Analysis of the audiences of three other similar artists

The Drums

The Drums are an American indie pop band from Brooklyn, New York, forming in 2006. The members of the band stem from the short-lived band Elkland, before becoming bored with electronic music. The members of The Drums are Jonathan Pierce (vocals), Jacob Graham (guitar), Connor Hanwick (drums); while Tom Haslow currently is playing the guitar during the band’s tour after the departure of former guitarist Adam Kessler left the band a few months ago. The band is currently on the Moshi Moshi/Island in the UK.

The Drums are fairly new to the mainstream music scene breaking onto the scene in 2010, and were tipped by many music journalists as a band to watch out for. The band were one of 15 artists that were shortlisted in the BBC Sound of 2010, appearing at number 5. This list complies of the best up and coming bands of that year. They were also topped NME’s top tips for year in 2010. The band are yet to have a song in the top 40 though, with their highest entry their most known song ‘Let’s go Surfing’ at number 63. Being a new band in the limelight of the mainstream audience however they are expected to move up higher up the charts with years to come.

The Drums are far more energetic live than on record, with Jonathan Pierce and Jacob Graham’s interacting with the crowd with their now infamous dancing and theatrics on stage. While the band keep to the music side of things mainly, rarely stopping to chat in-between songs. This makes their set more easier for the crowd to continually dance to, something which the target audience are known for, while small mosh-pits are made. Mosh-pits are mainly associated with Metal or Rock bands, yet the indie audience also ‘mosh’ these are just less violent and more dance-y than other genres.

The majority of the band's audience are the youth, mainly students. They are the type to spend their time going to gigs, listening to music with their friends, and trying to find out their latest favourite band. The audience are drawn to The Drums by the similarity to bands of the old 'indie' era, bands like The Smiths and Joy Division, along with the fast beat of some of their songs.

The Pigeon Detectives

The Pigeon Detectives are an English indie band from Rothwell, West Yorkshire, forming in 2002. The members of the band are Matt Bowman (vocals), Oliver Main (guitar), Ryan Wilson (guitar), Dave Best (bass), and Jimmi Naylor (drums). The band is signed up by the independent record label Dance to the Radio, whom helped to release their debut album.

2006 was a big year for the band, touring throughout the year and playing many festivals, building up a bigger fan base and slowly getting noticed. They performed at the Reading and Leeds Festivals in 2006, where they were tagged "the band most likely to leap to the main stage in 2007" in an NME review, although the year later they did still play the NME stage. They had supported the band Dirty Pretty Things who toured around the UK in spring 2006. Then in early November 2006 they again went on the road, this time supporting the band Kaiser Chiefs on a number of occasions around Europe. By 8^th July 2007 they had released their debut album Wait For Me, which has sold up to 227,000 copies. On this date they played on the Radio 1 NME Stage in front of thousands at T in the Park with the performance being televised and shown later that day on BBC3. In September 2007, it was announced that the band had been nominated for ‘Best New Act’ at the Q Awards, but they lost out to The Enemy. They went on to perform their biggest show ever at Oxegen in 2008, the year in which their second album Emergency was released, which was beamed around Europe on the world famous music channel MTV. Up to the end of 2008 the band sold over 500,000 copies of both albums together in the UK.

The target audience of The Pigeon Detectives consists of late teens and early 20somethings, yet they don’t really have distinctive dress code that many other target audiences of indie bands do. They would fit into the dress code of not noticing the difference as they dress like many other people and stick with the current fashion trend that is hitting the high streets. The way that The Pigeon Detectives appeal to their audience is with the catchy songs which include lyrics that the audience can relate to, while they also sing along to after listening to the song a few times. The lyrics may not be anything clever which will stand out in 10 or so years, but there is a kind of universal appeal that the audience can warm to and link their personal experiences to creating a link between the band and their fans, showing that they are not too different to one another. This relates to the theory of different ‘tribes’ of people and trying to find others that are the similar to themselves to feel ‘wanted’ and not different.

Black Kids

Black Kids are an American indie pop band from Jacksonville, Florida; forming in 2006. The band consists of siblings Reggie Youngblood (lead vocals and guitar) and Ali Youngblood (keyboards), Owen Holmes (bass guitar), Kevin Snow (drums), and Dawn Watley (keyboards). They are on the record label Almost Gold Recordings in the UK, while on Columbia Records in America. They only currently have released one album, yet are writing their second album at this current time.

