Target audience

Tagret audience
Demographics 

• Age
• Gender
• Lifestyle
• Hobbies
• Computers, games etc
• Disposable income

My target audience:

Music videos appear online and on various TV channels etc. Therefor have large audiences. However this does also depend on  the genre of the music. Pop music videos generally have the largest audience because their songs are usually in a mainstream genre. These videos are then repeatedly shown on music channels such as MTV or VIVA and websites. The music genres that do not lie within the mainstream market usually have their own channels that are less well known and have a smaller audience. The genre that I have chosen for my music video is indie/pop which is not in the mainstream market. The niche audience for this genre is:
This style of music is quite popular in the 16-25 age group. This age group is the biggest audience for music.

Demographics:
Marketers typically combine several variables to define a demographic profile. A demographic profile (often shortened to "a demographic") provides enough information about the typical member of this group to create a mental picture of this hypothetical aggregate. For example, a marketer might speak of the single, female middle-class, age 18 to 24, college educated demographic

My target audiences demographic will be Age group 16-25 and because my artist is female this would attract more of a female audience than male. The genre of music that I have chosen has a smaller audience than from the mainstream market. Within this age group the majority of people are school and college educated therefor this adds to the demographic. This is the age group that usually have phones and ipods and use other electronics that connects them to the internet and within this social media is always close to them. This is a part of their everyday lifestyle. This age group does not have too much disposable income to spend on buying a lot of music. 

My blog poll questions are

• Are you male or female? 
• Are you in education?
• What age group are you?
• Do you watch music videos?
• What is your favorite genre of music?
• How do you watch music videos?

Codes and conventions of indie pop genre music videos - Setting/Location

Conventional locations and settings depends on the type of music video. A common convention of this genre are performance videos and the usual location for those are stages. The other type of video are ones with a narrative. The locations differ in this style of video.
These first two images come from Mumford and Sons - Lover of the light.

They two different examples of outdoor locations. The first is a beach and the second is a woods/forest area, they are both completely different even though they are used within the same video. The first image shows the beach as the sun is going down, this is what gives the variety of different colours. 

Codes and conventions of indie pop genre music videos - Costume

Costumes

These are a few examples of costume in indie pop music videos.

1:

2:

The costume conventions for bands within this genre wear indie style clothing that is in style.
The typical style of trousers within this genre are skinny jeans or plain trousers. They are also usually dark colours, either black or dark brown.
Men in this genre usually wear button shirts of any colours and dark jackets/waistcoats. Checked shirts are quite common.(photo 2) For shoes they usually wear black or brown boots (example in photo 2)

Female artists in this genre wear a wider variety of costumes. For example in Gabrielle Aplins 'Home' video. In this video she wears a grey t-shirt and jeans with a jacket. Although a different style to the male version they are still the same dark colours.
Another common costume for female artists are dresses with cardigans. This costume can be seen in another of Gabrielle Aplins videos

In this video she wears a range of different costumes. The first being a white dress, these style of dresses are a convention of this genre and are often seen in the music videos with female artists. The white contrasts the usually dark costumes that are seen in this genre. Also in this video she wears a patterned cardigan/jacket with a few bright colours on it. In photo 1 the women from The Lumineers is wearing a dark blue dress. This colour fits better into the conventional dark coloured clothing. 

Codes and conventions of indie pop genre music videos: Cinematography, Editing & Sound

In the indie genre it is very common for artists to use live performance videos as their music videos. This focuses the whole video on them and the music itself other than focusing on a narrative playing out. There are also two different types of performance video. The first being the artist playing live to an audience at a festival or show. The second is them performing on their own for the music video. Examples of these videos are:

This music video is 'I Will Wait' by Mumford and Sons. The video is them doing a live performance of the song to an audience. In this video a live version of the song has been recorded to go with the video to give a live performance feel to the video. The editing pace of this video changes along with the pace of the song. During the chorus the video the edits are a lot quicker. The editing that has been used are straight cuts. This again conforms to the conventions of music videos.
A cinematography techniques that is conventional in music videos are close-ups of the artist/performer. This performance video also conforms to this. Close-ups put emphasis onto the artist.

They also use long-shots and extreme long shots that show the whole band performing on the stage. This is another convention of this type of performance video. In the long-shots you can see them with their instruments and also the outfits/costumes that they are wearing. 

The last image is a example of a extreme-long shot from behind the audience. This show how small the band are when compared with where they are and the amount of fans that they have. The image before is similar but from behind the band. In these shots you can see the setting of the performance. The stage seems to be surrounded by rock and trees. The majority of the lighting comes from the lighting on stage while the audience are in the darkness. I am not sure if this is a convention of this type of performance video.

