Evaluation Question 3- What have I learnt from my audience feedback?

Using quantitative and qualitative research

In our pre-production questionnaire we used our competition loyalists who then told us why our media brand isnt their preferred choice, however our post production questionnaire was aimed at our loyal customers- who are much more familiar with the post hardcore genre and enjoy this type of music. In order to get a broad cross-section of participants, our focus group included people of all different backgrounds

It was important that in order to get strong audience feedback, we would use both Quantitative and Qualitative Research as they both have their own strengths and weaknesses. Quantitative Research gathers information in numerical form which can be used as a measurement of audience feedback by asking closed end questions. For our quantitative research, we carried out 2 surveys in which we would be able to make generalisations, and compare figures while putting them into context. Because Quantitative research is cheap and quick to carry out, we were able to conduct this research on a large scale and as a result we had reliable and representative data. Qualitative research gathers information of descriptive detail which reveals participants thoughts and feelings. We carried out two interviews in which we were able to consider the thoughts and opinions of our interviewees to see what parts they liked, disliked and why by asking open ended questions. The main reason we decided to use this type of research was to uncover the meanings behind their answers in detail so we could then make improvements to our products before they were finalised. An example of this is that one participant said we did not have enough close ups of the artists and therefore we cannot connect with the product as much as they would have liked. As a result we took this constructive criticism and arranged another day to re-film in order to include more close ups of the lead singer, in which we included more lip syncing which overall expressed more emotion leading to a closer relationship between the artist and the audience.


Pre-production Quantitative Research:

Although the majority of people  did not like the Post-Hardcore genre, over half of the candidates liked the idea of the narrative for the music video. With the information the candidates gave us we have seen what parts of the narrative the candidates liked and what they did not like. As a lot of the candidates liked the narrative my group and I would like to film our video in a way that the narrative will attract a mainstream audience for a Post-Hardcore song. This would then increase our audience for the video as it would be viewed by the mainstream audience. In order to do this I will be researching how to sell a alternative genre to a mainstream audience.

From this chart of the results from question one we are able to see that no one has mentioned the Post-Hardcore genre. This shows that we should be looking at a more diverse audience. As the most common answer was mainstream charts, which would not feature anything close to the Post-Hardcore genre. Several of the other answers given such as Pop and Soft Rock would fit into the mainstream charts, increasing that category's actual figure. 

Although, the demand for watching the video is not that high, I am not overly worried as we asked a mainstream audience so the response we achieved was quite good, however I hope to increase the figure when attracting the post hardcore market when interviewing emos and goths. I would be interested to see the results and feedback when these questions are asked to an alternative audience, which I will do in the near future.

As we had now found out we had asked a very "mainstream" audience we were not surprised to find out that 25% of the candidates had never heard of the genre, however a few people said that they would listen to it as it was "alternative, which is cool." This shows two things. The first thing being that we would be targeting this at an alternative audience and the second thing being that we may be able to get our music video to appeal to some of the mainstream audience as its "alternative." Although two people said they did like the Post-Hardcore genre 55% (13 people) did not as it was "too loud" or there was "too much screaming." However these were the answers I was expecting after I had realised we had asked a very mainstream audience which is anti Post-Hardcore.

Post Production Quantitative Research:

We sent some further questionnaires to Hurtwood house media students to hear what a media student thought of our product. This was important to us as we would gain more media orientated feedback relating to camera shots, editing and mise en scene.

This was feedback on a choice of preference between the products. Although we received positive feedback on every product we made, the website seemed most popular. We made the website clearly link to the other 2 products by using similar images, using a graffiti wall background which helped us make a cohesive package.  

The majority of students believed we did create a cohesive package due to having a similar colour scheme, similar fonts and similar styles throughout our 3 products. 

The audience feedback confirmed that we portrayed the band we wanted. we aimed to portray them as alienated, disaffected youths and our audience agreed that this was clear in our star image. 

Although over half prefered 'No Ones There', the feedback on 'Power' was also positive- they said that it fitted in with the music video and was edgey and presented the star image well. 

Many commented on our lead singer, who put a lot of emotion into the performance. We were really happy that the majority said that that was their favourite part as the  lead singer was the main way we could help the band connect with the audience. 

