Further research

To further my understanding of my target audience and ensure that I recieved results which truly reflected a proper opinion regarding pop music (from people with a fully comprehensive understanding of the subject) I felt it important to use the internet to gather research information from a larger audience. To do this I included the more specifically pop orientated questions of the original survey and used them to make a new survey on http://www.surveymonkey.com/ which allowed me to reach a larger audience. I then posted a link to this survey on the forum of the pop blog (www.popjustice.com/forum) which directed me to the initial song and requested that people (as these people are the type to take the survey more seriously and deliver useful and more thoughtful answers than disinteresting teenagers in a casual setting) take part in the essay. I decided to come back to the survey four days later to see how the response to the question had developed.

The survey itself can be viewed here.

After leaving the survey for four days, I came back to analyse the sixteen responses it had recieved and the following were the useful results, which have bettered my understanding.

1. 9 of the sixteen candidates were aged between 18-23, with a further 4 participants aged under thirty and only 1 aged 32.

This implies that even at a more intermediate level of pop appreciation, the genre is quite age specific and closely associated with younger people. This is an important piece of information in that it allows me to cater for two different demographics (teenagers and hardcore pop fans) in the knowledge that the two do not encroach upon one another.

2. When asked to provide an album cover they enjoyed, 7 of the sixteen candidates stated the cover of Beyonce's '4'.

This was the most pleasing of the results for me in that it shows pop fans having a great level of appreciation for what is essentially an image of a female looking strong and forceful, which is directly the image the protagonist in my video will convey. The results showed previously that 9 of the 16 candidates were men, and so it is telling that the high angle shot of Beyonce looking fiercely out into the distance, with little in the way of actual clothing would be appreciated. This would help me in the construction of my own ancillary products and video, and the way inwhich females would be presented.

3. 15 of the 16 participants stated that they preferred concept based narratives in pop videos,

This displayed the same results as were evident in my own research and so confirmed that, although elements of performance should be evident in the delivery of the song's lyrics, it would be important to maintain a strong narrative and sense of progression throughout the video.

4. When asked to give an example of a contemporary music video the participant enjoyed 25% of the responses pointed towards Lady GaGa's 'Judas' video.

What was most useful about this response was that it showed how pop fans react strongly to a video with multiple set locations, colourised scenes, dance routines and elements of performance from the protagonist, all of which I intend to include, as seen in my original draft of the video.

Apart from the overwhelming responses of these questions which point towards acts such as Beyonce and Lady GaGa, however, the singular responses were incredibly useful in that they pointed towards acts such as Chapel Club, Robyn, Charlie XCX and Cassie all of whom embody the idea of non-mainstream pop with a more cult following which allows for more intense, dark imagery than artists like Britney Spears and Katy Perry who represent ideals such as the 'All American Sweetheart'. Through researching the more unknown artists which the forum users enjoyed I was made aware of the boundaries such acts push in their sound and imagery and why this is embraced by this sort of fan.