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 8th 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.
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