Audience Research: Responses

I received 11 responses to my questionnaire in total. The service I used, Google Forms, allows me to view all of my responses as visualised charts.

From the responses to my first question, I can see that approximately 50% of recipients to my questionnaire were between the ages of 11-22. This offers a solid balance of responses which represent the both the youth, and the adult audience.



This response tells me that almost half of responders do not regularly watch music videos, and in contrast, just over half claim to watch at least one music video per week. This could correlate with the similar, almost halfway divide of age ranges. Of those who do claim to watch music videos, a 27.3% majority watches between 2-3 per week.



This was one of the more divisive questions, and speaks to the diverse range of music available to audiences through different genres. The majority preference was pop music, followed by hip-hop, rock and indie. My music video features a song that might be considered a blend of indie and rock by today’s standards, which suggests that I have a respectable audience for my video.



This answer found one, unanimous answer. Respondents were able to select multiple answers, and all eleven selected YouTube. I can gather, therefore, that it would certainly be appropriate for me to post my video to YouTube, as, clearly, this is where the largest audience for music videos is found.




This is the first answer where I allowed my audience to provide written, qualitative data. I am, however, able to interpret their answers quantitatively. Of the eleven answers, it was suggested five times that some form of artist performance be involved. It was also suggested four times that the video feature a narrative. Other answers suggested proficient use of lighting and editing, mirroring some of Goodwin’s conventions for music videos, such as editing that is matched to the beat of the song.




To follow on from the previous question, respondents were asked from a multiple choice answer which they would prefer to see out of story, live performance, being thought-provoking, having abstract visuals or having a comedic tone. Interestingly, respondents only chose from story or live performance. The responses were as split as can be, and, even more interestingly, story edged out live performance in the responses.



Another question of written responses, here the overwhelming majority voiced that it would be beneficial for the music video to directly relate to the lyrical content of its song. Andrew Goodwin suggested that music videos should use their imagery to illustrate the meaning of their lyrics, and my audience here have supported that claim.



With this question, I aimed to gauge whether audiences were still watching music videos that are not recent. This could then provide me with an idea of what gives a video rewatchability. Of the responses, only two respondents, when asked what the last music video they watched was, responded with a video not from 2017. These two videos were from Radiohead and the Beatles, two of the biggest musical acts of the modern era. It is most likely that their music had more of an influence on this than the contents of the music video.




For the follow-up question, 63.6% claimed that they were influenced, by the music video, to listen to the song more. This suggests that a good music video can have influence as a marketing tool.




For the final question, I asked respondents what they believed to be the greatest music video of all time. I could then examine some of these, to understand what gives them such high regard. There was a diverse set of results, however, Thriller by Michael Jackson came out on top with 4 of the 11 claiming that it was the greatest music video of all time (Google Forms has listed thriller as two separate responses due to formatting).

Other notable responses to this question include Take on Me by A-ha, Smells Like Teen Spirit by Nirvana and Bohemian Rhapsody by Queen.