Pie Charts

Pie Charts

We chose to create pie charts to show the answers we received as this not only showed the majority answer easily, but also allowed us to see what other people said too. Some questions included a requirement to justify an answer, in which we read and discussed as to whether each opinion could be interpreted into our music video. Here are the pie charts and some of the answers:

Question 1: Are you male or female?

We deliberately split our sample in to 2, so that half consisted of females and the other half consisted of males; giving us an equal amount of opinions from both genders. This allowed us to correlate each person's preference according to their gender and therefore, we could have a better idea as to who our target audience was in terms of gender. It allows us to specify our target audience more accurately in order to increase the music video's appeal.

Question 2: How old are you?

Before conducting our research, we had a brief outline that our target audience would majority consist of 17-21 year olds, second being 10-16 as these age ranges are more likely to relate to a current artist. Therefore our sample consisted of mostly 17-21 year olds, followed by 10-16 year olds and only asking a couple of adults to interpret another's opinion. By asking our intended target audience regarding their preferences when watching a music video, we are able to receive their opinion on a larger scale and therefore we are able to include their preferences to increase the appeal of the music video in terms of what they want.

Question 3: What is your favourite genre of music?

We asked each participant what their favourite genre of music was, so that we were aware of the genre that most appealed to them; which was Indie. Indie is a very current genre, as it is perceived to subvert mainstream conventions in which this is what makes it original and therefore appealing. Indie music videos are typically very simplistic and minimal in diversity and therefore would be an effective genre to adopt in terms of our music video as a successful Indie video is achievable but still challenging. Also, as it was the most popular answer, this will appeal to our target audience and in turn will be a success.

Question 4: Do you prefer to listen to solo artists or bands?

We decided to ask participants their preference regarding bands or solo artists as this gave us an indication as to the types of artists they are interested in and the representation in which they find appealing in order to adopt such opinion in our own works. From the pie chart, we can see that the majority of the sample enjoy listening to solo artists in comparison to bands, in which this suggests that our music video would be more appealing if to use a solo artist as this is our target audience's choice. Also, as it is a clear majority that feel such way, we have decided to use a solo artist so that the music video appeals to a mass audience rather than niche.

Question 5: Do you prefer to see the artist in the music video?

Music videos vary according to artist representation according to the artist themselves, record label requirements and the generic conventions. In order to create an artist representation effectively, it can be argued that the artist must be present in the video in order for the audience and artist to build a relationship; in which this is particularly relevant to our findings.The majority of people stated that they preferred to actually see the artist in the video, in which we also agree with for several reasons. The first being that, according to the Indie genre, it is conventional for the artist to be not only present in their video, but to perform the song in which we have decided to do also.Also, by having the artist present it appears to the audience that they are more involved in their work, rather than a constructed commodity made for consumerism. It creates the impression that they care of what they are doing and who they are doing it for (target audience) and therefore is more appealing. 

Question 6: What style of music video do you enjoy most?

Music videos are constructed upon the basis of 3 main styles; performance, narrative and concept. We asked participants which style they preferred, in order to see which was most popular within our target audience, which we found to be narrative, followed by performance and then concept. Once established that this is what our target audience preferred overall, as a group we agreed that a narrative based music video is effective in engaging the audience as well as giving the audience a deeper understanding of the song itself as they will visually see our own interpretation of the song. On the other hand, by having a running narrative throughout the whole video, this may take the attention away from both the song and artist. Therefore, we decided to have a running narrative throughout the song as well as the artist performing the song between frames, as this allows the audience to see the audience as well as the narrative; in turn appealing to a wider target audience.

Question 7: Do you prefer the music video to be conventional to its genre or diverse? Why?

The results from the first part of the question showed that people preferred a music video that was conventional to its genre rather than diverse in style. Here are some of the reasons they had for their opinion:

'I prefer a conventional music video as they are easier to understand. A music video that is too diverse can be confusing.' 

Karis Myers, 17

'Conventional music videos offer visual appeal without taking the focus away from the song and artist. If there is too much going on the audience is unable to connect to the song and artist.' 

Jackie Jarvis, 18

'Diverse music videos are unpredictable. Because they subvert generic conventions, the audience are unable to guess what is going to happen; therefore keeps them engaged as to what is going on.' Charlie Snow, 16

'Music videos that are diverse gives the artist appeal as their image is different from mainstream artists, it gives us something different to watch, someone different to be interested in.' 

Alfie Reynolds, 17

From the comments we received regarding each individual's preference and why, we discovered both positives and negatives of having a conventional video; it is easier to understand, allows the audience to focus on the artist, however can also become  predictable. A diverse music video also have positives and negatives; they are unpredictable and engaging but can also become over complicated and therefore confusing as the audience are unable to connect with the artist or song. In terms of our chosen genre, we decided that a conventional music video would be most suited as indie artists typically have simplistic videos of which are mainly focused on the lyrics and the effective narrative in which we feel we can create. Also, the majority of the sample of the target audience stated that they preferred conventional music videos for similar reasons and therefore we will be appealing to our target audience more successfully if we were to adopt such style.