The audience overall understood the storyline and believed it reflected the anti authoritarian youth subcultures and fitted in with the star image of the band.

Gaining Demographic and Psycographic information

The key to a successful music video understands who your target audience are and making sure you are giving them what they want. Developing a demographic and psychographic profile of our audience was essential to help us plan and create a music video. We gathered information through our qualitative and quantitative research in order to create a mental picture of our typical audiences’ members’ profile. We also achieved this by looking at similar artists audiences and how they managed to expand their fan base.  Demographics statistically measure the non-psychological attributes of an audience. The primary demographic variables are age, gender, ethnicity, income, occupation, geographic location and marital status. Demographic data will describe the characteristics of an audience. Demographic trends will describe the changes in the demographics of an audience over time. Psychographic factors are more fluid and subjective in nature, and relative to the behaviour of the audience. Determining the psychographic profile of the group would be useful for singling out a specific target audience. Our target audience are typically young, in their late teens that are rebellious and alternative. Psychographic factors include values, opinions, political views, lifestyles, behaviours, leisure activities, social activities and cultural interests. When considering both the demographic and psychographic factors, we have been able to refine our audience and can help us target them with the right promotional products.

Pre-Production Qualitative Research:

Analysing Pre-Production Qualitative Research feedback:

I asked 5 different questions to both male and female students of the age between 16-18 year old's about the music video. The first question is a broad one, asking their taste in music, to see the percentage of people that are into the genre that we are using, post hardcore. Most of the people I interviewed did not like this genre as it was loud and too "scream-ish". The next question was about the target audience and who it should be for our product. Most of the audience recommended was teenagers and early 20's. this is typically because it is a time in their life when they like to rebel and go against the 'norms' in society. The post hardcore genre fulfils this as most parents enjoy slower mellow music. Next, I explained our narrative, how the lead singer has been cheated on by his girlfriend, and as a result, has written a song called '100 sleepless nights'. Most people thought that the narrative fits into the name of the song and works with the genre. One girl found the storyline confusing (which is included in the video above) which may cause one or two concerns, but the rest of the feedback seemed positive and promising. Furthermore, when askin whether people would watch our final product, most girls said no because it is a nicher audience and the genre does sometimes alienate females as they look for something much brighter and lighter. However most boys seemed to be interested in the music video as a whole and would watch it.

In order to attract a few more females as part of the audience, we believed it was a great idea to pick the lead singer as a good looking boy.

Using a Focus Group

A focus group is a form of qualitative research in which are group of people are asked about their perceptions, opinions, beliefs and attitudes towards a certain product, service, concept, advert or idea.

By using a focus group of our target audience we could further develop to understand their needs and demands. By using a focus group, it is a form of qualitative research in which we could gain detailed and descriptive answers while also asking more detailed and specific questions than we would have done when creating a survey. We could therefore get closer to what people really thought of our cohesive product and any feedback they would give. It was therefore appropriate to use a focus group as it helped us gain more effective and realistic feedback while helping us single out our target audience even more and as a result we would know the beliefs, opinions and perceptions our audience have. By knowing all of this information, we could make a cohesive product to the best of our abilities. 

Post Production Qualitative Research:

From this feedback, we could hear an audiences' reaction to our screening. We learnt the positives of our product- which the feedback informed us that we made an exciting cohesive package, with compliments on our choice of location, the flow between the narrative and performance and the emotion of the main singer showing his anger and rebelliousness. We had also learnt some negatives; where our audience informed us that some shots were too long however after taking this feedback on board, we refilmed which gave us an even more variety of shots to choose from.


Our Perfect Target Audience Member

Danny King is our perfect audience member. Danny is 18 years old, and is from London. Danny isinterested in new and upcoming music and works at the Roundhouse in Camden.  Danny King is always looking for new music, but in the same genre. Danny's favourite genre is the Post Hardcore genre and pop punk. He attends meet up with his friends- who are also categorised as 'emo's' and as seen from his profile, his favourite bands are Pierce The Veil, You Me At Six, Of Mice And Men and All Time Low. His favourite movies and TV programmes include 'Cut', 'The Walking Dead' and 'Crank'. 

