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Secondary Audience Research

By Mario, Jakub, Daniel

What are Fans?

Fans by the dictionary definition are: “A person who has a strong interest in or admiration for a particular sport, art or entertainment form, or famous person.”

Fan’s

Buying Albums.

Going to the shows.

Emotional investment to the artist and their music.(e.g. arguing passionately on their behalf)

Up to date with the latest news (Reading articles, watching interviews etc.)

Social networking interaction Facebook, Twitter, Myspace, Instagram etc.

Purchasing Artist merchandise

Influenced by their actions (e.g fashion choices wearing particular brands because said artist wears the same brand)

Heavy Metal subculture

Heavy Metal metal fans have taken their passion for music to another level by creating their own subculture and guidelines to follow to achieve authenticity within their own ranks; for example from the clothes they wear, haircut styles, contributing on metal forums and website’s and the obvious buying albums.

The behavior includes certain moral guidelines in which metal heads have to follow for example, dismissing ‘pop’ or chart music, as it is see as “selling out” in the metal community. There is a sense of scrutiny between metal fans and who holds high grounds in terms of authenticity. While the Heavy Metal following is mainly white male’s in the lower/middle class, the group is tolerant of those outside its core demographic base who follow the rules and code’s of dress, appearance, and behavior.

This Heavy Metal subculture has received enormous amount of exposure to which point there was a book written about the metal heads; “Deena Weinstein’s book Heavy Metal: The Music And Its Culture” in which the book talks about the idea’s of authenticity of metal heads and also the codes you have to follow as a metal head.

From looking at this information and research my group and I came to a better understanding on who exactly our target audience was; roughly teens to the early twenties who were middle class/working class white males. This was very useful research because now we understand how to appeal to this audience

Case Study: Marilyn Mason

Marilyn Mason has to be one of the most controversial exposed Metal artist, this is believed to be one of the many reason why fans are the so infatuated with him and his unorthodox life style.

For many fan’s, Marilyn Mason has become a symbol of the messages he has communicated through his music and as such has created such controversy around himself such as rumors of what he has done to his body (rumors of him removing his ribs so he could fellatio him self).

The Real person

The Reel Peron

Case Study: Charles Manson

Charles Manson was a Rock star in the sixties who arose a insanely loyal cult fan base known as the “Mason Family” in which to this day has quite a strong following, who share the belief’s of the once famous rock star and now alleged murder convict, in the late sixties Charles Mason and members from the Mason Family were convicted for horrific series of murders, Charles Manson himself, was charged on conspiracy to murder.

The Mason family is a great demonstration of the relationships between an artist and its audience and how much influence(in extreme cases) an artist can have on a fan.

Charles Mason himself just like Marilyn Mason had built a persona or image of who he was based on myths and legends rather than actual fact