Planning - My Chosen Focus Group - Who Is My 'Ideal Consumer'?

During the process of constructing our music magazines for our coursework in Year 12, we had to establish a target audience who we wanted to aim our magazine at, and match this with a 'reader profile' that established who this ideal audience would be.

This was my 'reader profile' for my desired target audience of my
music magazine I produced in year 12.

Similarly, this year, I shall be discussing who my desired target audience and, therefore, who my focus group will be - who will help me create the perfct music video, and accompanying digipak and website.
Given my research into the genre of rock music and the band of the song I am creating a music video for (Panic! At The Disco), I have a clear idea in my mind of who exactly I want my music video to attract and - as a result - who will form my focus group.


This is the 'modern' "Panic! At The Disco" - Brendon Urie is the only member,
but the two men either side of him (Dallon Weeks and Kenny Harris)
form his live band who tour worldwide.

When the genre of rock music (and punk-rock in particular) was born, it attracted mostly teenagers who wished to differentiate themselves from the rest of society. Stereotypically, lyrics within rock songs have been known to be laced with negative messages associated with taboo topics such as drugs. Parents of teens in this era were highly concerned by such lyrics and wanted the music stopped - even banning their children from listening to such music. However, this only led to teens becoming rebellious, and they would listen to this music in order to rebel against their parents and the expectations of others; even going to the lengths of beginning to change the way they dressed, and experimenting with sex and drugs.

As time has gone and society has progressed, this stereotype hasn't really ever faded - in fact it could be said that more and more people have conformed to it, but it is far more socially acceptable now and so this subculture of society is one that is extremely popular - hence the arrival of bands like 'Panic! At The Disco' - including 'Fall Out Boy', 'Twenty One Pilots', 'My Chemical Romance' and 'Black Veil Brides' who cover various subgenres of rock music.

Below are a series of images I have used to try and create a merged image in my mind of the kind of people I believe my ideal audience would contain;

 - As previously mentioned, my ideal consumer would likely be someone belonging to the various subcultures of the 'rock' genre of music. Within these subcultures, there is a strong sense of fandom and the fans often follow the same collection of bands - fans of 'Panic! At The Disco' are often fans of other related such as 'Fall Out Boy'. The jewellery I've pictured on the left is taken from the jewellery line of Andy Biersack - the lead singer of 'Black Veil Brides'. It highlights the idea of intertextuality between various content and linking one artist to another.
Moreover, when picturing my ideal consumer, I picture them wearing dark jewellery that is often symbolic of the genre of music they listen to.

Similarly, the items of clothing I have placed within this post emphasises just how I believe my ideal consumer would dress. Moreover, as I myself dress like this, and I have friends who also like to dress like this, it highlights how there is a common convention between fans of 'rock' music to come together through their choice of clothing and the accessories they wear - such as the dark coloured clothing and jewellery; often symbolic of topics such as religion that are associated with this genre of music.

Once again the image placed next to this piece of text can be linked to the idea of fandom and fans of rock music having an interest in multiple bands. The bands 'Panic! At The Disco', 'Fall Out Boy' and 'My Chemical Romance' form something called the "Emo Trinity" - and this links to the idea of fans collating together to fight against such stereotypes. Fans of subgenres of rock music such as punk-rock and heavy metal are often stereotyped as being into music that promotes suicide, satan and dark lyrics that aren't a good influence on young teenagers. However, as a member of these subgenre myself, I find this stereotype demeaning. The lyrics and formulation of songs by bands such as 'Black Veil Brides' and 'My Chemical Romance' help inspire teenagers who may be struggling with the torments of growing up and living in our modern-day society.

 Therefore, the way they dress in particular can be a key part of emphasising their pride of belonging to these fandoms and feeling proud to be fans of these artists whose music inspires them.

WHO WILL MY CHOSEN FOCUS GROUP BE? 
- I have decided that I'm going to form a focus group of 4 people;
- TWO of them are going to be my friends who are aged 14 and 15. Although this may seem a young age for a consumer of rock music, fans of 'Panic! At The Disco' in particular cover a large age category - from around 14 years old, all the way to around 45 years old. These two girls I both know have a similar style to how I picture my ideal consumer, and both are massive fans of 'Panic! At The Disco' and 'Twenty One Pilots'. Therefore I know they will be entirely honest when advising me on how to formulate the best music video, digipak and website that would attract them as consumers. 
- Next I am going to use my best friend who is aged 18. He is a massive fan of all the artists I have previously listed in this post and similarly dresses in the fashion I picture my ideal consumer wearing.
- Lastly, I am going to ask for my dad's opinion on my products. This is because he has recently become a fan of 'Panic! At The Disco' as he highly appreciates them as artists. He doesn't dress how I picture my ideal consumer to do so, but he certainly has an interest in this genre of music; and as a man who is very intelligent when it comes to music and understanding how brand identity works within a product, I believe he will be able to help me establish how to create the perfect music video, digipak and website for my chosen genre of music.