Black Kids first came to the attention of the music press in August 2007, in both America and the UK, after a performance at the Athens Popfest in Athens. This led to a sudden interest from the music press, including such newspapers and magazines as NME, and The Guardian. In the very same month the band released their first demo EP, Wizard of Ahhhs; which in October received a review of 8.4 out of 10. In December the band then travelled to London for a small tour. The Rolling Stone magazine labelled them as one of ten "Artists to Watch" for 2008^, as well as the band being included in the BBC Sound of 2008 shortlist. The band played the summer festival circuit the next year, in both America and the UK, including Radio 1's Big Weekend, Glastonbury Festival, and T in the Park and Camp Bestival. Black Kids were then the headline in an international tour in America and around Europe from June to November. While on tour in the UK in early 2008, the band recorded their debut album, Partie Traumatic. The album was much more successful in the UK than in America, getting to number 5 in the charts compared to in America where it only managed to get to number 127.

As with the other two artists the target audience are aged around late teens and early 20 year olds, although Black Kids may have a few more younger fans than the others with a reviewer of a live show that they did having a “excessive number of 14 year old girls running to the front barrier”. With Black Kids rise to fame happening within 9 months after they were formed they do not really have a ‘hard-core’ set of fans that have been following them for 4 or 5 years before they are slowly noticed by music critics. This means that the audience is rather ‘mainstream’, with the exception of a few of course. The band members dress with the indie geek fashion; a majority of their fans however dress, like The Pigeon Detectives, with the current fashion that has captured the ideology of the youth. The lyrics are mainly to do with girls and relationships, relating with the worries of teenagers about the other gender. While for the older members of the audience they can relate to the experiences that are expressed from the, relating with the worries of teenagers about the other gender. While for the older members of the audience they can relate to the experiences that are expressed from the lyrics with experiences of their own.

What can be learnt about appealing to audiences from the audiences of these three artists?

From all three artists I can learn that the main way to appeal to the audience by making a catchy song which the audience can sing and dance along to. While at a young age teenagers want to be accepted by their peers and use music as a way of doing this; whether it is the way the band members dress that influences the dress sense of said person or the genre of music that the artist makes, these represent how they want people to see them and making friends with others that are the same as themselves.

Target audience for the band ‘We Can’t Dance'

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Location

The location of the music video is an important part as it must fit in with the genre of the song, while also help to represent the target audience, the band and the meaning of the song. The location must be somewhere where you expect to find the target audience, a place they were they hang out with their friends or some where they would visit. Seeing a certain group of people in a place where they do not fit nor where they would have no interest in going would sent mixed messages to the audience; although this could be part of the idea of the video to use people's views of one another and twisting them. The setting of the location must also go with the mood of the song; the mood and beat of We Can't Dance - I Don't Know is fast paced, while also upbeat and happy. This means that the location of the music video must use bright colours and lighting, while creating a positive vibe that is shown through the music video and felt by the audience.

The photos below are location shots of the streets that I could use for the middle verse of the song where the main character is running through the city to find the girl. The only trouble of using these locations would be the amount of traffic and people that would be going past and maybe disturbing the shoot. The buildings that are next to the streets are around 30 to 40 years old, holding that vintage 70's look that is similar to that of the target audience. The shots also show the conventional view into an old British city that is had compared to the modern view of London.

For the beginning of the music video I shall use Chapelfield Gardens as the location. I shall start by walking alongside the Chapelfield shopping mall before entering Chapelfield Gardens for the first verse and chorus. These are common locations in where the target audience use to hang out with their friends. With the location being a park with trees and flowers it has lots of brights colours that reflects the mood and vibe of the song. While Chapelfield is an iconic location in Norwich, with the gardens and shopping centre being very popular. Chapelfield Gardens has a band stand (shown in one of the pictures below) helping to promote music to unsigned and unknown bands. In the summer Chapelfield Gardens held a mini festival during the Lord Mayor's procession with unsigned bands, mainly who are based locally, playing. The Chapelfield mall is a relatively new to Norwich, giving a modern feel to Norwich and the music video.