Question 8: Typically, how do you watch music videos?

We asked each participant how they typically watched music videos, whether it be YouTube, music channels, on their phones or on the artist's website; in which this gives us a better idea as to how to distribute our final product so that it is easily accessible for our target audience. Therefore, a higher amount of our target audience are more likely to find our music video and in turn, we will have a wider variation of opinion as to how appealing it is, allowing us to effectively evaluate whether the video is successful according to the target audience and how we could improve. The majority of the sample answered that YouTube was the most typical distributor that they used to watch music videos, in which this is how we plan to distribute our product as, not only will the majority of our target audience find this appealing and therefore are more likely to watch the video, this is the most realistic method to make our video accessible by others.

Question 9: Do you prefer a simple music video or one that includes special effects? Why?

We included this question to establish the style in which our target audience preferred, whether it be simplistic or complex; one that included special effects. This allowed us to see what they preferred to have in the content of the video in much more detail rather than just the overall style. We found that 75% of the sample preferred to have a music video that was simple rather than complex. Here are some of the comments in which participants wrote in justifying their opinions:

'Simple music videos provide entertainment for the audience without having to concentrate on the video in order to understand it. It works with the song rather than competing it with it.'

Jack Earl, 17

'I prefer music that are simple because they represent the artist as easy to relate to. By having a complex video this presents the artist as extravagant and over the top rather than showing their love of music, a much easier quality to relate to.'

Daisy Tuson, 18

'Complex videos are exciting and more engaging. They attract people's attention more because there is more too look at.'

Charlotte Watt, 18

'Special effects gives the music video something out of the ordinary, a attribute that other music videos don't have because special effects can be used in different ways, meaning that even if two videos use special effects, both will still be different in content.'

Ryan Drinkwater, 17

These comments provided an outlook as to why our target audience preferred either simple or complex music videos and through this, we were able to establish positives and negatives for both. Simple music videos are complimentary and provide an artist easy to relate to but can appear boring. Whereas complex videos are more engaging and can appear divers, however can appear over powering for some viewers. In order to compliment our chosen genre and representation of the artist  we have decided to do a simple music video, as this is also conventional to the indie genre. Not only this, but the majority of our target audience are more appealed to simple music videos.

Question 10: Have you heard of the artist Nina Nesbitt?

  

Nina Nesbitt is an individual Indie artist, in which we planned to do our music video to one of her songs. We wanted to see if our target audience had already heard of her, in order to see if they had existing perceptions of her. The majority of the sample had not heard of Nina Nesbitt, which could be perceived as an advantage as this allows us to represent the artist effectively through our own interpretation of her. It allows the audience to see a short representation of her, encouraging them to build a relationship with 'her'. In turn, this gives the artist more publicity and more people are aware of her.

Question 11: If yes, what is your favourite song of hers?

Participants who answered that they had answered of Nina Nesbitt, were then further asked what their favourite song of hers is, too see if our target audience had a song in which they already found appealing. Findings suggest that the song 'Stay Out' was most popular as it reached number 21 in the charts. However, this songalready has a pre-existing music video, in which our would been seen as competition and therefore the audience would be constantly comparing. The next most  popular song was 'Noserings and Shoestrings' with 3 people claiming it was their favourite song of Nina Nesbitt's. This song doesn't have a music video and therefore would be most suitable to our project. 

How how this research assisted our planning for our music video?

Each question addressed a detail within the music video, with each answer providing us with the majority preference regarding the detail, and each pie chart allowing as to quantify each individual's opinion. By identifying the overall preference, this allows us to make our music video more appealing to our target audience. From this particular piece of research conducted we have found that:

• Indie genre is most commonly liked amongst our target audience, in which we have decided to adopt this genre in our music video as a result.
• Our target audience prefer to listen to solo artists rather than bands, and once again we have decided to involve this in our music video as this allows a more intimate relationship between artist and audience as they only have one person to focus on/be interested in.
• It is preferred to see the artist present in the music video as this indicates that the song is much more personal to them, and that they are more involved in there work. This suggests that they are also more bothered about their target audience as they want to fulfil their interest. We have decided to have our artist present in the music video so that our audience can connect with them.
• Both narrative and performance based music videos are the most liked in comparison to concept. This style is most conventional in the indie genre and therefore it would be suitable to adopt such style.
• Conventional music videos are more popular than diverse music video among the target audience as they are easier to understand and allows the audience to focus on the song/artist; an effect in which we wish to create and therefore creating a conventional indie music video.
• YouTube is the most popular distributor in which our target audience go to to watch music videos, and therefore when the product is complete we will put it on to YouTube for the majority of our target audience to watch and determine whether it is appealing or not. This will in turn, give us details as to what went right and what went wrong.
• Our target audience prefer music videos that are simple, in which this is a convention of an indie music video we will be including to appeal to our target audience as this compliments the song rather than competes with it.
• The majority of our target audience havent heard of Nina Nesbitt, however this allows us the create our own representation of the artist. People who had heard of her most commonly liked 'Stay Out' and 'Noserings and Shoestrings'.