Analyse of audience in music videos and in my music video

It is important for a media video to appeal to its audience or the video would be useless and show no emotion or feelings, in a music video you want it to tell a story or help the audience feel like the content in the video is what they are going through and therefore can relate to the video and express feelings towards the music video.

My music video is based on a song by Eminem called space bound; therefore is based on the Rap genre. It is mainly men who listen to Rap songs and definitely Eminem songs, with most of Rap songs being explicit content the age range varies from 16 – 40. Many rap artists come from similar backgrounds with being brought up in difficult areas where drugs and other bad subjects are used in regular circumstances and some artists base their songs on this and how it has affected their lives, and therefore people like the artists can relate to this and that’s why most of the audience are either white & black British and also some people from other countries such as Africa or America. Many people who listen to Rap artists like to follow the footsteps of the artists they enjoy listening to and try to create their own music and use this as a main hobby, there are also many stereotypes to suggest that people who listen to rap music enjoy smoking drugs and going to areas to hang out with their friends and listen to music together so they can all relax and relate to the songs.

Audiences of the rap genre enjoy watching music videos and being able to have the option to put themselves in the footsteps of the artist and relate to what they are saying, if it’s about how they were brought up or how they live life at this moment in time people listening at home can always relate to the story of the video and change their views and impacts on life due to the explanations that these videos give to the viewer. To find out this information I asked some people who were my target audience and listen to the Rap genre on a daily basis; what do they look for in rap music videos and how it made them feel after watching some videos. This learnt me the information above and a good understanding on why people watch music videos and the impact they can have on some people and how they can be influenced by music videos which is the use of hypodermic needle theory.

Although hypodermic needle theory applies on most rap music videos as most of them tell a story on how they were brought up or how life was hard for them and how they overcome the problems they had, I was unable to apply this in my music video in terms of content, however with the song choice I used it explains on how someone who Eminem loved hurt him and finds it hard to move on and try to love someone else and explains throughout the song that he wants to love her but doesn’t want to get hurt again, this allows people to be influenced throughout the song since they can relate to the lyrics and also I have used editing techniques throughout my music video to emphasize different words, such as love and heart I have put red text and a beating effect as if a heart is beating at the same time to show the viewer what the song is about and made important words stand out. This theory helped me engage my audience because when audiences are looking for a video to be influenced by I have used this theory in the sound and editing of my video to make sure they can relate to the video.

Another theorist that applies to the rap genre would be Blumler and Katz which explains how audiences watch videos for entertainment and to escape the real world, this is used a lot in rap music videos as some artists use comedy to make the viewer laugh and enjoy the video. In my music video I have used special effects in different stages such as when it says impossible I have added an effect which brings the text up and looks like something that shouldn’t happen so it links together and also when explosion is used in the lyrics I have made the text explode away from the screen, this helps the viewer become entertained as he can analyse the video and find out what looks good and what he likes.

When I finished my music video I posted it onto YouTube to generate feedback and find out what people thought of my video, people had posted comments onto the video link saying how they could  link with the lyrics to everyday life and how the special effects I have used really suited the song choice and video. I was expecting comments like this because I had put in the effects purposely to entertain the user and made sure everything was linked together.

I believe it is very important for people to consider using their audience as the main reason to add effects and base the lyrics on real life events so the audience can relate to them and become influenced by them, from this I based my whole production on my audience since I wouldn’t have added an effect into the lyrics unless it was linked to something for the song which the audience can relate to. For a music video to be successful it has to interact with the audience and really base the video on past experiences which will affect the artist himself and the audiences that will be watching the video and this is why with every little effect and positioning of the lyrics to keep up with the beat of the song and the important factors of the lyrics which determine what the song is about I have made stand out so the viewer understands what the song is telling him and therefore gives him the option to relate towards the video.