Target Audience

I think the rap genre is less associated with the older generation than the younger. I believe once a person reaches the age of 25, the rap 'scene' becomes a little outdated and less acceptable to listen to. This is why the music video for HB's 'Never Let the Party Stop' is aimed at a target audience ranging from 15-mid 20 year olds. The use of colloquial language and swear words are not as appealing to the older generation and even though it causes concern to many people as well as parents, children as young as 15 and possibly younger are listening to this kind of music. By recognising this, we could start to organise how we should present our 3 pieces (music video, CD cover and magazine advert). When around big towns such as Oxford it is clear to see that the rap and hip hop mass audience are they heavily influenced by their idols. This can be demonstrated through their use of clothing and attire which are similar to artists within the rap and hip hop genre. Also, the way they act around their friends and also strangers can be seen to be the effect of watching their favourite rappers and trying to copy them through the use of speech.

Paul Lazarsfeld, Bernard Berelson, and Hazel Gaudet created the Two Step Flow Theory and argue that information does not flow directly from the text or production to its audience, but through an opinion leader. In this case, well known rappers (e.g. Jay Z, Eminem, Lil Wayne) are the opinion leaders and the mass audience follow their style and personality through how the directors and producers want them to.

We wanted to ensure that our pieces were suitable and appealed to our target audience. We wanted our advert to be eye catching (hence the large green title) but not have too much colour as this could be seen as overdramatic. We really liked the idea of a black and white theme and in our research and planning, found lots of album covers by famous rappers that were in simple black and white. We felt it was powerful because black and white is a plain and simple use of colour but when used to represent somebody famous creates a whole new, classy and somewhat mysterious sense which we really liked. We have used a picture of the city and edited it in Photoshop to display the same image but in black and white. We believe this makes the picture appear more mature and less childlike. Also, the use of one font creates a less childlike piece of work which is what we aimed for.