Blog 5 - Target Audience of Artist/Band

Chosen Artist: Rihanna

The target audience for R&B/Pop artist Rihanna is generally for the younger/young adult generations however her music is seen as popular with a variety of ages and also genders. Her musical target audience and fan base is generally down to individuals interpretations of her music however her music tends to bias more towards the younger generations through her style of music, lyric and also music video for example her track 'S&M' can be interpreted in different ways, a fun and upbeat making a comical response to a sexual prefer

ence or it could be seen as a violation of her musical abilities by some causing it to be banned from TV music channels and shortened radio play or beeped out lyrics.

Rihanna's music genre and styles tend to change from album to album which can affect the kind of audience she is trying to reach, her current album Loud has tended to go back to the more pop and fun with contemporary dance anthem sounds, similar to how she began in her early music career, this style fits in perfectly with the modern pop music industry and keeps her fan base widely spread.

In terms of demographics, her target audiences and fan base are mixtures a males and female, Lady Gaga is especially a well known figure within the gay community also. The wealth and income to her audiences is highly varied as everyone has open access to her music through sales or youtube.

Psychographically, the fan base of Rihanna tends to be varied and open as it's down to individual interpretation of her music and music video. Generally her target audience would likely be youthful, lively and individuals who like to dance and have lyrics they can relate to and enjoy to equip to all kinds of moods. An interest in her genre of style of music is essential so most fans would have a real apprication of electro-pop mixed with dance beats over a traditional pop sounding track.

In terms of socio-economic grouping, her target audience would mostly be aimed towards younger individuals such as Students (16 - 25), semi-skilled manual workers such as builders, hairdressers, plumbers, professional occupations such as businessmen and women. there is no set socio-economic grouping towards Rihanna's music, however her music video lean fur

ther towards the younger generations, due to their understanding or appriciation which may not come accross towards older generations and higher positioned individuals an example of this would be her Rated R track 'Rude Boy' in which Rihanna's lyrics quote "common Rude Boy can you get it up?" these sexual related lyrics may only be seen as acceptable with a younger generation of listeners.

Analysis of some of Rihanna's magazine shoots

Cover girl Spokeswomen

In 2008 shortly after the release of her third album

Good Girl Gone Bad, Rihanna was approached and became a spokes girl for US Beauty Giant Cover Girl cosmetics. This

shows a softer and beauty queen side to the pop singer, which will show appeal to young girls and young women on a global scale. Female fans will aspire to look and feel like Rihanna when wearing cover girl cosmetics. This type of campaign and beauty shots shows Rihanna's elegance and purity which many female audiences will positively respond to.

GG Magazine - Male Orientated Audience.

Rihanna graced the cover of GQ magazine shortly after the release of her fourth studio album Rated R. In the image Rihanna is wearing minimal amounts of clothing and is almost baring her breasts, this shows a more sexual and desirability to Rihanna in which will catch the attention of her Male audiences, seeing her as the woman that they wish they were with and admire her for her assets, this style of magazine shoots shows raunchy, sex appeal and desire in which attracts and appeals to a masculine and macho audience, compared to the cover girl magazine/advertisement.

Vogue

In early 2011 after her release of her contemporary album Loud, Rihanna was asked to grace her first ever cover of fashion magazine Vogue. In this photo shoot Rihanna is represented as glamorous, fashionable, sensual and a real diva. As Vogue is a major fashion magazine which is distributed world wide, the targeted audience here is most likely to be female's ranging from the ages of 18 - 30's) who have a key eye for the latest fashion trends and styles in which to keep up to date and on top. Rihanna's glamorous wardrobe gives her the desired look in which many females will respond positively to, they want to look as stunning as she does in the high fashion garments inside vogue.

Rihanna's Twitter Fanpage

After having a look around Rihanna's page on Social Networking Site Twitter, I have noticed she has a big variety of fans in which follow her 'tweets' everyday. This shows real diversity in her audiences and that her music relates to a variety of ages, genders and ethnic backgrounds on a global scale.

Due to our original media group separating due to differences and ability to work well together, the new group had no choice but to change our initial idea completely, however below is the original work created for the original media group.

