A performance video in less than 10 words:

There is a band performing and is cheap to make. 

Andrew Goodwin's Theory

Andrew Goodwin theory suggested that music videos are made to 'sell' the star and he said that there are six different conventions within a music video.

1. He said there is a relationship between the lyrics and the visuals which can either amplify or contradict the lyrics.
2. Through beats - the video is edited in a way which fits in with the beat of the song
3. Iconography - Most artists have a 'trademark' which they're well known for or represents the genre of the song
4. Close Ups - to sell the artist or the single
5. Voyeurism - to enhance the audience's interest by sexualizing the artist
6. Intertexuality - some videos have a direct reference to another media product

An Example:
In McFly - Love is on the Radio we can see an element of these conventions.

1. There is a relationship between the lyrics and visuals which amplify the lyrics - when they sing 'we could be married like MRS and MR' Harry shows his wedding ring and when Tom and Danny stand together Danny points to Tom on MR. Also when they sing 'we'll have a song and we'll give him a sister' it shows what could be Tom/Harry's son and then it shows Tom cradling his arms like a baby therefore referencing the lyrics. There are lots of links between lyrics and visuals.
2. The editing also fits in with the beat as the edits follow off from each beat, each cut emphasizes the lyrics of the song
3. McFly represent the genre of rock as they all play their own instruments and they wear rock clothing I.e. smart casual - jeans, waistcoats, hats but they don't as a band have iconography as such
4. Again in this video there are various close up shots of each member of the band, this would appeal to the teenage girls who follow the band as they may like a specific member of the band and so it encourages them to watch the video
5. There isn't a large element of voyeurism in this video as there are no women however it could apply to the band still as teenage girls may see them as attractive however in this video they aren't sexualised.
6. There is some intertexuality in this video i.e. Dougie licking the hammer is taken from Miley Cyrus' Wrecking Ball which is a direct reference to her music video.

Questonnaire Results

We recently conducted a survey to our aimed target audience (teens) to try and find out what they like and why they watch music videos. This is our feedback.

1. What is your age?

The most popular age was 17 however there were a couple 16 year olds and one 18 year old.

• From this we know that the main target audience that like rock music videos are aimed at teens aged around 17, when it comes to planning our music video we know to cater to that specific age range.

2. Would you be happy to appear in a feedback video?

5 people said Yes which amounted to 29.41%, 12 people said No they did not want to appear in the feedback 70.59%.

• From this we now have 5 people who we can film for the filmed focus group to which we can pitch our ideas to and get further feedback.

3. Please rank your top music genres which you enjoy most.

Above is the table of our results from this question. If we look at the Rock Row we can see that 10 people said that Rock was their favourite, 9 said they liked it, 1 person said they disliked it and 1 person said they hated it. We also know that rock music was the most popular as almost 50% said it was their favourite and only 5% disliked/hated it.

• From this we can see that for teens a popular music choice is either Rock or Pop music, therefore we know that from our music video again we can cater to the teen audience by using rock codes and conventions.

4. Why do you like Rock Music?

There were a lot of responses to this question, the lyrics of the song was a popular response to this and the answers included "the lyrics have meaning", I feel that I can connect and relate to the lyrics", "The lyrics are much more relatable" and "strong lyrics"

Also other comments included about the beat "generally upbeat".

The majority of answers involved being fun and good to listen to - "full of energy", "You can have a great time with friends listening to it!", "sub-genres of Rock cater for every mood".

A couple of answers involved being able to play instruments "I like that most rock bands play their own instruments, and their songs are usually pretty good" and " rock bands are actually talented and can create their own music unlike pop stars"

• From this we can see that teens like rock music for the beat but also that they feel they can relate to the lyrics and message of the song.

5. What are your three favourite rock bands?

We put this information into a table of all the rock bands that were said from this question -

From this we can see that a lot of bands were suggested from this question and a few came up a couple of times. For example AC/DC came up 4 times. Bon Jovi, Imagine Dragons, Nirvana, Patent Pending, Queen, Fall out boy, Bowling for soup all twice. There are quite a variety of rock bands that have been suggested, therefore from this we can use this to help with our research by comparing rock bands.

6. On what platform do you watch music videos?

From this table we can see that the 90% of our respondents watch music videos on Youtube, and only 10% of them watch music videos on the bands official website. This can be useful to us in terms of distribution as we know where it would be effective to post to get the views. However music channels still have about 35% of the views. 

7. How often do you spend watching music videos?

From this we can see that the most popular option is 0-30 minutes as 66.67% said this is how long they watched music videos for, this could mean that they lose interest after a short amount of time therefore we need to make our music video interesting as only a small amount of people watch music videos for much longer. We need to gain their attention.

