wanted to use the same genre of music (indie) and we all have different skills in media. Sophia said she is good at and enjoys the direction side of it, Wini likes production and has good organisational and I like editing and have some previous experience so we thought it would be perfect to mix all our skills together and possibly learn things from each other. We all also get along as friends and we all agreed that this is really important to have a harmonious working environment.

I'm really exited to see what comes out of this collaboration!

Notes on Wini's presentation.

R&B

• Louis Jordan was a pioneer of RnB with his band 'Tympany Five'

General characteristics:

• integration of country and city blues styles
• Use of electric or amplified instruments
• Very popular in the African American community in the post WW2 years

60s and 70s:

• RnB started to merge more into soul
• MoTown emerged as a genre. eg. Smokey Robinson, Marvin Gaye, James Brown and Stevie Wonder.

Different styles of soul:

• Gospel
• RnB
• Rock and Roll

80s and 90s:

• RnB added stylish components such as Hip-Hop
• Rapping was introduced in the 90s

2000s:

• Mainstream RnB merged with pop.
• Rap became much more common in RnB

Music videos all have quite a similar vibe, usually include club/dancing scenes.



Click HERE to see Wini's presentation on her blog.

Notes on Sophia's presentaion.

Latin Music

• It has exceptional character and rhythm with a rich mixture of vocals and instrumental details.
• Latin music is the outcome of a complex social and historical development that took place in the America's arrival of Columbus.
• It also incorporates African music from the slaves who were brought to America by Europeans
• Influence from Native music, for example the Mayans.
• Numerous pre-columbine cultures used wind instruments and flutes made throughout the continent.
• Linked with countries like Mexico, Columbia, Brazil, Cuba, Puerto Rico and Argentina, the rhythms have come and been passed down through the ages.
• Roots in African music.

Types of Latin music:

• Samba
• Bossa Nova
• Salsa
• Tango
• Rumba
• Mambo
• Reggeaton
• Flamenco

An example of early Latin music (1985):



An example of Flamenco:



Latin Pop : Combines upbeat Latin music with American pop music

Some Examples:





Click HERE to see Sophia's presentation on her blog.

Notes on Millie's presentation.

Country Music

• Originated in southern states of America
• Comes from folk blues and western music
• Often consists of ballads and dance tunes with generally simple forms and harmonies
• During 1970-1990 the genre changed, merging with genres such as pop and rock making the genres country rock and country pop

*copy in timeline from Millies blog of generations of country music*

• Most songs tell a story, about love and loss
• The videos, therefore, also often try to narrate the lyrics.

An example of modern country:



Older country (1980):

Click HERE to see Millie's

My Presentaion on Indie Music.

Introduction.

My name is Maddy Rich and I am currently studying A2 Media Studies at King Alfred School. This blog is a way of documenting all my work and my progress through the course, where I will show my work, research and final product. The end product of this course will be a music video, I will show all the ups and downs of the build up to the final video along with all the research trips and inspiration.