Vox Pop and Analysis

What do you typically expect to see in an R&B/Soul music video?

•  Dancing &singing 
•  Attitude & emotion 
•  Crazy fashion 
•  Half naked girls 
•  Good music/beats/environment 
•  Artist goes back to their roots 
•  Girls dressed provocatively 
•  Cars/money/drugs/parties/flashing lights 
•  Sophisticated & relaxed
•  Narrative.

Our intended audience seemed to picture more of an R&B/Hip-hop music video rather than R&B/Soul as they mentioned the typical conventions that would appeal in a hip-hop video such as money, cars and naked girls rather than a more emotional, meaningful and relaxing music video. Therefore when it comes to making our music video, we will ensure that we use memorable elements within the mise-en-scene to connote the themes as well as the soulful side of the genre. For example, we will use a romantic setting where the artist is situated in a candle-lit bubble bath covered in rose petals.

What interests you about music videos within the genres R&B and Soul?

•  The dancing: if male artist the girls dancing and vice versa 
•  The glamorous scenery
•  The story. 

Our audience seem to like both performance and narrative styles within music videos. From this we have manipulated our idea to ensure that we include a bit of narrative but it will mostly revolve around performance, for example our artist will be performing in front of a white screen surrounded by spotlights. The artist’s body language in these shots will be very expressive to signify a sense of passion to connote our theme of love for whom she is singing about.

 How should we portray our main theme love in our music video?

• Candles & roses/rose petals 
• Show the couple’s relationship, their ups and downs and have them together in the end 
• Only one girl & one boy in the relationship 
• A girl and boy declaring their love for one another  
• An obstacle between the pair, but they break through it in the end. 

The audience suggested romantic elements that they thought should be included in our music video, this was very useful feedback as we have incorporated some of these suggestions such as; roses, rose petals and candles to enhance the romantic atmosphere. This feedback also inspired our branding across all three of our products (music video, magazine advert and digipak) as we decided to use roses because we realized that this is symbolic of love. Along with this symbolic feature and colour we have accompanied it with black and white as we feel that these colours in combination signify an experience of ups and downs within the artists relationship.

What do you think of our chosen song, ‘Amazing’? 

•  ‘Yeah that’s really good’ 
•  ‘Yeah I like it’ 
•  ‘Yeah man it’s nice'. 

We gained 100% positive feedback from our target audience of our song choice, this puts us in a good position because this is the audience we are aiming to appeal to. The fact that they enjoy the song in encouraging.

After listening to the song, what do you expect to see in the music video? 

• Champagne 
• Flowers & hearts 
• A boy madly in love with a girl.

Again the audience have suggested ideas that connote the themes of love and romance in our music video. We have incorporated the idea of a boy being madly in love with a girl. We see this through a scene in our kitchen where the male is feeding his girlfriend. This also subverts the stereo-typical view that men do not carry out what is stereo-typically viewed as womanly household duties as we see the male cooking.

Which location would you prefer to see; bedroom/dance studio/stage? 

• All said bedroom – more realistic & appropriate.

Originally we had planned to use a dance studio to show an emotional soulful dance done by the artist. But none of our target audience seemed to like this idea, therefore we removed it in order to increase their viewing experience as they all preferred to see the bedroom as the main location.

How would you expect our artist to dress; glamorously/classy/sophisticated?

• Glamorous 
• Casual (more popular).

Although we hadn't stated ‘casual’ as an option the majority of them said casual because they felt it best suited the locations in the home environment. This has influenced our costume choices as we was planning to have the artist dressed glamorously in the bedroom scene, but we have now opted for a more casual look as our artist will be wearing her boyfriend’s shirt. But they did want to see some glamour therefore when our artist is performing in front of the white screen she will be wearing an elegant dress, emphasizing the powerful and meaningful lyrics.

What do you think of our idea? 

In the verses our artist will be in her bedroom laying on her bed dressed in a sexual way singing to and about her boyfriend. The boyfriend will not appear in the music video. In the chorus’ the artist will be performing a choreographed emotional dance that expresses her love for her boyfriend. 

• Boys think it’s sexy when a girl wears their shirt and the girls will aspire to be like the artist. 
• Its good, it symbolises love 
• It explores their relationship and how their relationship is
• It really good, it shows the emotion between the man and the woman.

Our target audience enjoyed our idea but they gave us some improvements. From this we have changed our idea and it is now influenced by the feedback given. Our new idea is to have our artist in various locations situated in the home setting including the kitchen, bathroom and bedroom. As well as having the artist positioned in front of a black and white screen for the more glamorous shots of our artist. We have now included the artist in the kitchen location as the audience wanted to visually see the relationship between the couple as the song lyrically revolves the artists love for her boyfriend.