Questions:
1. What do you look for in a music video?
2. Do you prefer Abstract or Narrative Music Videos? Why?
3. At the moment do you have a favourite Music Video? Why do you like this Music Video so much?
4. What conventions do you expect to see in a Music Video, when it comes to Dubstep, and electro music?
5. How many hours a week do you spend watching music videos?
6. What things do you see in a music video, which allow you to relate to it?
7. In your opinion why are Music Videos important?
Carrying out this focus group was extremely helpful and allowed me to fully understand the people that I'm aiming my music video at. All the responses I received were extremely helpful and I will definitely keep them in mind when considering my music video. The first question I asked was of course what people actually look for in a music video. The responses I got was that generally when people watch music videos they look for all sorts of different things, it all depends entirely on the meaning of the song, what the lyrics are trying to convey to the audience, and of course the most important thing is the genre of the song. When considering this response, it makes sense. If we were thinking of rock/metal music videos then people would be looking for the excitement, the head banging, the dark clothing and the screamo vocals, along with the heavy guitar riffs. This would be a similiar idea if we were thinking of pop music. In a pop music video you would probably expect to see a use of brighter colours, perhaps lots of dancing and a general high tempo beat. All in all however it is clear that it all depends on the genre and what they are trying to convey.
The next thing I looked at was whether people preferred abstract or narrative videos, and I got some very different responses to this question. Some people agreed that narrative music videos were better and that there were many positives to having this type of music video, one of the most obvious being that a narrative video does actually back up the lyrics of of the songs and therefore creates a better understanding of the song, which is one of the most important things, because an artist will always create a music video to convey some kind of story towards the audience. A narrative music video is also quite straight forward and most are generally very easy to interpret and understand, this is good because of course it means that we as the audience, can clearly connect with the artists emotions, giving us more of an idea about what the song is about. On the other hand an abstract video would be very interesting because we can see the different unique perspectives on ideas and story lines, and different stories are portrayed in a unique abstract way.
Another question I was curious to find out about was if people had any particular favorite music video's at the moment, that they had particularly enjoyed. One of the most popular by far was Aviici's "Wake me up". People said that the things that they most enjoyed was the way that the the action matches the tempo of the music, so when the beat kicks in and she is on a huge maze-like field, she suddenly speeds up on the horse, along with the beat of the music which also quickens. This shows us that what people enjoy most is structure to the music video and way of doing this is perhaps syncing the actions and speed at what something is happening, to the music, which helps capture and excite the audience.
Next I asked what conventions that people would expect to see when it comes to dubstep/electro music videos. This is a very interesting question, however I did get very similar responses. People said that they would expect to see things which would create a crazy, exciting, fast atmosphere which portrays an exciting party lifestyle. We would expect to see things such as flashing lights, parties, people getting drunk and having fun. This idea was the same when I asked other people, the whole idea of this fun music is to just let go and have fun and not care what others think. We see that dubstep is a very fast type of music, and creates almost a "festival" atmosphere for even a whole group of people in a room, who may not neccesarily know each other, but who are connected by the reverberating beats of the music that are vibrating through the room.
Next I asked how many hours a week, do people tend to listen to music, and people once more came back with similar responses, most people do tend to listen to music videos for at least a couple of hours a week, which if you think about it, is a lot of music! People tended to listen to music videos online, on sites such as itunes, youtube etc and also on the tv on music channels such as 4 music. The idea that an average person listens to over an hours music each week is quite astounding and shows just how much music has become part of todays society and the way it is now a bit part of our lives.
The next question revolved around what people think they see in a music video which allows them to relate to the music video and the music in general. Again people agreed that there were many different things in a music video which allowed an audience to relate to it. It would depend on things such as the genre or the song in general, this is the most obvious thing because of course if you aren't interested in that particular genre of music or the song, then you won't be able to connect to it at an emotional level, or any level at all! Another important thing to think of is the mise-en-scene of the music video, this is important because the way that the artists are dressed and the props that are being used is a big part
6) Depends on the genre/song. the mise-en-scene, how they're dressed,they're props, the narrative of a song.
