Audience Profiling – The LaFontaines

Chloe Ward

Profiling

I created a survey on Survey Monkey, and I have contacted some people who are fans of the band on Twitter. I set a target of ten responses.Although this will not be wholly representative, this will give me a slight insight into their fan base.

GenderI took a look through The LaFontaines Twitter page and took a random sample of 100 followers.• From this, I found that there was

somewhat of a gender divide, although it was not too severe; there were 38 male fans in the sample to 62 female fans. I was surprised to see this as I had always felt that the band was fairly gender neutral, if not more suited towards males.

• The results from my survey supported this, with 7 out of my 10 respondents being female and the other 3 male. I think I may have had a less gender biased result if my survey had been more publicised. I had difficulty in finding an appropriate medium to share my survey on, and mainly relied on people I followed on Twitter who I knew were fans. I also asked some of my friends, of which two were male and two female. 

Gender and my video

I don't think that this will affect what I have planned to do in my music video, however. Although the central focus of it is male, I don't think it would disengage a female audience. I am trying to convey a universal message. There will be some female characters in my video, unlike The LaFontaines original video for 'Light Up The Background' which was featured men quite heavily.

Age• Again, my expectations were slightly off

for the target audience. It emerged that a majority of The LaFontaines fans were actually in the 13-17 age bracket (50%). The second largest group was 18-24 year olds, which is the group I had expected to be the largest.

• This actually seems to fit better with the actor I have in mind for my music video - he is now 16 years old and therefore an audience aged 13-17 will be able to relate to him better than a person towards the higher end of the 18-24 age bracket might, since there are very different things going on in their lives. For instance, a 24 year old is less likely to be feeling peer pressure over deviant behaviour than a 14 year old. I also had one respondent in the 36-41 age bracket. Since there is only one respondent of this age I cannot generalise and say that they appeal to an older target audience, but I think this reflects the fact that some members of the audience are older and that I should not only target my video towards a younger audience. This audience member may have children that are the same age as the character in my video, and this may be of interest to them.

Fashion• I asked the question - "How would you

best describe your style" and got a fairly varied range of answers back.

• This says to me that The LaFontaines are a band that does not attract one stereotypical group of people. Bands of a more defined genre like Bring Me The Horizon may have fans with a much more distinct look.

• The most popular answers for this question were 'smart' and 'individual' which I feel are good descriptions of the way the band dress as well. Whilst they may dress in smart clothes, they are fairly individual in doing this because most bands would probably prefer to be more comfortable and less likely to overheat when they are playing live.

• However, there was no clear winner when it comes to what the audience dresses like. Therefore I do not need to worry about my actor dressing to fit the audience profile - because just dressing as himself should mean that he meets this.

Social Networking• I also asked the question - 'Which of the

following social networking websites do you actively use? Check all that apply.' 

• I found that the most popular sites were all those that The LaFontaines had accounts on. This is not so much a question that relates to the music video, but it helps me to build a profile of the typical audience member.

• The most popular sites were Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. Sites like Tumblr and Vine has reasonable success but MySpace was not a site that any of the audience members used.

• I think that the three most popular networks are ones that The LaFontaines can use most effectively to help them spread their music and help them to gain popularity.

• These results tell me that fans of The LaFontaines are technologically literate and well connected. Every respondent has a Facebook account and 90% have a Twitter account.

• I have planned a scene where the main character in my video is watching a video that he has been sent, which shows a political cartoon. I think the fact that 80% of respondents have an active YouTube account will help the character appeal to them even more.

Radio

• As I expected, the majority of fans has listened to BBC Radio 1 within the last month.

• They had also listened to stations such as Capital FM, a London-based radio station that plays mainly pop music. Kiss FM is a national radio network that plays a mix of pop and hip-hop music. I think that this reflects the hybrid nature of The LaFontaines' music.

Musical Preferences - Genre• I also asked the question 'Which of the

following genres of music do you most enjoy? Check all that apply.'

• The most popular answer here was rock (70%), followed by indie and alternative.

• No genre had no fans. I think this is important because again, it reflects the fact that The LaFontaines' music is a hybrid of different musical styles and therefore people will like it for different reasons and listen to it to fulfill different gratifications. Where some people listen to the band because the enjoy the fast paced, high adrenaline music, others listen to it for the meaning behind the lyrics. One respondent added in the 'other' box that they enjoyed other genres, such as dubstep, metal, garage and hardstyle. This suggests to me that fans of The LaFontaines have a very varied taste in music, supported by the fact that some people were also fans of Blues, Classic & Opera and Country music, which I did not expect to see any fans for.

Musical Preferences - Gigs• One of my questions asked

whether or not fans had seen the band perform live. I assumed that a majority of fans would have seen them live, as this is an important source of exposure for new bands.

• There was a draw between fans having seen the band once and not having seen them perform at all, each of which made up around 30% of the answers.

• This tells me that not all fans of The LaFontaines have seen them live and that they may have found out about them from other sources - such as word of mouth or through social media. These are popular streams for publicizing music and it seems The LaFontaines may well have made the most of these.

Music Preferences - Festivals• In the same vein, I asked whether fans had gone

to a festival before, and if not, if they would like to.

• 40% had been to a festival before, and a further 40% had not, but had an interest in going to one. No one fan had no interest in going to a festival, which I feel implies that the audience are a fan of live music and the festival scene.

• I think this, combined with the previous question, is reflective of the fact the band mainly tours around Scotland and the North of England. If a fan lives further down south it is harder for them to see The LaFontaines.

• This is a problem that I will be facing in my music video. Most new bands feature in their music videos, and the fact that the audience enjoy live music suggests to me that it would be beneficial to include the band in the video.

• However, the fact that the band is Scottish and live and tour around the Glasgow area means that I will not be able to include them in my video, as they live 363 miles away and the cost of transporting them down to Norfolk would be huge!

• Therefore I will have to include other elements in my music video to make up for the absence of this.

Content Analysis

• The last question I asked was my qualitative question, which featured a small essay box. The question was "If you are filling out this survey, you will be a fan of The LaFontaines. What about the band most appeals to you?"

• I created a world cloud on Wordle, as a form of content analysis.• The two most popular words were 'unique' and 'music'. The former word is one that

I think is important in explaining why people enjoy The LaFontaines as a band. Other popular words include 'amazing' and 'lyrics'. Fans spoke about their stage presence, 'raw energy' and the excellence of their live music. Again, this shows how well they come across live to their fans.

A typical audience memberFrom my audience research, I can gather than an average fan of The LaFontaines is:• A 17 year old female• Her sense of style is be slightly

individual but quite smart.• She is be a frequent user of Twitter,

Facebook and YouTube. She may also use sites such as Tumblr and Vine.

• She listens to BBC Radio 1 and her favourite genres of music are Rock, Alternative and Indie, but she may also enjoy some music from other genres.

• She has seen the band perform before and she has been to a festival and is very interested in going to them.

• She enjoys listening to The LaFontaines because she feels that their music is unique and she feels their live performances are ‘amazing’.

I think The LaFontaines are unique and their

live performances are amazing