First plan

Psychographic questionaire

Questionnaire

Age?

Below 12 12-16 16-20 20-24 24-30 30+

Gender?

Male Female

Occupation?

Occupation of parents?

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________

What are the three most important things in your life? (please circle your answers)

Money family health friends partying reputation appearance Helping others possessions education

Where do you usually shop for clothes?

Charity shops topshop/topman Selfridges (designer lables) M&S Vintage shops JD Primark Next H and M

Do you plan do go to university or have you been?
If so what did you study?
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Are you a vegetarian ? if yes, why?
______________________________________________________________________________
Yes No

Do you have an interest in sport? Playing, watching or both?

Yes No

How often do you consume alcohol?

Never Rarely Sometimes Often Always

Do you take/have taken any recreational drugs?

Yes No

Where do you consume your music?

Alone (ipod) Online radio Gigs Pubs

In a month, how many gigs do you attend every month?

________________________

Demographic questionnaire feedback

Once we had handed out our questionaires we gathered together the results and decided to put the results into pie charts so we could easily see the results and implement these once we began to plan our video. These were very useful due to the specific details of our target audience been available.

The first pie charts we created gave us to results to the age and gender of the targeted audience. The majority gender was male and the age was varied between young and old, but the minority was the under 12 category.

Our questionnaire asked the audience their favourite genre and how they listened to their music

The following question asked what exactly the audience expected to see in indie music video's

The questions touched on several aspects including setting, people expected to be seen, whether conventional videos or unconventional are preferred and whether the artist appears

Demographic Audience Questionnaire

Audience Questionnaire on The Indie Genre

Age? ___

Gender? _______

What is your favourite genre of music?
____________________________

How often do you listen to music?
____________________________

What is your favourite artist/band?
____________________________

Looking at the indie genre;
Videos

Where would you expect an indie genre music video to be set?
________________________________________________________


What type of people do you expect to see within the videos?
________________________________________________________


What typical story lines do you expect to happen throughout the videos?
________________________________________________________


Do you prefer conventional (typical) videos or those that stand out?
________________________________________________________


Do you think the action within the video should match the music that can be heard?
________________________________________________________

Do you expect the band members/artists to appear in the video?
________________________________________________________

CD Covers

Do the CD Covers effect the way you buy CD's/albums etc?
________________________________________________________


What things attract you to specific CDs?
________________________________________________________


Do you expect certain colours/fonts to appear?
________________________________________________________


Do you like the mystery that is sometimes provoked by the CD Covers? Or not?
________________________________________________________

Documentary into the indie genre

As a group we summarised our research into the indie genre creating a documentary

Summary of Music video analysis

After analyzing the 5 indie music videos, i am going to summarize the main points i have found while looking through them.

Music Videos

What elements do the music videos have in common - in terms of genre and form?
The videos all contain a similar use of iconography, many props were similar such as guitars,cigarettes and alcohol. These props mean that the audience can easily identify the attitudes of the people on screen. The male dominance is very common within the indie genre music videos i looked at, most of the people on screen are male. The females are only appearing in the videos as the girlfriends, there are all attractive and well dressed, in the stereotypically indie style clothing. All of the videos contain the band members, or a person we could assume is the band member, this allows the audience to identify with those on screen and this means the fans can relate to the band, increasing the bands popularity. Similar settings such as the city, gigs and parties seemed to appear several times, these places were probably used as they are associated with this type of music, band members and the fans. This again helps the audience to relate as well as enjoy and be entertained.

How is youth/gender/ethnicity represented?
Youth
The youth are represented as rebellious and uncontrollable through most of the music videos. The use of alcohol and cigarettes means that there are presented as anti-Christian etc. These things are often associated with violence, trouble and relationship problems, all these (because of the use of the certain props, micro elements etc.) mean that the negative connotations are anchored to the youth of today. Due to the stereotypes given to people such as hooded teens the society we live in creates their own assumptions as to how social groups and individuals are. This is not in all of the videos I have looked at, as in the ‘Maccabees - Toothpaste Kisses’ video, the youth are in fact hardly represented as negative and are given positive imagery such as the peaceful birds etc, however this video is almost an anomaly in comparison to the conventional attitudes of the other indie videos.
Gender
As I have said earlier, the male dominance within the videos was clear, most of the videos seemed to be shown from the male perspective, reinforcing the idea of a patriarchal society. The women that appeared in the videos seemed to come across as attractive, almost an item for males to look at. This could influence the way in which the female audience are affected by the video, for example the care of appearance that the females seem to show could mean that female fans of the band want to take care of their appearances as well, they are influenced by the clothing style, the attitudes and the relationships portrayed.
Ethnicity
Throughout the videos I looked at there was a particular dominance within the white ethnicity, all of the band members/actors were white males, or white females. This white dominance was particularly notable within ’The Kooks - Naïve’ video, as the male singer walks through the gig he is at, the other party-goers all seem to be white. The dominance suggests a strong preference to the demographic audience for this genre being white. However I did notice one reference to another gender, this was in the ’Maccabees - Toothpaste Kisses’ video, as well as contradicting the youth representation, the video contradicts the white dominance and includes pictures of an asian family.

