Research & Planning 10- Audience Research

Why do people choose to listen to the music that they do?

People choose certain types of music to listen to, for a number of reasons. Listening to the same music as your friends do is very common, as the influence of a friends taste in music is very powerful, particularly at a younger age. Loved ones, including family can also have a strong impact on your taste in music.

Lyrics may inspire a person to listen to a certain type of music, or be a catalyst for emotion, such as 'joy'
"Cause holy cow, I love your eyes And only now I see you like Yeah, lying with me half awake Stumbling over what to say Well, anyway, it's looking like a beautiful day, Throw those curtains wide! One day like this a year'd you see me right Throw those curtains wide! One day like this a year'd we'll sing it right"
- Elbow

Or deep meaningful lyrics that people find they can relate to.
"Never mind, I'll find someone like you I wish nothing but the best for you, too Don't forget me, I begged, I remember you said Sometimes it lasts in love, but sometimes it hurts instead Sometimes it lasts in love, but sometimes it hurts instead"
- Adele

The beat of a song can also be an attraction, stereo typically depending on your personality. For example if you are an outgoing party animal you may tend to like up beat dance tracks. If you are an introvert who is very quiet and shy you may tend to enjoy a song with a slower beat, so you can listen more to the lyrics. This is a very stereotypical view, and obviously most people listen to more than one genre of music.

Do music videos make a difference to a persons choice of music?

This entirely depends on how a person views their music. Some people listen to their music on there ipod, therefore listening purely for the sound, not the video. Many people will view the majority of their music on channels such as MTV music channel or YouTube. If a song has a cool video that people are talking about, people may watch the video, disregarding what genre it is, therefore having a good video can act as an attraction in order to make people listen to your music. More and more people these days are not only downloading the soundtrack of a song, but the accompanying music video. With this exposure to the music video it does increase the influence that the video has on the music. Videos tend to correlate with the genre of the song. Therefore if the song is very dark, and intense, the video should represent this. For example comparing the video for Katy Perry- Last Friday Night

with Eminem- Cleaning out my close Katy Perry is an upbeat, 'feel good' song which is portrayed through the video with the use of bright colours,

smiling faces and quirky dance moves- Which shows a huge contrasts with Eminems.

It's darkness and intensity gives of vibes of hatred and depression and has a scary almost violent feel.

Videos like Eminems has a strict narrative that works with the song to captivate the audience. A sense of story is created in both videos which keeps the interest in both the video and the song. By just looking at the snap shots, you can see the strong difference in videos.These differences in videos tend to reflect the difference in audience member, which shows how a music video CAN make a difference to a persons choice of music.
  
What attracts people to music videos? 

I asked my class and other people around school what attracted them to music videos. This is what i found: People are attracted to music videos that:
they feel that they can relate to ( whether the narrative is similar to their own experience,or if they feel connected to the video in some way)
Have attractive people in them.
The vocalist is somebody they admire, such as a music artist/band.
 Have interesting editing (People like to see clever tricks, the works of a talented editor, or some crazy animation)
Going to extremes- it excites people "something cool to look at".
Have a focal point.

What puts people off?

People do not want to watch boring videos, with random people in them whom they do no recognize or care about. People don't want to see one continuous shot of someone singing to the camera throughout the entire video. Some people will be put off depending on the genre of music, for instance violent rap videos may not be appealing to people who only like pop music and vice versa.