Chosen Artist: Lady Gaga

The target audience for Lady Gaga is generally for younger generations although other generations may be a fan due to individual interpretations. Her target audience and fan base is mostly made up of individuals who have a love for dance pop, eltro-pop beats who like an edge on the general pop genre of music which gives her a competitive uniqueness in the market.

In terms of demographics, her target audiences and fan base are mixtures a males and female, Lady Gaga is especially a well known figure within the gay community also. The wealth and income to her audiences is highly varied as everyone has open access to her music through sales or youtube.

Psychographically, the fan base of Lady Gaga tends to be varied and open as it's down to individual interpretation of her music and music video. Generally her target audience would likely be youthful, lively and quite rebeleous. An interest in her genre of style of music is essential so most fans would have a real apprication of electro-pop mixed with dance beats over a traditional pop sounding track. In her music Lady Gaga represents quite a party-styled life style therefore many of her fanbase and target market would be individuals with a 'wild side' this is also reflected in her music video's for singles such as 'Just Dance'.

In terms of socio-economic grouping, her target audience would mostly be aimed towards younger individuals such as Students (16 - 25), semi-skilled manual workers such as builders, hairdressers, plumbers, professional occupations such as businessmen and women. there is no set socio-economic grouping towards Lady Gaga's music however her music video learn further towards the younger generations, due to their understanding or appriciation which may not come accross towards older generations and higher positioned individuals.

Magazine Spreads Featuring Lady GaGa.

Elle - Women's fashion magazine

By featuring on this magazine Lady Gaga is appealing to a Female gendered audience. Her unique fashion is another aspect of her and impacts her fanbase and target audience just as much as her music.

Billboard Magazine - Music Magazine.

By featuring on this type of magazine Lady Gaga is appealing to a wider range of audience, that could be either Male or Female and a variety of music taste in the Top chart positions. This magazine shoot simple advertises Lady Gaga's music other than her fashion in contrast to the Elle Magazine shoot.

Screen Shots From Facebook/MySpace

This is a screen shot from Gaga's official facebook page. This shows a wide range of age group and gender of fans. It's showing that although her music is mostly targeted towards younger individuals she still has a fanbase within the older generations.

Blog 4 - Permission

Once we had chosen the song for the music video we were required to write out an e-mail to the record coming who have ownership and loyalties to that song asking them for permission in which to use their song for our music video.

Blog 3 - Song Choice

The song we have chosen to create and film the music video for is California King Bed by R&B/Pop artist Rihanna, taken from her latest album Loud. We chose this song because we felt it had powerful and strong lyrics which we could use to portray a love story within the music video.

During the selection process we decided to stick to the Pop music genre as we felt that it would be a more enjoyable experience in which to film a video, myself and my group are also fans of this genre and thought that sticking with this genre would help us to create a better narrative and storyline.

We came up with a selection of tracks from Katy Perry, Lady GaGa and also another track from Rihanna, in the end we decided on the slow ballad from rihanna's portfolio of music simply because we decided to choose a balled to give us more access to create a dramatic and fairtytale like storyline which people could relate to within the artists target audience when they watch it.

youtube link to track: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yuCuW5II6uY

link to song lyrics: http://www.metrolyrics.com/california-king-lyrics-rihanna.html

California King Bed is taken from Rihanna's latest top selling album loud.

Blog 2 - Exploring Music Video

Exploring Music Videos

During the final few weeks of the AS course a music documentry was screened to show the top 100 music videos of all time. The documentry consisted of music video's from a variety of artists, genres, decades etc. For this blog I have personally selected 4 music videos for analysis.

Video Selections with Analysis.

Video 1) Beyonce Knowles - Single Ladies (Put A Ring On It) [2009, Sony BMG]

Link: http://youtube.com/watch?v=FyHVQT8aIBM

The video for Beyonce Knowles's top 10 hit Single Ladies uses a variety of old fashioned and modern aspects. The video is kept plain and simple by firstly having just Beyonce and two female backing dancers, this video layout is uncommon in the present day as budgets are much higher and technology has improved drastically. The video is also filmed in Black and White this gives the video more sensitivity to lighting, shadows and details which can emphasis the dancing. The representation in the music video help to reflect the lyrics of the song, to express power and independence in Females, the choreography in the video is based upon older decades of dancing but mixed in well with present day dance. The dance makes this video well known. The audience of the music videos is both male and female, it targets females as the dance and lyrics are very empowering and inspirational towards a female audience. Males may also enjoy the video due to the physical appearance of Beyonce and the dancers, things such as costume, styling and lighting can help emphasise this. By using a powerful dance routine in the video helps connect the video to the lyrics of the song. The main genre of the Beyonce Single Ladies video is likely to be Female Strength and Power this is shown through the message in the song and it's video.

