Audience expectations of music genre

We interviewed a female aged 17 and a male aged 16 who are in our target market to see what they would expect of a music video in the indie pop genre. 


We asked 5 Questions to understand what our audience knew about the indie pop music genre:
1. What locations would you expect to see in the indie pop genre?
2. Would you expect to see bright lighting?
3. Would the costume be informal or formal why?
4. Would the singer have a full face or natural face of makeup?
5. Would the editing be slow or fast paced? 

 

This is relevant as if the answers given were different to what we had planned to film then we would change certain aspects. Such as using bright lighting and informal costumes. This would add to the style of our indie pop genre making it more accurate and professional. We asked these specific questions as we found these ideas to be a common feature within indie pop music videos and we wanted to know if our target audience agreed with these ideas.
 From this interview We understood that normal features of a music included abstract location. Both answers showed that the location for a music video in this genre could either be outside in a forest/countryside location, or in a neglected, run down area. We decided to abandon traditional ideas for location within our music video to create an contrast between our music video and normal music videos.
Another idea that was favoured was the use of lighting. Using a mix of natural lighting and high key lighting where necessary portrayed the artist in a certain way. From our audience feedback we decided to use a mixture of natural lighting and high key lighting to complement the artist in our music video. 
We finally asked our target audience about editing within a music video, specifically in the indie pop music genre. This was divided between the two audience members we interviewed as one mentioned 'slow editing to complement the laid back feel of the music' where the other simply stated 'fast, quick editing.' This showed that depending on the style of the song the editing follows the overall feel of the music video, for example if it was a slow song, you would not use fast paced editing as it wouldn't reflect the genre of music. As we have chosen a fast paced song we have decided to use fast paced editing, cutting to the beat so that it complements the overall video. However we have used long shot durations within our music video, which flows to the melody of the song.