Jude White
AS Level Media Studies
Talking to my Target Audience
I decided that my target audience should be 16-25 year old fans of rock music, due to the fact that many of my friends and acquaintances fall into this category, and despite being a rock fan myself and having a lot of background knowledge, I can gain some more insight into the wants and needs of a rock fan through speaking with these individuals.
Two of my closest friends, with whom I spend a lot of time, are obsessive about all types of rock music. Each has their own tastes, but generally they are similar, hence being friends themselves. I have learned a lot through my time spent socializing with them, and some of the more key points about rock music in general are as follows:
One of these two friends more than the other will always recommend bands to me, many of which I have never heard of as a casual rock fan. The reason for this is that these bands are very up and coming, and I can trust my peers to have bought concert tickets for these bands very quickly. This is partly due to their uncertainty as to the longevity of the bands, demonstrated to me clearly this week when two of their favourite bands, ‘Canterbury’ and ‘LostAlone’ posted messages to their facebook pages explaining that they were breaking up. A point of note here is that both these bands sold tickets to final concerts, after they had announced they were breaking up. Featuring something like this on my music magazine would be sure to draw attention, as nobody wants to miss the last ever performance by their favourite band. In a similar vein, articles promoting the hottest new bands always seem popular not just with my friends, but also as minor stories on the covers of magazines such as Kerrang!, aimed at a similar target audience. I have included the facebook status of two bands regarding sales of tickets for their final show, and this demsonstrates the level of interest these shows generate.
New Bands always peak interest...
Concerts sell... magazines.
Rock music is famous for its stadium-filling capabilities, but these festivals are not the only time it is important to see live bands. Rock music is one of the genres least affected by modern auto-tune techniques and synthesized instruments. As such visiting concerts is a way of life for any rock fan. I myself have had the opportunity to see a variety of live acts, and it is easy to see why concerts generate so much interest; they go beyond the music and provide an experience tailored by the band. For example, during my visit to a Thirty Seconds to Mars concert, giant balloons were thrown into the mosh pit, and lyrics flashed up on screen behind Jared Leto in flaming letters as he sung them. It comes as no surprise, then, that concert reviews or advertorials take up an enormous amount of space in modern music magazines. In one particular issue of Kerrang! I read, there were no fewer than fourteen pages that directly or indirectly reviewed or advertised live band performances. Therefore, any reference to live gigs, or even more effectively a contest to win tickets (as often used by Kerrang!) can peak people’s interest incredibly quickly.
Photographs from my visit to see 'Thirty Seconds to Mars' at the 02 Arena.
You don't just LIKE rock stars... you want to BE them!
Both of the friends I spoke to about the genre confessed to writing their own original music, and one of them wishes to pursue a career in the industry, the other preferring a job in film and TV. As such, to appeal to my target audience I could easily include a guide about how to begin writing your own music, or how to get into the other areas of the industry suc has msuic videos, and, most importantly, how to 'find your own sound,' which I have been told is the most difficult step. I could even interview one of my friends who is in a band and writes what I consider to be very professional original music, to find out how he started out and the difficulties and challenges he faced. I believe this would appeal greatly to my target audience, a large quantity of whom are aspiring musicians.
This photograph shows my friend when he considers himself 'rockiest.' His clothing is casual, but his hair, guitar strap and posture are loud and expressive. He is thoroughly focussed on the music he is playing, ignoring the photographer. I know this photograph was not staged, as I know the person who took it also.