Costume

The costume used in a music video is an important part of how the band represents themselves, their fans and creates a bond with their fans by being associated with the same style and having the same ideologies as one another, putting them in the same social 'tribe'. The way that people are dressed in a music video, especially the band members, reflects on how the target audience dresses too, or inspires their style as they want to be like their favourite band. Costume is also sometimes used in music videos to show an opinion on another social group, giving them a negative representation, for example the video below.


The Drums - Best Friend

With the target audience of We Can't Dance seen as 'Indie Kids' I have decided to use an normal ideology for how they dress. The main character will be shown as indie, making the audience reflect with him for being like them. I shall use the following pieces of clothing for the main character:


The shoes that would be wore by the main character are Plimsolls, like the ones that are shown in the picture to the right. . In the early months of 2008, the Plimsoll shoe within the UK became a major fashion statement, with many celebrities such as Pete Doherty and other stars influencing their comeback. They are generally worn with tight fitting jeans or jeans with turned up bottoms. Recently however, they have become part of hipster fashion.

Skinny Jeans are the most conventional view that people think of when they are asked or think what indie kids would wear after they were brought back into by indie revival bands in the early 2000's, most notably by The Strokes. By the end of the decade the fashion began to replace the baggy jeans of the 1990s and early 2000s. Among women, skinny jeans are most often worn tucked into boots or scrunched up over the wearer's footwear. Skinny jeans are becoming mainstream to men, as well. This style is often associated with the emo and scene styles, though hip-hop and rap artists, such as Lil' Wayne, are seen to be adopting this style as well. There have been many famous artists who have wore skinny jeans, for example Elvis Presley, Freddie Mercury and Michael Jackson with skinny jeans being fashionable before in 1950s, 1970s and 1980s. 'Tapered' jeans became most notable with country music stars and helped with the birth of rock and roll in the 1950s. jeans and rock 'n' roll were inextricably linked to create the "bad boy" image that remains today. In the early 1960s they were worn by numerous rock bands, including The Beatles and The Rolling Stones.

In the last few years more and more people have started to wear shirts as a casual fashion, and not just for formal occasions. The shirts that are wore have a vintage look about them, like the shirt to the right, this is the type of clothing that the target audience wear. I have decided for the main character of the video to wear a shirt like this, with a cardigan over top. Mainly because this is the conventional view people have of the audience, while it fits into the narrative of the story with the main character having to take off his shirt.

Similair Music Videos.

These two music videos that have used superheroes in their music videos, but with two different meanings. Both have hidden meanings regarding life, like the way I am representing the relationship between a make and female in my music video.



Goodbye Mr A - The Hoosiers



Without Me - Eminem

Analyse of Africa Shox - Leftfield

Afrika Shox - Leftfield
Release Date - 6th September 1999
Genre - Electronica, Progressive House, Drum 'n' Bass, Reggae, and Intelligent Dance.

'Afrika Shox' is a song by Leftfield, the first single released from their album Rhythm and Stealth. The song featured vocals by Afrika Bambaataa, linking in with the name of the song. It was written by Neil Barnes, Paul Daley, Afrika Bambaataa and Nick Rapaccioli, while is produced by Leftfield and Nick Rapaccioli. The song reached 7th in the UK Singles Chart which was the highest position out of all Leftfield singles. The music video was directed by Chris Cunningham.

From an old alleyway comes a black skinned male, maybe a slave but is shown to be like some kind of space alien, who's apperance is skinny and weak making him look very vulnerable. He walks through crowded streets, bewildered and confused. He seems desperate, and no one seems to pay enough attention to assist the man as he looks and feels around for help. As the man bumbs into things, portions of his body start to break off and/or shatter like porcelain. This happens over and over again till he has lost both hands and a foot. Another black skinned man walks over, wearing tribial clothing and is the only other character in the music video that is not of white culture. The man ironically asks if the former needs a hand, giving off the vulnerable state that black people were in America during the slave period, up to the late 1970's and even to the present date. The unitity that they had with each other during these times is shown when the main character is helped by another black skinned male, while no white skinned person helps him when he desparate looked for it. The idea that white people have taken away the lifes of black people, for example taking them away from their families during the slave period, is shown in the music video with white people break-dancing, something which was invented by the black community before white people took it as their own just like everything else that the black people had.

