Research: Audiences

AUDIENCE IDENTIFICATION

An audience is a group of people who identify themselves as listeners or watchers of a media product. In the music industry, artists have an audience who enjoy, discuss and anticipate their music. Members of the same audience are likely to feel comfortable with each other, whereas some audiences are against others - for example, 'Beliebers' (Justin Bieber fans) have rivalry with 'Selenators' (Selena Gomez fans) due to two artists' romantic relationship. An audience is not only there to make artists a profit, but believe they have the role to consider the artist as a person and keep updated with their life. 

This is a fan-made visual representation of the rivalry that goes on between fan bases. The opposition tends to happen via Twitter, as all fan bases flock to social media to follow their favourite artist.

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Before a product starts being produced, some research needs to be done on who it will be aimed at. Without a target audience, there is no point in trying to sell something as there would be no distinct group of people interested. Audiences can be categorised by their demographics, such as: 

• INCOME - the bourgeoisie are associated with 'true art' because they have the income to invest in more 'classy' media products of a higher standard. This applies to other forms of media such as theater performances. 

• AGE - certain themes, genres, contexts, implications and ideologies work best with certain age groups. For example, R&B has a large focus on love and sex, which is deemed inappropriate for a young child to listen to or watch being demonstrated.

• GENDER - gender stereotyped shape what types of music males and females flock to. Typically, girl-groups appeal to girls as they draw upon more sensitive, mild themes such as having fun and/or partying. However, boy-bands have also appealed greatly to young females for their good looks.

• RACE - different cultures produce different music. For example, Bollywood has a completely different array of conventions to Hollywood in the Western world. If a Western artist draws upon different cultures, they must be careful to not portray negative ideologies about it such as poverty in Africa. However, this can have positive intentions such as awareness. 

• LOCATION - this can also influence an audience. The grime genre tends to have videos shot on the streets of London, which appeal to regular Londoners who face issues that are raised in the lyrics. 

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AUDIENCE CATEGORIES BY POSITION IN SOCIETY

• Individuals that fall under social class A and B are more likely to listen to genres such as classic, jazz, opera. These genres are accepted as the highest standard of music, so a correlation forms; the higher a person's position in society is, the higher their standard of music taste.
• Likewise, individuals in social class E and D are more likely to listen to grime and rap. Artists of these genres often say that they grew up in rough areas or lifestyles, so express that in their music. This issue dominantly surrounds the working/under-class groups, so consumers in D and E are able to show better appreciation of these genres.  

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ADVANTAGES OF CATEGORIZING AUDIENCES

• clear target audience

• efficient research

• identification of elements

• yield percentage based on income

• convergence with companies

DISADVANTAGES

• individuals may not fit into certain categories; e.g. a teacher in class B may not be earning what typical class B candidates earn.

• this doesn't consider diversity; someone in a particular class of or a particular genre may have alternative interests.

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Different genres have different audiences. Some examples include:

• POP appeals to females, 11-15, who have parents earning a decent income in order to keep up with the rapidly changing charts for their child's satisfaction. As a large proportion of pop stars are of white ethnicity, their audience is likely to also be dominantly white.

• RAP themes are often too serious, sexual or influential for young children which makes its target audience male adults of 18-25. Many rappers are of black ethnicity and incorporate black culture into their music, appealing to a large part of the black community. Rap is, most of the time, about struggles in life that many working-class people can relate to from experience.

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AUDIENCE REACTIONS

There are different ways in which an audience receive media content. Some of these relate to the theories by Hebdige, Goodwin and Dyer.

AUDIENCE ENGAGEMENT - this describes how an audience interacts with a media text. Different people react in different ways to the same text. Hebdige's theory can be applied here in the context of consumers being active. We read media through an active process which allows for interpretation of one final product. 

AUDIENCE EXPECTATIONS -  these are what the audience thinks about an artist and their music, for example audiences expect certain aspects from different genres. This links to Goodwin's theory of 8 music video conventions, the first being genre characteristics. Depending on the genre, certain themes or ideas are portrayed time after time to keep to the tradition of the genre. 

AUDIENCE FOREKNOWLEDGE - This is what the audience knows about a music artist and their song/video. According to Goodwin, fans of niche artists are more loyal so this would be more prominent in non-mainstream music. However mainstream artists need to please a much larger group of people which may make it harder to choose what to represent. 

AUDIENCE IDENTIFICATION - This is how an audience relates to an artist. Dyer's star theory suggests that stars build a connection with their audience by withdrawing from the fame at time to display their 'real, 'normal' life, closer to those of the consumers. For example, the uproar about Rihanna's assault by Chris Brown reminded the world that she is a human being, causing her audience to be sympathetic and in anticipation of her next album which may draw upon the incident. 

AUDIENCE PLACEMENT -  this is how the media producers target a particular audience and make them feel that the music video is specially 'for them'. In niche genres, this ensures long-term loyalty of audiences. An example is through George Michael targeting the gay community by expressing gay rights in his music.  

AUDIENCE RESEARCH -  measuring an audience is important to all media institutions. Research is done at all stages of production and once produced, the audience will be continuously monitored. 

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CONCLUSION: At the moment my target audience is very vague, I aim to direct my music video toward those who like a particular niche genre, although because niche genres are so 'different', it's difficult to define the demographics of who exactly consumes the products. There needs to be a heavy emphasis on audience research, audience placement and audience expectations. I don't think audience engagement in terms of diverse people is very important, as I am not aiming to work with a mainstream genre, thus very specific individuals will be reading into it.