"You Can Leave Your Hat On" Target Audience

The target audience for our music video is probably people aged between 16 and 24. Due to the inclusion of a male stripper in the video, it is probably also more likely to be aimed at females. According to Laura Mulvey’s theory of “Male Gaze” and the objectification of females, our video totally contrasts this, as the male stripper is viewed from a more female perspective, and is objectified accordingly.

Many people in our target audience will hopefully view our finished music video from a Preferred or Negotiated Reading, according to Stuart Hall’s Encoding/Decoding theory. As the video has a clear narrative there is not a lot for the audience to consider about the video, which will aid us in getting the preferred reading.

As it is a song by Joe Cocker, the video is likely to attract interest from fans of his. Also, as a version of the song was featured in the film, “The Full Monty”, our video could attract viewers from the film, to see whether we replicate the moves of the film or have created a new routine.

As the content of our video is amusing, we are likely to be viewed by our audience for diversion purposes, in accordance with Blumler and Katz “Uses and Gratifications” Theory. As the video contains mostly amusing content, the audience are likely to have very little scope for character relation, particularly as the characters are not developed in much detail through the video, and the audience are not shown any of their personality.

The age of people that we believe will be least attracted to watch our video are males aged between 40 and 65. We believe this because they are not likely to appreciate the comedy aspects of our video. Because of this, the audience are likely to view our video from an Oppositional viewing, in accordance with Stuart Hall’s “Uses and Gratifications” Theory, and therefore are likely to totally reject the ideas we are trying to convey.

The song that we have used for our music video, Joe Cocker’s “You Can Leave Your Hat On” became particularly popular in the mid 1980’s, along with the release of the film “9 ½ Weeks”, which was of the erotic drama genre. The song featured in a famous strip scene in the film, which is the reason many people associate the song with stripping, alongside the suggestive content of the lyrics. Conforming with stereotypical views of youths around that time continuing to experiment sexually, the film the song was associated with is likely to have been aimed at a relatively young audience, possibly late teens to mid-twenties. Because of this, the song is likely to have been popular with youth, which agrees with the idea of Keith Negus, who theorized that popular music that is popular with younger audiences, is made by older artists. At the time the song became popular, Joe Cocker was already well into his fourties, making him a singer of an older generation, therefore agreeing with Negus’ ideas.