Audience Questionnaires & Feedback

We wrote the questionnaires for our target audience to fill out. We printed out numerous copies of this questionnaire and ask a large group of teenagers to fill it in for us so that we would gain a better understanding of how teenagers (our target audience) view music videos and what they would like to see in a music video so that we can compare their thoughts and opinions to our music video to see if we have what they are looking for and if there are areas we need to rethink or add more to.

We got a variety of feedback from the questionnaires, but overall we discovered that pop is the most popular type of music amongst our target audience, this is beneficial to us as our song is a pop song so should appeal to the target audience. Further more, one person states that their favourite music was ‘Egyptian garage funk’- this is perfect as our artist is fro Egypt and the music has Arabic, Egyptian elements- this is perfect for our target audience. We noticed that most of our target audience enjoy having something to follow when it comes to a music video, this is a slight issue as we feel our music video's story line is not very clear as it follows a theme of limbo which is an unusual area that people don't know much about, so in order to improve this aspect of the video I think we will have to clarify the story line slightly, we could do this by making some connection between Elina and the limbo state so that the audience are aware that it is her limbo experience we are watching. Although the story line is not blinding obvious and generic, there is still a story line, about a girl who gets hit by a car and is trying to come back to life- this is similar to the theme of a Rudimental video ‘Tell Me That You Need Me’, which one of our audience members said was their favourite music video, which is about a boy who has a cycling accident and then his journey to regain his strength. This means our video will appeal to the same audience as Rudimental and hopefully be a pre-sold element to our music video.

The age bracket we chose for out target audience stated that what they are looking for in a music video is first of all dance, they wanted something that will be visually pleasing, something that will excite them and make them want to watch the music video over and over again- further, many people say they want something that is ‘unique’ that they have not seen before; this relates to our music video as the theme of our music video (life vs. death and limbo) has not been explored in many music videos. Our audience further stated that the presentation of the artist in the music video is very important, that “people take a lot of inspiration and ideas from the way the artist is presented in the music video”, furthermore, “they should be the center point of everything”, and this is also reflected in our music video as Elina will be the center point of the music video- she will have the most screen time- moreover, she will be wearing three different outfits which will appeal to the audience as people take inspiration from our artist. Furthermore, many people state that the look of the artist is crucial in the selling of their music, for in they are not attractive and not presented well, their music will not sell (especially in pop)- one of our audience states “the artist appearance will get them attention and recognition which will cause their music to sell”. Another states “their look is their image, and their image is their marketing, and especially in today’s industry, where pop culture and social networking is the beacon of the selling of music, their look has to appeal to the teen market, or else their music will not sell”- this directly relates to our music video as our star is very attractive and will attract both male and female audience members, the women will want to be her friend, and the men will want to be with her.

What many people think makes a music video unique is their costumes, dance routines and the general concept of their music video. They want something that “has not been done before”, which can “catch their eye” and “leave an impression”, this is exactly what our music video provides. Firstly, the costumes we have are very different to any others in music videos, as most videos do not use paint as the costume- this unique feature will attract a wide target audience. Furthermore, many people think interesting dance routines make things interesting, this is exactly what our music video provides, the dancing in it is not the generic ‘pop’ dancing that is seen in many other music videos, it is different, there is an Egyptian twist to it, it is very old school commercial with a modern foreign flare to it- this will appeal to our target audience as they will be attracted to the uniqueness of it. Lastly they feel that a unique concept makes for a good music video- again this is reinforced with the unusual narrative we have taken- a state between life and death, appealing to our target audience.

 It is also apparent in our research that the music video is very important in the selling of the actual song, for example, one person said “it is very important, it shows what the song means to the band, what they look like, and how they are expecting us to feel about the song”. Furthermore, it has become apparent, especially now a days, that the music video is also a massive publicity stunt, for example Miley Cyrus’s music video for “Wrecking Ball” and “We Cant Stop”, were scandalous and were frowned upon, but they also create hype, to the point at even 2 months after the video released, people are still talking about it- this caused both the 2 singles and the album to become number 1, world wide. This shows how important the music video is to the selling of the artist- especially artist who are in the pop industry, which our artist is.

However, people have expressed that what they do not like about the music video is when the artist goes to far with what they are doing, for example, Rihanna has just released “Pour It Up”, which was banned from www.youtube.com 10 minutes after it was published because it broke to many conventions, it was to revealing, had explicit themes and could not be shown publically. This means that the music video could not be seen by all of her fans, meaning that her music will not be as widely known because of her lack of music video- this means that with out music video, we must ensure that it sticks to the conventions of www.youtube.com to ensure that it is not to risky or provocative. Furthermore, people dislike when they are predictable, and not interesting enough- we have accounted for this in our music video as at the end of the video- the girl effectively gets hit by a car and in slow motion returns back to life- this will engage the audience and they will not predict that will happen. Lastly, people do not like it when the artist is not shown in the video.

All this feedback we have taken on board and will take note of when creating our music video- for we want to appeal to our target audience as they will be the ones viewing, sharing and publicizing our music video.