Cinematography camera movement conventions that are used in this video are pan shots and tilts as well as zooms. 

This is a example of the other type of performance video from the same artist. This song is 'Little lion man' also by Mumford and Sons. This performance video has been staged and is not a live performance as in the last video. The editing in this video also uses straight cuts as it is the convention. Montage editing is again used in this style of video as it is the convention for the form. The pace of the editing is again matched to the pace of the song and changes throughout the video.
In this video the majority of the shots are close-ups and extreme close-ups. Close ups are conventional and were also used in the last style of video.

These two images are also good examples of how the lighting in this video is different when compared with the live one. This video has studio lighting giving it the more dramatic look from the use of things such as shadows.
During the first chorus a slow zoom in is used from a long shot. This part of the video emphasizes the band and chorus of the song. A slow zoom has been used because the pace of the song is quite slow here. In this long shot you can see their costumes. These costumes are conventional of the indie/folk genre that the band is in.

Another common type of Indie music videos are ones with more of a narrative.

This example of a music video with a narrative does not have any performance from the artist, therefor this video has a few different conventions. As in the last couple of videos Close ups and extreme close ups are used quite often, however the difference in this video is that they are of the actor instead of the artist. 

A few examples: 

The close up shots emphasis the actor and their expression. From the first image you can see that the character looks sad, this matches with the mood of the song at this time.

The shots in this video last for about 5 seconds or more. This is a lot longer than the last couple of examples. 

Sound: 

Sound is important throughout each music video. The main soundtrack is from the song that is being promoted through the video. Other sounds are also sometimes kept so that the video has a more realistic feel to it. The lyrics of the song (usually the chorus) is what decides the narrative of the video unless the video is abstract. Abstract music videos do not really give a meaning or story for the song. This video is sort of abstract however it does sort of tell the audience the story of the person/actor. The song also decided the pace and style of editing. 

In this video the music is slow to begin with, this is then represented in the editing through slower paced editing giving longer varying longer shots of 5 seconds or more. As the pace of the song increases so does the editing pace giving the video a quicker look. These parts of video only last between 1 and 3 seconds. 

Chosen song

Song: Smarter

Artist: Eisley

History of Form (Music video)

The history of music videos: 

According to music historian Donald Clarke feature films such as 'Lookout Sister' by musician Louis Jordan are the ancestors of music video. This film came out in the mid 1940s and was made up of a range of short films for his songs. Jiles Perry Richardson was the first to coin the phrase music video in 1959. In 1964 The Beatles starred in their first feature film A Hard Day's Night which features songs of their album. The mock documentary directed by Richard Lester was shot in black and white. The opening sequence is arguably one of the prime archetypes of the modern performance-style music video. They use rhythm cross-cutting and close-ups as well as long shorts.

In 1965 they began making promotional clips for distribution and broadcast in other countries. In May 1966 they filmed two colour promotional clips for their singles Rain and Paperback Writer both being directed by Michael Linday Hogg. In 1967 they made promotional clips for Strawberry Fields Forever and Penny Lane. They used techniques borrowed from film including slow motion and dramatic lighting. 

Don't look back is a documentary film about Bob Dylans tour of the UK directed by D.A Pennerbaker. The opening black and white clip of Subterranean Homesick Blues shows Bob Dylan standing in a alleyway with cue cards of key words from the song playing over the top. This is one continuous shot, this makes it different from any other music videos before it. 

In the 1970s Top of the Pops began playing music videos for the first time.

MTV launched in 1981 in the U.S first showing the music video to Video Killed the Radio Star. MTV began showing music 24 hours a day. This lead to music videos being important in marketing the latest popular music. 

The next development for modern music video was the creation of inexpensive and easy to use recording and editing equipment. With the easier to use equipment acts could produce music videos quicker and significantly cheaper than before. This lead to them beginning to develop better effects in the videos and creating a plot to them. 

One of the most iconic music videos was released in 1983. Michael Jacksons Thriller video was directed by John Landis. This video cost $500,000 despite the cheaper equipment. 

The next step in the history of music videos is when they became available online. In 1997 the website iFilm was launched. This hosted short videos including music videos. In 2005 Youtube was released and is currently the most popular website for music videos. These websites made viewing of music videos much faster and easier. 
In 2009 30 Seconds to Mars uploaded their single Kings and Queens to Youtube on the day of its release. It gained over 100 million views. It also received over 40 million plays on MySpace. 

Song choices

These are the songs that I have been considering for my music video withing the indie pop genre.