Target Audience for Jenny & Johnny

Who is the target audience for your genre?

My group has chosen to make a music video for the song ‘Switchblade’ by ‘Jenny & Johnny’. The genre for this song would be ‘Alternative Rock’. This genre is most common for teenagers and young adults in an age bracket of 13-25, the song appeals to both males and females but would be probably listened to more by females.

What will your target audience expect from your music video (genre expectations)?

As described above the target audience is of a teenage/young adult age. This means that they will expect a certain ‘feel’ from the song and the music video. The conventions of ‘Alternative Rock’ music videos are as followed:

The themes of the videos are either very performance based and are located on some random setting, for instance performing on a mountain top or in the middle of the street or are very low key and are based in a more enclosed backdrop such as a rehearsal room. The actual themes of the videos are varied by each band; each band seems to have their own style which they stick to. For example, a theme on sex, drugs and alcohol could be mainstream for one band where as a form of a love story would be the usual for another band. However any themes normally have so form of twist on them, e.g. a love story between household appliances.

The camera shots that would be expected from an ‘Alternative Rock’ music video would be close ups on the band members and on their instruments if they have any. Extreme close ups are also used to show for example the lead singers mouth singing the main chorus line. Panning shots and wide shots are used to show the location of the video along with hand held shots that are shot to look very amateurish as the style for the songs are laid back.

The editing of ‘Alternative Rock’ music video generally has clean cut transitions with straight cuts with lots of shots to create a fast pace that goes to the music beat. More technical wipes and transitions are used to great effect in this genre’s music videos however if used too much they eventually becoming bland and boring.

The band members styling isn’t usually that abnormal. As the genre is very casual and laid back the artists will be styled to appear that no styling has taken place and that they have just worn whatever they like. For example, a lead singer wearing a t-shirt, jeans and skater shoes. The colours of an ‘Alternative Rock’ music video tend to be dark colours such as browns, blacks and greys. But using stand out colours can be used very effectively, such as creating a black and white music video with the artists dressed in red.