7) Help reinforce meaning of song, sells the artists, a way to advertise the artists, its a oney making thing on youtube, on wrecking ball, the peoplewho have an advert before the wrecking ball video will make a fortune because there will be millions of people clicking and watching the advert.
Carrying out this focus group was extremely helpful and allowed me to fully understand the people that I'm aiming my music video at. All the responses I received were extremely helpful and I will definitely keep them in mind when considering my music video. The first question I asked was of course what people actually look for in a music video. The responses I got was that generally when people watch music videos they look for all sorts of different things, it all depends entirely on the meaning of the song, what the lyrics are trying to convey to the audience, and of course the most important thing is the genre of the song. When considering this response, it makes sense. If we were thinking of rock/metal music videos then people would be looking for the excitement, the head banging, the dark clothing and the screamo vocals, along with the heavy guitar riffs. This would be a similiar idea if we were thinking of pop music. In a pop music video you would probably expect to see a use of brighter colours, perhaps lots of dancing and a general high tempo beat. All in all however it is clear that it all depends on the genre and what they are trying to convey.
The next thing I looked at was whether people preferred abstract or narrative videos, and I got some very different responses to this question. Some people agreed that narrative music videos were better and that there were many positives to having this type of music video, one of the most obvious being that a narrative video does actually back up the lyrics of of the songs and therefore creates a better understanding of the song, which is one of the most important things, because an artist will always create a music video to convey some kind of story towards the audience. A narrative music video is also quite straight forward and most are generally very easy to interpret and understand, this is good because of course it means that we as the audience, can clearly connect with the artists emotions, giving us more of an idea about what the song is about. On the other hand an abstract video would be very interesting because we can see the different unique perspectives on ideas and story lines, and different stories are portrayed in a unique abstract way.
Another question I was curious to find out about was if people had any particular favorite music video's at the moment, that they had particularly enjoyed. One of the most popular by far was Aviici's "Wake me up". People said that the things that they most enjoyed was the way that the the action matches the tempo of the music, so when the beat kicks in and she is on a huge maze-like field, she suddenly speeds up on the horse, along with the beat of the music which also quickens. This shows us that what people enjoy most is structure to the music video and way of doing this is perhaps syncing the actions and speed at what something is happening, to the music, which helps capture and excite the audience.
Next I asked what conventions that people would expect to see when it comes to dubstep/electro music videos. This is a very interesting question, however I did get very similar responses. People said that they would expect to see things which would create a crazy, exciting, fast atmosphere which portrays an exciting party lifestyle. We would expect to see things such as flashing lights, parties, people getting drunk and having fun. This idea was the same when I asked other people, the whole idea of this fun music is to just let go and have fun and not care what others think. We see that dubstep is a very fast type of music, and creates almost a "festival" atmosphere for even a whole group of people in a room, who may not neccesarily know each other, but who are connected by the reverberating beats of the music that are vibrating through the room.
Next I asked how many hours a week, do people tend to listen to music, and people once more came back with similar responses, most people do tend to listen to music videos for at least a couple of hours a week, which if you think about it, is a lot of music! People tended to listen to music videos online, on sites such as itunes, youtube etc and also on the tv on music channels such as 4 music. The idea that an average person listens to over an hours music each week is quite astounding and shows just how much music has become part of todays society and the way it is now a bit part of our lives.
The next question revolved around what people think they see in a music video which allows them to relate to the music video and the music in general. Again people agreed that there were many different things in a music video which allowed an audience to relate to it. It would depend on things such as the genre or the song in general, this is the most obvious thing because of course if you aren't interested in that particular genre of music or the song, then you won't be able to connect to it at an emotional level, or any level at all! Another important thing to think of is the mise-en-scene of the music video, this is important because the way that the artists are dressed and the props that are being used is a big part
6) Depends on the genre/song. the mise-en-scene, how they're dressed,they're props, the narrative of a song.
7) Help reinforce meaning of song, sells the artists, a way to advertise the artists, its a oney making thing on youtube, on wrecking ball, the peoplewho have an advert before the wrecking ball video will make a fortune because there will be millions of people clicking and watching the advert.