How is narrative theory used within the videos?

Throughout the videos that I looked at, narrative theory was not always obviously used. For example, ‘The Maccabees – Toothpaste Kisses’ video, the onscreen action did not follow a story at all, the different images (although symbolizing certain things) did not specifically need to be put into a certain chronological order. However when looking at other videos, it was clear there was a following of Todorov’s narrative theory, equilibrium etc. This immediately creates an enigma, as the audience want to see how the narrative turns out. The lack of conventional narrative suggests that the genre is perhaps unconventional and shows a lack of conventional structure within the videos.

How do they appeal to their target audience?

The videos appeal to their target audience through the use of many technical codes but mainly the use of the elements contained in mise en scene. The elements such as costume appeal to the target audience as they are easy to relate to, items such as hi-top trainers, leather jackets and skinny jeans are often associated with the younger generation. So by using these items in the videos the artists are demonstrating the kind of people they want to attract. The settings also appeal to the intended audience as they too are linked with where the audience will go or know of. For example a party in a flat, a garden and train stations are seen in some of the videos within the genre, this attracts the target audience as they can again relate to it. Props are also key for the artist to appeal to the target audience, in many of the videos we see reference to alcohol, drugs and cigarettes, these items are significant as they are things often associated with the younger generation. So by using them in videos the artists are sending across the message that these are the things you need to do to fit into the genre.

How are technical codes used generically?

Technical codes such as camera shots are used throughout the music videos to show key elements to the genre. For example a close up shot of the lead singer is used in most music videos to identify to the audience their importance. Shots of props such as guitars, drums and pints are used in the majority of videos; the shots of the instruments put across to the audience the ingredients to the indie genre. The pints however could be interpreted as appealing to the male gender as many stereotype men with drinking pints many colours are used repeatedly in a range of videos, these colours such as red, blue and yellow stand out and make the video look energetic and appeal to a younger generation.

How might the audiences make use of the video?

The audiences can make use of the video in many ways. Firstly videos allow the audience to interact with the artist. For the audience they get to see what the artist is like, from there gestures, costume and location throughout the video. It allows the audience to feel as though they know the artist. Secondly videos can be used to share, for example someone may like the song, so by embedding it onto a social networking site they can show their friends the music. This in fact benefits the artist as well as their music is shared with a wider audience.

Music video 5. The Rifles - Repeat Offender

Repeat Offender was the third single from The Rifles debt album. It reached a high of 26 in the UK singles chart and number 1 in the Indie chart when it was realesed in 2006.

The video contains the band performing together aswell as indervidual band members on they're own. It also contains footage from a home like enviroment where it looks as though a party is going on. There is no clear narrative structure to the video however through the use of different editing the video fits together nicely, straight cuts are used to go from scene to scene and to enable it to look as though both things are happening after each other. Fast forwarding is used aswell to speed up the action in the video, this creates a upbeat tone to the video.

The mise en scene through the video is interesting and it is the key element to communicating the genre. Firstly the establishing shot is quite ironic as it is a shot of a council estate. Common ideas are that council estates are grotty and full of 'Chavs' however the fact a group of causal/well dressed men are put onto the screen challanges common ideology about council estates. The men reinforce ideas people have of an indie band, firstly this is down to the long hair and secondly because of their clothing. Items such as leather jackets, skinnie jeans and pumps are a key element to the indie scene umongst young bands and their fans alike. The colours of the Bands clothes are dull, however this makes the brighter and more unusual Props in the frame stand out. One of the props that is most significant is the barrel of beer, this stands out because alcohol is often ossociated with the auidience of the bands and the bands in the indie genre. The background colour and the colours of the walls throughout the video is white. This is significant as white is associated with cleanliness and coolness within the media, this links in with the genre as each band is trying to be indervidual and in doing so they will try to be cool.Guitars, drums and other musical instruements as well as a microphone are used in the video to disginguish the genre, as most indie bands are formed with a lead guitarist as well as others supporting.

The target auidience is again the younger generation, much like the other bands in the genre. This is apparent because of the people used in the video during the scene in the flat (below) these people are seen dancing to the music connoting that they enjoy it. It does'nt feel as though the teenage generation are being targetted in this video though, as for one there is no images of the outdoors with rebellious connotations of youth. Instead it looks like a civilised get together. Also the people don't look like teenagers either.

The representation of gender is unapparent towards women as they are just seen in the background, suggesting they have no importance to the band or genre. Men again are presented as talented and sophisticated as for one they are making the music and also they appear to be well dressed and own a nice flat.