Swimming Pools - Lyric Analysis

Next Steps Analysis

Having furthered my research into the production of my music video, I have developed the ideas previously outlined in my 'initial ideas' post. Within this post I feel that there were more vague ideas and having furthered my research I feel I can offer more concrete plans.

Setting

A setting that I would want to include within the video is a party. I feel this is a perfect place to depict excessive drinking and peer pressure. I also feel that it would create an entertaining video which was a popular response in our questionnaire. One problem with this is that it may be logistically difficult to create this realistically as some people in our social group are underage, however we could work around this problem by refilling bottles. An interesting factor would be depicting the negative side of drinking within the party atmosphere in order to stay true to the song.

Props/Iconography 

One thing that I discussed in my initial ideas post was the idea of a golden flask.

Another element I want to include is a flashback in the narrative, making it non linear. This would be on the lyrics:
"Now I done grew up 'round some people livin' their life in bottles, Granddaddy had the golden flask,"
I think portraying the powerful symbol of the golden flask would help to add depth to the character and also reinforce the message of the song with regards to drinking culture. 

Having seen that my audience like a music video to have meaning in a video, I really want to incorporate the golden flask. It would represent the value that people give to drinking despite its harm and add another layer of depth to the video.

Camera

In order to create the party atmosphere that the song demands, hand held camera work will be a necessity. The loose nature of the shot will help to communicate that people have been drinking. 

Editing 

Two things I said in my initial ideas post still remain true after researching more into our audience. These are: 

Another convention I think would be effective for the video is the screen flickering black at parts of the video that needs a fast paced feel. This is a convention of rap videos and I think it would help to create a party feel for the video when necessary.

An editing technique that we would definitely want to include is editing in time to the beat. The beat in this song is more prominent than some others and this makes it essential for this video so we don't lose the impact.

I feel that these will really help to make it an entertaining video, blending both meaning and entertainment in a way that our demographic research showed us is necessary. 

Questionnaire Analysis

QUESTIONNAIRE

In order to get a better understanding of my demographic and the kinds of things they enjoy when it comes to rap videos, I created a questionnaire to find more information about them. The questionnaire was as follows:

1. Please put your name, age, and gender.
2. What apps or websites do you listen to music on?
3. Which of the following describes you best? Pick one.  

(A digital, free spirited, creative young single)
(Someone with high aspirations but low economic status)
(An aspirational, fun seeking, active individual)
(Part of a high driving, high involvement couple) 

4. List your three favourite rappers.
5. If you chose creative, what would you change about rap videos?
6. If you chose high aspirations, why do you watch rap videos?
7. What is your favourite rap album and rap video?
8. What would you expect to see in a rap video? Does it need to be linked to the song?
9. Do you prefer rap videos to be entertaining or to have a message?
10. Do you believe we'll need a lead singer for our music video?

 ANALYSIS

To gain a greater level of understanding of the numbers that my questionnaire gave me, I have decided to analyse them. This should give me a more concise insight into what the results show me about my demographic.

This is an important question to have asked, in order to have an idea of what direction we need to take our music video in. Looking at the responses to this question, it seems that it is quite a close cut thing with regards to what people prefer; there is only a difference of 3 between the number one option and the others. However, the most common response was that people prefer a video to have a message. This is what I would have expected, considering I was expecting my demographic to be people with high aspirations. In my opinion they may want a message in a video as it gives them something to be inspired by. Therefore, when creating my video I think that we should try not to lose the message of the song. Luckily, the song is also entertaining whilst having a powerful message which could make it easy to incorporate both elements in an effective way. 

This question gave us some insight into our demographic. From the results I can see that the most common group is high aspiration, low economic status, which confirms what we expected from our demographic. As well as this, the digital, free spirited, creative young single was a group we expected to have some prominence and this is confirmed by the results. One thing I didn't expect from our results was the aspirational, fun seeking, active young demographic. However, this may be because we weren't selective enough with who we gave our answer to.  

This question was designed to help us gain an understanding of how our demographic watch music videos, and what they judge to be a successful one. Looking at the results, it appears that the majority think that a lead singer is necessary. This is arguably congruent with the high ambition demographic we have who would have idols to help drive their ambition. Therefore when we create our video, we need to consider that a lead singer is highly desirable by our audience, however there is still a large amount of people that don't see it as necessary. This leads me to think that if the final product is of a high enough standard, a lack of a lead singer isn't going to be a fundamental flaw. One limitation with these results is that we weren't specific enough with the people we gave the questionnaire to. Not everyone's favorite genre was rap and a rapper is a different kind of icon to a pop singer, particularly in the eyes of rap fans.  

To summarize, when creating our final products I think that it is clearly essential that the message of the song is not lost as this is something that the majority are open to, judging from our results. I think the positive moral message would also appeal to the high aspiration group that we have established in our questionnaire.

Audience Research

In researching potential ways to categorize demographics, I found a few different methods which could help to give an insight into my audience.

ABC1 C2DE - Demographic Profiling

The first way of identifying a demographic I found was the ABC1 C2DE form, which bases different groups upon the social class of the audience. Applying this to the genre of rap music, I think that it would focus most upon the C2, D and E sections. This represents the working class section of the system. The reason I think that this would apply particularly to rap music is because a big part of rap is talking about the money you've made and often how hard you worked to make it. This would clearly resonate more with the working class, who would struggle more with money and can relate to the messages shared in the song.

However, one flaw with this method of profiling is that it is quite vague and even the most specific category can encompass a wide range of different people from different cultures. A method of profiling which is more specific and could help to identify a target market more precisely is The Four Cs (Cross-Cultural Consumer Characteristics). This method has four different groups:

Mainstreamers - Largest demographic, made up of those who prefer well-recognised brands.

Aspirers - People who are looking to improve themselves; often associating themselves strongly with the ideologies of high status brands, almost hoping that people will connote this high status with them.

Succeeders - People who feel in control and reinforce this feeling through their music

Reformers - 'Idealists' who buy into brands that are environmentally responisble.

A development of this is the individual; somebody who expects high production quality from the brands they buy into.  

Evaluating these, I don't think any of the demographics are a perfect fit to the genre rap, but I think there are elements that can still be useful when developing the idea of our demographic. For example, mainstreamers will overlap with rap often, as the genre has broken into popular culture amongst young people; the use of the word yolo was popularized through a rap song. Aspirers partially apply too. The idea of people looking to improve themselves is something rap listeners may be able to relate to. Although, succeeders arguably fit best. The genre of rap is something that can often be very empowering and this could help to create a feeling of control.

Another method of profiling demographics is the Life Matrix segments. Unlike The Four Cs, in this case one particular category stood out to me as far as the rap genre goes. The struggling singles category (high aspirations, low economic status) seems to fit in perfectly with the demographic of rap, which is in my mind ambitious young people in adverse situations, 

To summarize, one thing that my audience research has taught me is that a very strong demographic for rap music is the working class. Furthermore, the ideas of rap listeners wanting to improve themselves and having high ambitions is something that also fits in with my understanding of the rap genre. Therefore, adding elements to my video which appeal to these desires may help to make it more successful. A simple way to do this which is seen in most conventional rap videos is to have money shown in the video, and if suitable this would be a good way to appeal to my demographic.