The genre of the music video is mostly shown through the visuals, helping the video to be suitable with the music and with the targetauidence. The establishing shots show a police car driving down a busy street in New York flashing it's lights, this links to the Dance genre side of the music track. Location shots of New York in the USA are also used in the establishing shots. The USA/New York is where the House and Drum 'n' Bass music genres firstly orginated from. The lyrics also link to the music video to suggest the genre of music to the audience. When the main character walks past a wire fence the lyric 'Let's get electrified' is played impling the fence is an electric fence and towards the electronica genre of the song. While also representing New York as dystopic, while also being a futuristic city. The main character then walks in to an underground car park which connates the nature of the roots of the genres of the song, with the genres at the time of the song being made not mainstream with lower interest from

Structured Narrative for Music Video

After research we have decided to use inspiration from another music video for our own. The music video we used was for the song I Found Out by The Pigeon Detectives, using the idea of superheroes and the relationship between men and women. The superhero idea goes with the song title, You Don't Know, with people not knowing who is behind the mask, while also having a hidden meaning of finding out that someone you hold close isn't who you thought and 'not knowing' who they are.

The main narrative for the music video is a young male, who has just spilt up with his girlfriend, running across the city to try and find her and get back together with her. But when he gets there she is with someone else and completely ignores him.

There is the narrative structure for our music video:

• Starts with a close up of a foot tapping to the beat of the intro. The costume of the character is of the ideology that is held of how indie kids look like, with the character wearing skinny jeans, plimsolls and a shirt. The shot is unfocused until music kicks in.
• The camera scrolls up the body of the character, starting at his shoes up to the top of his shirt/neck. This shows the audience what he is wearing, creating a ideology of the character before he has even been seen.
• The character starts to walk after the first lyric "You better run, they're coming for you." Close ups are used mainly, while location is of Chapelfield Gardens.
• The character keeps looking at a picture of him and a female on his phone as he walks through a park. He opens up a contact on his phone, stares at it before going to press the call button and hesitating. Close up of phone and face are used in this shot.
• At the end of the chorus the first time it is played, "I've got the solution, to end this thing." the character undoes shirt to reveal superhero costume. Close up of the buttons of the character's shirt being undone, then removed with the logo of a superhero visible.
• The camera zooms out of the character to see the character in a full superhero costume.
• The character then starts running across to the other side of the city.
• During the last versus, the character catches up to the girl. Medium shot of the character slowing down.
• A close up of the girl smiling, fooling the audience into believing it's a happy ending.
• The girl is now in the arms of another man. Medium shot of both of them.
• Long shot of all the characters with main character's face visible, shocked/upset look on face.
• Medium shot of the main character, he is now wearing the clothes that he wore at the beginning of the video. Zooms/pans to show the new man wearing the superhero costume.
• The new couple then walk off. Leaving the main character on his own as the song fades out.

Background History Of The Indie Pop Genre

Indie pop is a genre of alternative rock music that originated in the United Kingdom in the mid 1980s. While the term 'indie' had been used for some time to describe artists on independent labels (and the labels themselves), the key moment in the naming of the genre was the release of NME's C86 tape in 1986. Musically its key characteristics were jangling guitars, a love of sixties pop and often fey, innocent lyrics. It was also inspired by the DIY scene of punk and there was a thriving fanzine, label and club and gig circuit. Scenes later developed in the United States particularly around labels such as K Records. Genres such as riot grrrl and bands as diverse as Nirvana and Manic Street Preachers have acknowledged its influence. In the mid to late 80s, indie pop was criticized for its tweeness and underachievement, but many now argue that C86 and the birth of the genre was a pivotal moment for independent music in the UK. It continues to have a strong following and inspire musicians, not just in the UK but around the world with new labels, clubs and bands devoted to the sound.

