Audience research questionnaire

By Elissa Appleby-Mason

A wide variety of expectations are evident within a music video, looking at the feedback received from the questionnaire. Typically, the notion of ‘gaze theory’ is expected, along with musical performances, dance performances and social traits are expected.

Likewise, when asked the question “what do you particularly dislike to see within a music video?”, the responses were what was to be expected. Typical traits, such as no movement, poor timing and cliché romantic scenes/narrative were just some of the few comments received back. Therefore this was important to acknowledge and avoid featuring the same typical conventions in our music video.

It is clear to see that majority of the audience agreed that they would much rather see a stronger musical performance within a music video, rather than a clear narrative. Therefore this is something we will need to take on board and focus our strengths on within our video.

12 out of 15 members of the audience agreed that they’d rather see a music video along with a song, rather than left to the imagination. This use of feedback gives us an insight as to the amount of attention payed towards music videos. The audience do not just listen to the song, but also take time to watch the video.

The results of this analysis give both corresponding and juxstaposed opinions of what an audience defines to be the trope traits of music video. In response to question one , the majority of responses were entirely different, providing a subtle clue as to what an audience perceives to expect within a music video- variety.

Also, the majority of responses referred to something directly aesthetic - suggesting that people have come to expect a certain level of visual originality. It was also mentioned that many of the objects of animosity within music videos were directly aesthetic, such as the overt sexualisation of performers and poorly synced lyrics.

Results to the last question regarding the lyrics relevance to the song, clearly provides evidence that the majority of responses feel that in some way or another it is important for a music video to be directly relevant to the lyrics of a song.

Altogether, this questionnaire has provided me with audience expectations of a music video, therefore I can use this whilst planning and developing our own video, taking into account the results from this questionnaire.