Researching my target audience

 For my music video I intend to aim it at an indie target audience.

The term indie rock, describes a genre of music founded through alternate rock that was first discovered in the 1980s. It main sense of ‘individuality’ came from the underground music scene, with artists signing with record labels who were very much individuals in the music industry. Their dedication to remaining unique and independent from other artists or genres of the time raised their popularity to create an indie culture with numerous subcultures, subgenres and fusion genres. This offspring of music in the late 1990s created multiple forms of indie, such as indie pop, grunge and lo-fi that is still appreciated today. This new identity not only influenced the music choice of its followers, but gave an overall style and attitude that these cultures and subcultures would be known for.

I intend to focus my study on one of the fusion genres of indie rock, known as indie folk. This unique genre first became popular in the late 1990s, when indie rock was influenced by the soulful sounds of country music. The unique mix of catchy personal lyrics with the soothing sounds an acoustic guitar creates relaxing contemporary listening for a new subculture people can identify themselves with.

Examples of indie folk music in the charts today are bands such as Bombay Bicycle Club, Of Monsters and Men, The Lumineers, as well as solo artists like Ben Howard and Jake Bugg. They each consist of music very much stripped back to basics, with main instruments including an acoustic guitar, double bass, banjos, drums and violins. They don’t include any synthetic sounding instruments or synthesisers. This relates to their iconography of a genre as a whole, the sound of their music being exactly the same as if they were playing live. The lack of over ambitious sounds and mixes creates a soulful experience, yet still something great to dance to.

People who refer to themselves as ‘indie’ carry a particular style, attitude and identity that reflect the music they preferably listen to. It is common to see people of this subculture mainly buy their clothes from Topshop and H&M, as well as include one off vintage pieces or charity shop purchases to create individuality in their look. They obviously listen to band and artists listed under the subgenre indie, with a particular fondness of going to gigs and festivals. Indie folk are more common as festival goers, wearing clothes infused with nature such as flower crowns and face paints to create artistic values in their look. They also convey a particular attitude of being quite care free, open for new experiences and experimenting in drugs and alcohol to have a good time. Outsiders of this identity sometimes state they are quite depressive and emotional due to the depth of lyrics some songs possess, yet this is down to personal opinion.

The song I have chosen ‘Stay Awake’ by The House of the Old Boat fall under the category of indie folk, so when making decisions of the genre and style of my music video, I will reference the identity of my target audience to influence my imagery.