Audience Profiles

Pop

Who listens to pop music?

The main audience for pop music is young females (10-20). This is because many pop bands and artists are marketed in a way to appeal to them, e.g. artists who are conventional attractive, clean cut image, bright vibrant colours. Pop music is very ‘mainstream’ and is usually the main genre in the charts and is what’s popular. Pop music is heavily used in television and media, and because of this it is what becomes popular and memorable. This is why it is most popular with younger people because they tend to want to ‘fit in’ and do what everyone else is doing. Therefore, if a certain artist/band becomes popular then it’s because they are what’s cool at the time and marketers will take advantage of this and use them to sell their product. The price of pop magazines is often quite low as the people buying it are usually unemployed because they are so young, or because they are of a lower social class.

Examples of pop artists:

 

Indie

Who listens to indie music?

People who listen to indie music tend to be older and more mature than pop listeners because the music isn’t as broadcasted on mainstream channels, therefore the indie audience have had to discover the bands and artists themselves through the internet, record shops or going to music events. To teenagers and young adults, indie music is a lot ‘cooler’ than mainstream pop music and therefore they are the main target audience. Indie music has different sub-genres, including indie-pop, indie-rock and indie-alternative. People who like indie music tend to like music from more than one of these sub-genres, because there is often overlap in them from some artists e.g an artist may have some songs which are more 'indie pop' but they may also have some songs which are more towards the 'indie rock' sub genre. 

Examples of indie bands/artists:

Rock

Who listens to rock music?

Rock music is listened to by people of all ages, as there are bands and artists both young and old who make music of this very popular genre. Stereotypically, the main audience of rock music is white British males of a working to middle class background. Rock music is very loud and this is reflective of the bold personalities that a lot of rock listeners will have. Some rock music appeals to listeners of all ages, however some older rock will only appeal to people of that generation as it’s what they grew up with and what was ‘cool’ when they were young. 

Examples of rock bands/artists:

House

House music is generally listened to people of all genders ages between 16-25, usually working class and white. This is because house music is usually ‘dance anthems’ which are played in clubs on nights out so this age category are most likely to hear the music and enjoy it. 

Examples of house bands/artists:

The genre I have chosen for my music magazine is indie/indie pop.