Audience Response

A total of 21 people answered my survey about the genre of synthpop. The demographic results of the audience mainly matched those of my target audience, showing that 12 of those questioned were female, making 9 to be male.

The age range mostly included ages of 14-18, which I have identified as the main target audience for this genre of music, due to the loud nature of the music and the intention for the listeners to dance energetically. However, 4 people surveyed were over the age of 26, allowing for an outsiders view of this genre of music, although these people tended to dislike or were unaware of synthpop music.

Next, the audience were asked how they get their music. Although this may not be relevant specifically to the genre of synthpop, this allows for a clearer understanding of what the person answering is like, and how music is general obtained. The majority of people get their music from the iTunes store, however many either download it illegally or use the YouTube converter to get music directly off YouTube.

To get a further grip of the audience's demographic, I posed the question of what they enjoy doing in their spare time, allowing to recognise how many of those asked fit the stereotypical profile of someone that listens to synthpop - usually someone very active who goes to many social parties and clubbing events. However, out of those surveyed, only 13 admitted to going to social parties, and a mere 6 spend their free time clubbing. This could prove that the expected personality of someone that listens to synthpop is not true, and that you can never guess the particular type of person who listens to a certain type of genre.

 The questions then turn to the specific genre of synthpop. When asked if the audience liked this genre, most agreed, however 8 people were not sure whether they had heard of the genre. This could be just that they were not aware of the genre name of this type of music, or that they did not realise the bands which fell into the synthpop category.

When asked where the audience usually hears synthpop music, most replied at parties. This shows that my chosen genre is played at events where people are expected to dance, fitting in with the motifs associated such as raving or clubbing.

I asked the audience what other sub-genres of pop that they listened to, as to get a feel for the most popular type of pop that would be listened to. The responses were manly indie and dance pop, both which are extremely upbeat, quirky and good to dance to.

The results for the next question showed that synthpop music generally makes people feel cheerful, energetic and pumped. This all fits the expected responses, which will allow us to incorporate these feelings into our music video, to reflect upon the audience.

In order to see which artists within this genre were most popular, we asked who our audience have listened to before. The results showed La Roux, Ellie Goulding and Lady Gaga to be most popular, who are featured on the radio quite often. This shows that less people have listened to off radio music artists such as Crystal Castles, suggesting they are less popular synthpop artists.

In order to gain research on what to include on our digipack, we asked the audience what they expected to see on front of this genre's typical CD cover. The results were as expected from my previous research, that the expected things to see included elaborate costumes, exotic locations, lots of colour, a photo of the artist and large, bright title of the album.

When asked what the audience associated with the synthpop genre, the answers included glowsticks, energetic dancing, loud music, discos and neon colours. Again, these results were anticipated, and were featured in research videos that I have looked into of this genre.

To bring the questions to an end, we asked the audience where they have seen these artists typically advertised. The results shown the artists are common to be heard on the radio, shown on TV or advertised on Youtube or other internet sites. As most (16) said they have seen advertisements mainly on the internet, this could show that the artists are less popular due to not being featured on many posters or by word of mouth.

Lastly, the audience were asked whether they would like to hear more of synthpop in the charts. 10 people surveyed said yes, however 3 said no. 8 people didn't care, again suggesting that this is a less popular sub-genre of pop.