Failures and Discoveries

"I had tried singing once back in Berlin. They threw tomatoes. After the show, I had a nice salad."
-Hedwig Schmidt (Hedwig and The Angry Inch)

Lana and I were required to make a questionnaire, so we considered more efficient methods than handing out sheets. We created the questionnaire together. So, we came up with the idea of conducting the questionnaire over Facebook-a popular online media outlet that would allow us to get in contact with several of our classmates within a short space of time. We had also used Facebook to advertise another idea we had-to film an audience within a concert sequence, to be filmed within the school's theatre.

The idea seemed to be running smoothly-the staff at school were giving us permission to use the room and so on, but our efforts stalled within our Facebook invitation. We only achieved 16 confirmed guests, which was no where near enough to make a viable audience. This shows we had been too ambitious, leading us into having to find another idea that would still allow us to maintain the understanding that an audience was present. We realised that if we shot some shots from behind a group of people facing the stage at a certain angle, the viewer would be lead to believe that there was an audience-allowing us to achieve a similar effect. Here is an image of the Facebook page we made to promote the questionnaire and the concert scene:


Regardless, the questionnaire was answered by a hefty total of 100 people-more than enough for us to make a fair judgment and have enough data to analyse. An example of one of the answers we received:


Here is the questionnaire:
1) Do you listen to Electro-Pop music often?:

Yes/No


If no: Do you think you would be willing to introduce Electro-Pop into your musical selection or repertoire?: Yes/No

2) What do you prefer to see people wearing in Electro-Pop music videos?: Casual Clothing/Formal Clothing/Abstract Clothing

3) Out of these artists, whose music videos do you watch the most?: Lady GaGa/Little Boots/La Roux/Florence + The Machine/Girls Aloud

What do you like/dislike about your selection?:

4) What type of special effects do you find yourself most attracted to in music videos?:

5)Would you rather a music video had a plot/story?:

Yes/No

6)Do you prefer the style of a music video to match the genre of music you're listening to?:

Yes/No

Why?:

7) Do you find outdoor locations in music videos more appealing?

Yes/No

Why?:

8) What style of performance art would you most want to see in a music video?:

Dancing/Stage performances (projections, props, etc.)/Acting

Why?:

Here is the data we collected, along with pie-graphs detailing the audience's answers:

1) Do you listen to Electro-Pop music often?:

53/100 said Yes. 47/100 said No.

2) What do you prefer to see people wearing in Electro-Pop music videos?:
Only one person said they would prefer to see artists wearing casual clothing in Electro-Pop music videos.
78 participants said they would prefer abstract clothing and 21 preferred formal.

3) Out of these artists, whose music videos do you watch the most?:
43 participants said they mostly watch Lady GaGa's music videos.
21 said Girls Aloud
15 said Florence and the Machine
13 said La Roux
8 said Little Boots

4) What type of special effects do you find yourself most attracted to in Electro-Pop music videos?:
Many people who answered said they liked the visual effects such as colour changes from black and white to colour. Some said they liked animation.

5) Would you rather a music video had a plot/story?:
67 of participants said they prefer music videos to have a plot/narrative.
33 like music videos to be only performance or irrelevant shots to the song.


6) Do you prefer the style of a music video to match the genre of music you're listening to?:
94 participants said they prefer the style music videos to match the genre of music. Most of those people said that they would find it pointless to watch a music video that clashed with the genre of music. 6 people said they think it's interesting when the video doesn't match the genre of music.

7) Do you find outdoor locations in music electro-pop videos more appealing?
57 people said they'd prefer to see an outdoor location in an electro-pop video, whilst 43 people claimed they'd rather see the video take place indoors.

8) What style of performance art would you most want to see in a music video?:
79 people said they would rather see dancing in the video, proving dancing is a major convention in general pop videos. 11 people said they would rather see stage performance, whilst 10 people said they would rather see acting.