According his psychographic and demographic profiling, he is part of the emo subculture who very much fits into our target audience and rebel against society but in an organised way. The Emos all have a subcultural capital as they seek identification and validation through their differences yet conversely theres a uniformity to their differences. It is important to use this and take this information on board as part of our research for our target audience. If the audience did not believe in our product, they would not buy into our product.

Secondary Research of Emo Subculture:

I looked online for further secondary research in order to gain a better understanding of our target audience and how to relate to them.

Exploring Dress and Behavior of the Emo Subculture 

The emo subculture, derived from “emotional hardcore,” or “emo-core,” is a sub-genre of punk music that came into existence in the mid-1980s. It consists of male and female youths transgressing beyond standard dress and expectations, often presenting an androgynous look as male and female “emo kids” share similar hair- and clothing styles.

Emo is kind of like gothic-light, to some, emo means not knowing how to deal with the large amount of emotions that rage through adolescent and teenage bodies so the emo-subscribing teens act as if they have no place in the world. Some say that they just don’t know where they fit in the world and don’t know how to deal with that lack of connection.

What was it about this subculture that allowed for boys to dress so androgynously that it both bordered on femininity and avioiding traditional masculinity to the point where, while observing these individuals in a public gathering place, many cannot immediately and definitively ascertain certain individuals’ genders.

Emo’s resistance to identity in general, whether as a fixed form or as an individual’s or even entire group’s. That is, most kids who appear “emo” are not willing to identify as emo. Referring to these individuals in the subculture as “emo kids,”, many believe that this is simply the most appropriate term allotted for these individuals, even though many would resist the term and would necessarily refer to one another as such. Because a distinct style, behavior, and musical interest is present within this subculture, one that all of my interviewees agreed upon, it seems to be the most fitting and organized way within which to refer to these individuals. Although they may appear similar, it is important to remember that these individuals are unique and differ from one another in addition to the rest of society, and that therefore can complicate understandings of these people as members of a distinct group.

Emo Music History To the emo kid, musical taste trumps all else in discerning potential friendships and in assessing an individual’s coolness. This is perhaps troubling in a psychological sense because membership, or acceptance, often is extended to others based upon surface similarities, as well as similarities beyond the individual’s direct control, such as his or her socioeconomic classification. Musical taste does not exist in a vacuum, but is instead developed and encouraged by many social and individual factors. It is, however, a primary method of including and excluding among many subcultures, with emo certainly being both excluded by others (including the emo kids themselves) who laugh at its silliness or femininity and by the emo kids who include those who wear the same band tees and attend the same concerts.

Emo kids all have one crucial characteristic in common: they are all drawn into the emo subculture by their love of music. The connection between the emotions and instances of their lives and the music speaks that to them is undeniable for teenagers in general, but for the emo subculture in particular. Stephen Chbosky’s The Perks of Being a Wallflower shows the relevance of music and literature to high school student Charlie’s Schmitt 8 and his friends’ lives and has received wide support throughout the emo subculture. Though emo was not quite at its peak during the publication date of 1999 (and in the, presumably, years prior that Chbosky was writing the novel) it had been in the periphery, evolving from hardcore punk since the mid-1980s.

Though this book was likely not intended solely for teenage emo youth readers, their own lives and obsession with music seems to parallel the focus on music for the characters in the novel. Formerly a private space not present in the mainstream, emo initially grew out of the hardcore punk music genre (abbreviated to “hardcore”) during the mid-1980s, reaching its peak in the summer of 2002. According to the 2006 documentary American Hardcore, the hardcore genre emerged out of “a bad economy, inflation, change of administration. [The election in 1980 of Ronald] Reagan was the kind of antithesis or the reaction, a whole new, like a paradigm shift. There was a lot of concern of, you know, what might that mean in terms of all kinds of issues: freedom of speech, repression, and civil liberties, and that was sort of that era.”


The anger represented within hardcore is further expressed in the opening commentary of the film by lead vocalist and guitar player Vic Bondi of the Chicago-based band Articles of Faith: In the early ‘80s there was a sense of reestablishing the order: the white man, the Ronald Reagan white man order, is coming back.

Cultural symbols indicate that the members are similar, and they help the members of the group identify one another in a crowd. Without even speaking a word, two members of the emo subculture could identify one another by similar hairstyles and clothing choices; importantly, members of the emo subculture could also identify non-members, all without ever exchanging words.