Audience: R12 

Mainstream: Is what is most favoured by the mass audience at the time.

Niche: Is a very specific, select minority audience. (Almost the opposite of a mainstream one).

Ideology: These are the messages/ values/ beliefs that the media producers insert into media texts. (E.g the portrayal of what beauty is - skinny, young etc)

Hegemony: This is the power that these media producers/ conglomerates have. (E.g Sky & The Sun amongst others are owned by Rupert Murdoch, he has Hegemonic power).

Applying this to music videos:

• 'Call me maybe' - Carly Ray Jepsen is a great example of a mainstream song.

It became very popular very quickly due to its catchy lyrics & melody.

• The artist Hopsin has a niche audience as his music (rap) is quite unique to other rappers. For example he is quite political which attracts quite a specific audience.

• Mainstream videos tend to give us ideology of things -media producers probably see it as the best opportunity to enforce their beliefs/ views as it's on a large audience. For example, portraying a representation of beauty in 'Irreplaceable' - Beyonce as slim, big hair, lots of skin on show, make-up etc.
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Conducting my research:

Questions:

1. Male/ Female, Age?
2. What is your occupation?
3. How often do you watch music videos?
4. How do you watch them?
5. Do you prefer a specific genre? What one (s)?
6. Do you have any favourite artists (because of their muisc videos)/ favourite videos in general?
7. What about them makes you favour them?

From my results, the main target market for my music videos genre is students of both genders. To appeal to this audience I will be sure not to deviate from Steve Neale's Classic Stage -Therefore I will incorperate clearly defined conventions of the R&B genre for my target audience.

Passive Theories: R13

A passive audience is considered to be an inactive audience that is easily manipulated/ compliant to absorb the ideology in media texts imposed by hegemonic external forces (e.g SONY). 

They impose ideas on various things like what it is to be; young - a thug; black - a criminal; muslim - a terrorist etc...

Karl Marx had a theory about media ownership: There's a "top down false consciousness" - suggesting that ideology is imposed "from above" by elite powers.

We all start out as a passive audience! Until we start to question.

Hypodermic Needle Theory

This theory implied that the mass media had a direct, immediate & powerful effect of its audience.

-Theodore Adorno.

For example, the media impose messages like: "Skinny is 'beautiful' & anything else is not." without saying it by drawing attention to it, ultimately affecting it's audiences view/ opinion.

Hypodermic Needle Theory

Applied to a music video.

Robin Thicke - 'Blurred Lines' is a good example of hypodermic needle theory as it presents women as just pretty objects (they're not wearing many clothes, have bright red lipstick on, they're slim & dance around in front of the men). And men on the other hand are smart, in charge, wealthy (shown through their suits & flashy jewelery & the way the girls revolve around them).

As well as this, the lyrics impose a pretty clear message that we're expected to passively absorb -

"Had a bitch, but she ain't bad as you 

So, hit me up when you pass through
I'll give you something big enough to tear your ass in two".

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yyDUC1LUXSU

Hypodermic Needle Theory

Applied to our music video.

Our music video: Broken Hearted Girl - Beyonce makes use of this theory in a few ways.

The main way is by following the traditional stereotype by portraying a heterosexual couple, consequently telling it's audience that this is the norm and what is expected.

Building on this, our music video shows a stereotypical way couples act by depicting a series of events where our acting couple do cliche coupley things (e.g. kiss, play fight, watch movies... etc).

We also present females to be weak on their own (without a boyfriend).