In 2004 the indie pop genre had an resurgence. The UK focused Rough Trade Shops compilation Indiepop Vol 1 effectively documented the history of the sound acknowledging that it pre- and post-dated 1986. London clubs such as How Does it Feel to be Loved? continue to air tracks from the tape. In the mid-2000s, Sweden became a major exporter of indie pop with the such as Labrador Records and the success of indie pop artists from that country, notably Peter Bjorn and John, Shout Out Louds and Jens Lekman. Other indie pop acts which became popular during the late 2000s include British septet Los Campesinos!, Australian group Architecture in Helsinki, Scottish group Camera Obscura, and American groups such as The Pains of Being Pure at Heart, The Drums and Au Revoir Simone.

Explain what Find Your Tribes implies about the concept of identity in today’s world

In today’s society being part in your own social group or ‘tribe’ is much more important to the lives of teenagers than 50 years ago. In which ever modern day school that you go into you will find at least four different groups of social groups, depending on the size of the school. This doesn’t mean that people from one group don’t talk to another or are not friends; socials groups are normally people who are close friends with mainly same beliefs and opinions on matters that concern a 21^st century teenager. This is shown through the website www.findyourtribe.co.uk, yet in a more stereotypical way.

The Find Your Tribe website protrays different social groups and selects people's 'tribes' after they answer selected questions about themselves. With the answers that the user chooses, Find Your Tribe then selects a tribe for the user while also telling them their interests and beliefs. This shows that in today's society that if you like a certain genre of music for example you are stuck in one social group and everyone has a certain ideology about you that goes with the genre music that you like and the views people see of the members of that certain group. Find Your Tribe sums up the ideology's that many people have in today's society, and how these ideology's 'blind' us from what people are really like instead listening to the ideology's of other people.

Vampire Weekend

Vampire Weekend are an 4 piece American band from New York City being formed in 2006. They are in the indie rock/pop genre making them similar to We Can't Dance. Most of the music videos that have been released, to me, very successful making them the perfect example to follow for deciding how to create a music video for We Can't Dance. The official page for the band is http://www.vampireweekend.com/.



This is the video for the first track that was released from Vampire Weekend's second studio album, 'Cousins'. This video is extremely simple, yet very effective, being entertaining for the audience and keeping their attention. The video only took one day to film, and a street in New York was used for the location. Though just two-and-a-half minutes in length, the clips features quite a bit of looping, driving, and outfit and face changing. The video manages to link the music to the visuals. With the song being fast paced and lively the video shows this and keeps up with the demanding nature of the song.



This is the music video for 'A-Punk' that is included on the band's first self-titled studio album, 'Vampire Weekend'. The music video was directed by Garth Jennings, who said to convey the song's "spiky energy," used footage of the band performing as sped up stop-motion figures, simulating winter and underwater scenes during the performance. The sped-up action was effective being used to conotate with the fast beat that is used in the song. The costume that is used is linked to the genre of the band, whilst creating a link with the target audience as the band and thier fans are dressed the same.



This is the music video for 'Oxford Comma' which is from the band's first self-titled studio album, 'Vampire Weekend'. The video was directed by comedian Richard Ayoade. The concept behind the video was for it to be filmed in one long take — similar to the band's video for previous single 'A-Punk' — with unified visual and musical aspects. The video drew heavily on impressions of the works of American filmmaker Wes Anderson.

I like these videos a lot as there is an comic/fun factor to them. This helps to make it more watchable to the audience helping to advertise the song to a wider audience with people wanting to wanting to watch the video which in turn introduces them to the song. All of the videos above are very effective at doing this.

The Lyrics For Our Chosen Track

We Can't Dance - You Don't Know
Run time of track - 3:37 minutes.

You'd better run
cos' their coming for you.
It's about time
you changed all you're views.
You'd better run
cos' their coming for you.
It's about time
you changed all you're views.

You don't, you don't, you don't, you don't know.
You don't, you don't, you don't you don't think.
I've got, I've got, I've got the solution
To end, to end, to end this thing.
You don't, you don't, you don't, you don't know
You don't, you don't, you don't you don't think
I've got, I've got, I've got the solution
To end, to end, to end this thing.

Give me a minute,
to gather my thoughts
and I'll give you an hour,
to gather yours.
Give me a minute,
to gather my thoughts
and I'll give you an hour,
to gather yours.

