Blog 5- Target Audience of Artist

From conducting research, I have come to the conclusion that Florence + The Machine are a group that appeal to almost anyone.

Florence has appeared on the front of magazines such as 'NME', wh

ose audience comprises of the age range of 15-44 and the upper ABC1 population, according to the National Readership Survey (NRS) (http://www.nrs.co.uk/toplinereadership.html)

Florence has also appeared on the front of 'Q' magazine, whose audience according the the NRS has a similar audience to that of 'NME' with the majority who buy the magazine in ABC1 and in the 15-44 age range.

Both these magazines tend to lean towards the male gender, however research has shown me that Florence has also appeared on the front of magazines such as 'Grazia'- a predominantly older female based fashion magazine, and also in articles featured in magazines such as 'Teen Vogue' which bends towards the younger female age range.

Florence + The Machine come under the 'pop' genre, mainly because of their huge success on the pop charts. On iTunes, Florence + The Machine are still in the top 100, at number 93 with their single "Dog Days Are Over" even though it was first released in 2008 and then again in 2010 with a new video. Their album, "Lungs" is currently ranked at number 70 on iTunes, even though it was released in July 2009. It is ranked number 23 on the BBC Radio 1 Album Charts and has been there for 64 weeks. The BBC Radio 1 show is listened to by a wide variety of people which shows the success of Florence + The Machine and why they may appeal to a wide range of people. I believe another reason why Florence + The Machine are so popular is because of their unique sound, using instruments such as harps, and of course Florence's distant singing voice. I went and found a few of her official fan pages to find out what other thought made Florence + The Machine so popular.

You get an idea about how popular Florence + The Machine are through looking at her official Facebook page.She has over 660,403 people supporting her on this page and her Myspace page has 64595 friends and 4897340 profile views. This again shows her popularity and extensive fan base.

I asked some of my friends to tell me what they thought made Florence + The Machine so popular and these were some of the responses:

"She's got a unique singing voice and presents/dresses herself in a unique manner. This helps explain the attraction from her mixed fan base. She is also quite opposed to 'mainstream trash'."

"The 'Rabbit Heart' video helps to show Florence not as the typical female vocalist sex symbol but as an artist passionate about interesting writing, with perculiar videos to accompany them. This helps reinstate that she is passionate about her work."

"I reckon she is successful because she is different, she is a good performer and extremely striking. I'd say she has a wide target audience ranging from children to middle age, or perhaps even older than that."

Because Florence + The Machine have come across to many people as being unique, individual, striking and perculiar with a particular style, we are going to have to make sure we use all this to our advantgae in our own music video so that we can really reflect the Florence style that everyone can relate to and recognise. From looking looking at the research and realising that Florence can appeal to both men and women we need to make sure our music video appeals to both of these genres.

I interviewed some friends that fit in the age range that the National Readership Survey evaluated as being the most popular for Florence and the Machine. This is their opinions on her and her target audience.

The videos back up my point about Florence and The Machine being popular with both genders and within an age range of around 15-30.