Video 2) - Sinead O'Connor - Nothing Compares 2 U [1990]

Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iUiTQvT0W_0

The music video shot for Sinead O'Connors Number one hit 'Nothing Compares 2 U' has a much softer and gentle style and vibe in comparison to the first video I have analysed. The video consists of mostly close ups of the face of Sinead, this helps to show the purity and the emotions of the artist during the video which capture the lyrics perfectly and cause the viewer to feel the emotion the song and video are trying to portray. The video's representation are focused more on the artist and the emotions she is feeling whilst singing the lyrics, the video represents the song as a heart aching emotional ballad, this is achieved through the close ups of the face and the overlay of imagery. The video communicates the meaning of the song by having Sinead simply singing the lyrics with tears welling up in her eyes, by having it stripped down and simple it shows vulnerability and honesty which will relate to more viewers in a personal way especially female viewers.

Video 3) - Christina Aguilera - Dirrty [2004]

Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kaej4Wjkj1Q

Dirrty was a complete new image, style and feel for young teen star Christina Aguilera, the video made quiet an impact when it was first released. The genre for the video and the song can be of many topics the main three that come to mind are Rebelion, Sexuality and Femininity, these are represented in the styling, dancing and location. Christina wears a very sexy flesh revealing costume which represents sexuality and can appeal more to a male orientated audience. Rebelion is represented through the dance moves the staging and set and the fact that Christina was a young teen star when she released her first hit single, there involved many shots of male and female dance interactions which include physical and sexual moves such as thrust this is representing sexuality is present in both the video and the song it's filmed for. As the song is entitled 'Dirrty' the music video is communicating that meaning through the dance moves the moves consist of loads of thrusting and sexual moves such as sliding etc. The video and it's choreography is very controversial and may offend or dishearten some music video fans. The video is set in a club like setting which is also associated with a younger rebellious age group. The audience for this type of music video would normally be aimed at a male audience due to the dress styling, dance moves as men will find the 'sex appeal' attractive, however the video can attract a female audience creating a desire to 'be like her' or 'look like her'.

Video 4) Madonna - Vogue [1980's]

Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GuJQSAiODqI&feature=channel

Madonna's video for the single 'Vogue' is based on the representations of glamour, leisure, luxury and fashion. It is shot using Black and White film which captures light and texture to the costumes, facial expressions, shadows and lighting. The video's representation of Glamour and Luxury is definitely expressed through the costumes and the set of the video, by using a mansion like set with piano's show wealth and style. The use of suits, gowns and feather bowers create the image of glamour and fashion which reflects the songs lyrics perfectly as it is titled after a fashion magazine 'Vogue'. The video communicates the meaning by the song by these factors and give off a positive message that anyone can be glamorous and be someone in a vogue magazine. The choreography in the video is bold and distinctive which make the video appear. Madonna's hand and body gestures also represent the glamorous life of the rich and famous. The video's main audience would likely to be females as the video is very feminine and 'fabulous' this is seen through the costumes, dancing and the lyrics of the song, however males can also be fans of the video as Madonna was a 'sex symbol' and many will appreciate the video through physical attraction to her.

Blog 1 - Introduction

Name: Jonathan Miller
Student Number: 381089
Subject: A2 Media Studies Coursework

Introduction

For this piece of coursework my task is to create, shoot and film a music video to present with portfolio's of work. During the planning, producing and editing stages of the task I will be creating blogs with written details on things such as Initial Ideas, Mise-en-scene and Story boards etc.

During the task I will be using and developing the skills I learnt whilst creating my AS Media coursework such as use of computers, Planning sketches, Evaluations and Research.

Hyper Links To Previous AS Coursework


http://asmediacourseworktaskmain.blogspot.com/