8. How many rock music videos do you watch in a week?

From this we can see that the majority of people (66.7%) watch 0-2 music videos in a week. 14.27% said they watched 2-4 and another 14.27% said they watched 4-6, no one watches 6-8 or 8-10 but one person watches over 10 videos per week. Gain this could mean people don't watch many as they don't seem interested so we need to make sure we gain their attention, however it also needs to stand out from the other music videos watched. As the majority of recipients were 17 therefore they were students they may not have as much free time to watch as many music videos or they may watch a different type of genre. 

9. How often do you spend listening to music in a day?

From this we can see this is more varied than music videos providing that listening to music is preferred to watching the music videos. 8 people said they listened to music for over 2 hours, 4 people said that they listened to music for 0-30 minutes and a further 4 said 31 minutes- 1 hour. The least popular option was 1 hour 31 - 2 hours followed by an hour to an hour and a half. This is much more varied than watching the music videos as people can listen to music whilst doing other things however it still proves that music is a very popular past time.

10. What do you expect to see from rock videos?
We asked the recipients to tell us what they expected to see from a rock music video.

"Dark urban background                                            

guitars, drums, rugged looking men                                            

a guitar (we had guitar's and guitar solo's mentioned about four times)     

drums                                   

lots of fun                                                                                     

a good song                                            

The Rock and roll lifestyle of the artist

being able to picture being able to rave to the song in a nightclub                                            

Musicians actually loving what they do                                            

amazing stage presence

in touch with the crowd

heavy breakdowns, heavy

originality                                            

Loads of people aimlessly screaming                                             

Catchy tune

good lyrics

having fun                                                                                                                                                                             

Animal print leggings and wigs                                            

good performances                                            

a good message in each song                                           

performance/maybe a visual narrative"     

Therefore from this feedback we know the kind of things that our teenage audience expects to see from a rock video; so we can try and incorporate these things into the video to please the audience. Therefore we can still follow the conventions of rock music as most of the comments suggested are involved in the iconography of rock music videos i.e. guitar solo's and live performances.                                        

                         

Questionnaire

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Applying Audience Theory to a Rock Music Video

The uses and gratifications theory is an approach to understand why people seek specific media platforms to satisfy specific needs, in this case music videos. The uses and gratifications theory focuses on 'what do people do with media?' - it discusses different factors to why the audiences selects that specific media product. These factors are information, relaxation, social iterations, entertainment or escape. 

Information: this is the idea that audiences watch media products to find out about relevant events in immediate surroundings or around the world, they want to seek advice on practical matters, to satisfy curiosities, or to learn something new.

Personal Identity: this is the idea that audiences watch media products to gain an insight to their personal self, to find reinforcements for personal values or to find models of behaviour. 

Social Interaction: this is the idea that an audience watch media products to gain an insight into the lives of others, social empathy, to identify with others or gain a sense of belonging, to find a basis for conversation or social interaction, to have a substitute for real-life companionship or to connect with family, friends and society. 

Entertainment: this is the idea that the audience watch media products to escape or be diverted from their real-life problems, to relax, to fill time, emotional release, sexual arousal and for general enjoyment. 

Now we can apply this to an alternative rock music video. 

We Are The In Crowd - The Best Thing (That Never Happened)

If we apply the uses and gratifications theory to this video to see why people would watch this video then we would rely on Entertainment or social interaction. This is because the typical target audience for We Are The In Crowd are teens/young adults probably aged around 16-22.

If we apply social interaction as most teenagers watch music videos because they've heard a friend talking about it so they want to see what its about. This means they then have something to talk about at school. It may also be because they feel they can relate to the song specifically girls as its about a boy who you're glad you never got together with.

Similarly if we apply entertainment we know that teens often have spare time on weekends or evenings therefore they could be watching music videos to fill time, similarly they may enjoy watching music videos to get away from the stress or troubles that comes with school work. In terms of sexual arousal this video would appeal to both boys who would find the lead singer attractive or to girls who find the rest of the male members attractive. 

Therefore to a teenager this would satisfy both their social interaction and entertainment needs which is why they would watch this music video. 

Analysis of Similar Media Products

TASK: at least three music videos analysed in detail

Best Music Video - Summer 2014

5 Seconds of Summer - Amnesia

• To improve the video I would add more scenes about the personal relationship as opposed to a group with a girl to make it fit the lyrics better it would also make it more emotional - which is what the song is as he's singing about missing a girl, i would add more performance of the band performing the song as opposed to shots individually
• I think that the blur effect could be taken out because it doesn't fit in as its every now and again, also I would take out some of the individual shots of them singing as it doesn't convey that they're a band 
• The video conforms to the genre of rock/pop from the performance with the instruments you can see electric guitars, bass and drums to show they're a rock/pop band, you can also tell by the costumes i.e. jeans and t-shirts which is quite casual