RESEARCH - SOCIAL MEDIA

Social media is a key part of everyday life among younger people, such as the 16-24 year old age range, which is our target audience. Social media can used for socialising and keeping in contact with friends, but also it can be used to consume media, such as music videos, and keep up to date with updates from people and organisations that people decide to follow, such as bands. For these reason, as well as the very high levels of activity among our target audience on social media, we thought it would be a very good idea to utilise this our advantage when researching the indie rock genre, and our target audience, to gain as broad of a range of knowledge around the genre and our audience as possible, which would help us to successfully create a realistic audience profile, supporting our existing knowledge from our own experiences, and make our products as successful as possible.

YouTube:
YouTube is perhaps the world's largest video sharing website, with over a billion users, with an estimated 300 hours of new content uploaded to YouTube every minute, and 'music' being the first most searched for topic. YouTube has revolutionised the way music videos are consumed, with it contributing to the fall of past platforms of music video consumption, such as the MTV TV channel, and contributing the rise of a new form of consumption, via the internet, promoting the growth of YouTube channels designed specifically for the distribution of music videos, such as Vevo.

YouTube can help contribute to our research for a number of reasons. Firstly, we have been able to look at existing music videos from bands of the indie rock genre, which showcase live performances, as well as being look at videos of live performances themselves. This has allowed us to help solidify our understanding of our target audience being within the age range of 16-24, as we were able to visually analyse the audience that feature in the videos. It has also allowed us to support our understanding of the fashion sense of fans of the indie rock genre, as we were able to analyse the types of clothing that the audience in the videos are wearing. This will not only help us when creating an audience profile, but also when planning the costumes that will be used in the music video. There are three music videos that have significantly helped us with this, as the audience is clearly visible in both videos. These videos are 'Homesick; by Catfish and the Bottlemen, 'Stay High' by Spector, and 'West Coast' by FIDLAR.



Secondly, we were able to look at comments on music videos of the indie rock genre, from existing music videos by The Jungle Doctors (the band who we are shooting a music video for), and other existing indie rock bands, such as The Arctic Monkeys. By watching these videos and by looking at the comment sections, we were able to get a feel of what the average indie fan appreciates and looks for in a music video, as well as the music itself. From this, I was able to tell that there is a sense of dedication to bands, particularly from female fans, providing me with the idea that our video for the Jungle Doctors should heavily focus upon band shots. The comments on YouTube videos also conveyed that the fans are very interested in the music, and perhaps can have some sort of emotional connection to songs, again reinforcing the idea that the music video should be heavily filled with band shots, to convey the sense of intimacy and connection between the band and their song. By looking at the comment section of the Jungle Doctors song, 'Falling', we were able to reinforce the idea that the music video should be primarily composed of band shots, as there is already a well established, loyal fan base that have a strong appreciation of the band and the music they create. We believe that due to this, the fan base would appreciate a music video composed mainly of band shots, to highlight the connection between the band and their music.

The comment section for music video of 'Why'd You Only Call Me
When You're High' by the Arctic Monkeys reveals that
there is a sense of dedication and 'love' for band members

From analysing the comment section for The Jungle Doctor's song 'Falling', it
is clear that there is already a well established and loyal fan base of the band, who
have a real appreciation of the band and their music

Twitter:
Twitter is a very popular platform among our target audience of 16-24 year olds, used to communicate with friends, but also to stay up to date with news and updates from pages of their interests that they follow. In the indie rock genre, Twitter is a great way for bands to keep target audience and fans informed with the latest information, such as upcoming albums and tours, especially as twitter is a free source of marketing. 

To help support our research into our target audience age range and spread of gender, we decided to look at the followers of existing indie bands on Twitter, such as Palma Violets, Drenge, Spector, and JAWS. By doing this, we were able to see that the spread of male to female followers is around 50:50, with the followers predominantly being within the 16-24 age range.

By looking at the followers of existing indie rock bands, we were able
to see that the followers are around 50% male and 50% female.

We also used Twitter to look at how existing indie bands address their fans, seeing as there is a strong connection and sense of communication between indie fans and the bands. To do this, we looked at the twitter pages of four successful indie rock bands who have a strong and active sense of communication with their fans, 'Slaves', 'Palma Violets', 'Peace', and 'Spector'. By scrolling through their twitter pages, we were able to look at tweets which were addressed directly at specific fans, and also look at tweets the bands aimed at fans as a sense of promotion, such as tour dates. We were able to see that the bands maintain a humble nature about them by speaking as normally as possible, using colloquialisms such as 'm8', highlighting that they are just normal people, and they just happen to be in successful bands. We were also able to see there is a plentiful use of 'x's in tweets from existing indie bands, perhaps to highlight the appreciation of the band to the fans. With this information, we think that we should incorporate these colloquialisms into the digiapk, perhaps in a message to the fans, to maintain and create a connection with the fans, and remain as true to the indie rock genre as possible.

Tweets from existing indie bands

Summary:
By looking at social media, we were able learn a number of things that will help to make our products more successful. These are:

• Our knowledge of our target audience being within the 16-24 age range, and 50% male and 50% female, was reinforced by music videos featuring live performances
• We were able to gain a more broad knowledge of fans of the indie genre, such as their fashion sense, which will help when making an audience profile and planning costumes for the music video
• By looking at YouTube comments, we could see a strong sense of dedication and connection to the bands and their music, which informed us that our music video should be mainly composed of band shots
• Existing indie bands use colloquialisms when addressing their fans, and we should aim to use these colloquialisms when creating our print products in order for our products to be more successful and effective