2. This shows that Music Videos are currently popular.
Whilst not everyone enjoys watching them, The
majority of the people asked do, which means that
music videos would be an effective and worthwhile
promotion product for a song.
3. The most popular genre of music among those who we asked was
Pop- this is quite unsurprising as pop music usually dominates the
UK charts. RnB was also very popular, and Indie, Dance and Rock
were equally popular in third place. I think that choosing a song
that combines Pop with another popular genre (such as
Indie)would capture both a mainstream and the niche
audience, making it likely for the song to be very profitable and
popular. However this result may not be totally useful as the
question may be interpreted to mean just the music itself- whilst
the person might enjoy the song, it is possible that they might
not like videos with the conventions of that genre.
4. The majority of those asked said that they like to see the artist
on screen as part of the video. I would suggest that this is
because they can better relate the video to the song if the artist
is present, and as fans the audience would want to be able to see
and connect with the artist as much as possible. Some artists do
however use other actors in their videos for effect, such as Ed
Sheeran’s use of Rupert Grint in his “Lego House” video. I think
that whilst this helps to tell a story and make the video more
interesting or even humorous, this is a risk and would not be a
good idea for a new up and coming artist to use, as they need to
become better known and established as an artist.
5. Most of the audience said that they enjoy videos with a storyline.
Many artists use this technique to visually present the story
behind the lyrics of their song, helping with the audience’s
understanding of it. The use of a narrative also makes the video
more interesting in many cases.
6. The majority of those asked said that they enjoy the use of
humour in a video. I think that this can be effective and add
interest, captivating the audience, however I think that this is
hard to do well and can easily backfire and so would not want to
attempt this as an amateur.
7. The majority of people asked said they do not enjoy action
sequences in music videos, which I think may be as this would
detract from the song, and would not be fitting for music of
many genres. However there is still a fairly high percentage who
do like action sequences so I do not think this should be
completely ruled out.
8. A high percentage of people surveyed said that they like to see
dancing in music videos. This Is a common aspect of music
videos, especially in more upbeat songs. I think that this would be
because in seeing the artist or a crowd of people dancing, the
audience would also want to get up and dance along to the
song, which would likely increase their enjoyment in listening to
it.
9. The responses to this question was quite varied, so I think it
would be hard to appeal to everyone in the audience when it
comes to colour. The majority of people said they would not be
put off by any colour effects in a music video, although quite a
high percentage do not like the use of sepia.
10. The majority of people asked said that they prefer music videos
to include shots of more than one location. I think that this
improves the pacing of a video and would make it much more
interesting.
11. Over 60% of the audience felt that a music video can detract
from the song itself. With this in mind I think that it is
important not to over-complicate a music video or make it hard to
follow, as this would mean the audience would need to focus on
the video rather than the music.
12. The aspect of a music video that the audience found most
distracting is the over use of diegetic sound, which I think often
jars with the song, and would mean a delay in the introduction of
the music, or an interruption. Many also disliked the use of
actors(which can be confusing), preferring to see the artist
themselves. Overly complicated videos were also unpopular, which
shows the importance of keeping the video fairly simple and
allowing the music to take centre stage.
13. The majority of those asked said that they have been influenced
to buy a song after watching it’s music video, which shows that
videos do promote the music. However, 46.2% did not
agree, which I think shows that the music video is often seen as a
side product, something that one would watch to consume the
music in addition to simply listening to the audio version.