You don't, you don't, you don't, you don't know.
You don't, you don't, you don't you don't think.
I've got, I've got, I've got the solution
To end, to end, to end this thing.
You don't, you don't, you don't, you don't know.
You don't, you don't, you don't you don't think.
I've got, I've got, I've got the solution
To end, to end, to end this thing.

Got an idea, well good for you.
Bet you any money, that it falls through.
Got an idea, well good for you.
Bet you any money, that it falls through.
Got an idea, well good for you.
Bet you any money, that it falls through.
Got an idea, well good for you.
Bet you any money, that it falls through.

Permission From Both Artists

Below are the two messages that I sent and recieved to and from the artists. These both give our group permission to use their material for the project, while I have also explained to them about who I am and details about why I want to use their material.

Microchip
We Can't Dance

The Selection Of The Artist

When we were told of our project and what we had to do we started to look for an artist that was local. We used websites, like MySpace.com, and word of mouth to find out about local unsigned bands. After a few nights of scanning the artist's material I managed to bring the shortlist down to two. These two artists we were;

We Can't Dance - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/We_Can)

- http://www.myspace.com/wecantdanceuk/

We Can't Dance are a unsigned indie pop band from Norwich. They are a 4 piece set consisting of band members Harry Dawson, Josie Steward , Tom Joy and Ash Alsop. The band were formed in October 2009 through "Access To Music", a company which has now partnered up with the Norwich Arts Centre College to help get local bands into recording and productions. This has helped them to slowly gain more and more fans with many gigs in Norwich being sold out; the latest one being when they supported Ed Sheeran at The Waterfront in August 2010, while they have an upcoming gig at The B2 where they are headlining to promte their new E.P. The band have also been featured on BBC Radio 1's Introducing Show, whilst also being featured on BBC Radio 6's Introducing Show. We Can't Dance currently have one E.P out called 'Gary Doherty' containing four tracks, with the namesake track making it into the Top 40 indie chart at 40th place. The track that we chose to use is off the 'Gary Doherty' E.P, and is called You Don't Know.

Microchip - http://www.myspace.com/microchiptunes
- http://microchiptunes.weebly.com/index.html

Microchip, aka Tom Joy, is an electronic artist in an one man piece from Norwich. He started writing music when he was 12 years old. Most of his compositions were guitar based and heavily influenced by 70s rock and roll. In aim to branch out Tom learnt to play bass guitar aswell, and played his first gig in September 2005, aged 13. After gaining his first taste of live performing, he was determined to carry on his music, and learnt to do his own recordings at home. After a few months of practicing with his recording equipment and learning keyboard, Tom's music started to take a new, interesting direction, mixing basic keyboard sounds with heavy guitar lines and a simple drum machine instead of a real drummer. Tom found that he worked better with music when he was on his own, and started his own electronic music project in November 2006. Tom's first one-man band was purely electronic, using simple sounds from his computer to make music. He thought that his music sounded like soundtracks from old video games and decided to base all of his music around this retro sound. As time went on the music gradually became less video game like and started entering new territories. In April 2007, Tom and a couple of friends formed a punk band. Having a strong influence of Muse and Enter Shikari, the band decided that they should have some synthesizer and electronics in their music, a job which was handed to Tom. After doing this for a year the band dispanded after realising that they were not very good, going on to do their own things. At this point Tom was fed up of the generic band set up, and not being able to work well with other people to try and create music that he liked playing he began a search of something interesting and new. After reluctantly being invited to a chiptune night at local Norwich venue B2, Tom found what he was looking for, and founded Microchip. Microchip has currently released two EPs, the first being 'Johan Vs Oliver' in February 2009, and the second being 'Midnight Sun' in June 2009.

I messaged both artists on MySpace.com asking for permission to use their material before we asked for feedback from an all round audience who like different genres of music. After discussing with the class after showing them the two tracks that we had chosen to do from both artist, we got feedback from the class saying which one they preferred. The feedback was spilt between the class, showing the different target audiences for both tracks. With me and my other group member being more into the indie music genre we chose to use We Can't Dance over Microchip as we felt that we would be able to represent the band and the music much better, even though we both have an interest into the electronic music genre.

Hello again...

It's now time for a new blog ready for A2 media! This will show all the work that I will do for the A2 section of A Level Media. Let the fun begin...