Nirvana audience research.

To grasp an idea of who Nirvanas audience is today, I conducted some research using Google Trends, which allowed me to see how popular the band Nirvana have been since 2004, unfortunately this is the furthest that Google Trends can go back into the archive so I can't compare it with other years.
Google Trends processes how much the band Nirvana is searched over years and months.

Here is a graph that shows how popular Nirvana has been, there was obviously a big rise in Nirvana references in early 2004 which relates to the release of the Nirvana box set, showing that audiences who like Nirvanas music may have been searching for where they could get the box set. Nirvana searches slowly decline over the years 2005 to 2007, as there wasn't much activity or articles about the band then. References increased, then remained stable in 2008 - 2009 as at this time, Courtney Love was being sued for selling the Nirvana back catalogue in 2008 and in 2009, she vowed to find Kurt Cobains 'missing money' from his career and Nirvana songs were also sold to the game Guitar Hero 5.

This is a graph from this year, 2011. This shows me that over the course of this year there has been an increase in the references / searches regarding Nirvana, especially during the summer/autumn period, this relates to the well known fact that this year it was Nirvanas album 'Nevermind', 20 year anniversary and many magazines and radio stations such as Kerrang! and NME catered to this, releasing albums that were full of Nirvana cover songs or magazines dedicated to Nirvana and their history, this resulted in a lot of media attention in the alternative 'scene' and shows why this increase occured.
The fact that the 20th anniversary version of the Nevermind album brought so much attention indicates to me that not only are life-long fans of the band still interested in the music, but that the youth groups of today must also be interested as the radio stations and magazines such as Kerrang! are aimed at these young teenager age groups, so they will have been the ones that saw and heard about the anniversary magazine issues, and possibly listened to the cover albums which could lead them to listen to the original Nirvana songs and become interested in the band.

What about todays generation?
The reason Nirvana shot to fame in the 90's is because they brought a whole new Seattle sound to a teenage generation across the world, they were the band that broke the mould and produced music that other bands were thinking about, but hadn't found a way of producing it. Nirvana took over manufactured pop music, challenged the conventions of popular music and brought an alternative to the 'outcast' generation X kids, some would say. The reason their music is still popular today is that their themes of rebellion, (featured in their first major track, "Smells like Teen Spirit") will always be relevant to young people and teenagers, this occurs in every generation so the message will never go 'out of style'. During the time of the album, "Neverminds" release, it actually knocked Michael Jackson off the number 1 spot on the American Billboard chart, because it was what young people had been waiting for and it spoke to a wide audience.

The reason audiences still listen to Nirvana today, to quote the BBC article - 20 Years of Nevermind; "The music is easily understandable - pop-rock with bite, grunge through critical categorisation but with enough melodic nous to stand tall. It speaks, even today, to the temporarily disaffected teen; but in a way that's inclusive, too, of anyone who just wishes to enjoy a great chorus, a cracking hook, and a mighty riff. Put simply, Nevermind nailed a formula". This explains that pure musical talent that can be performed live without auto-tuning and all the computer effects used today in things such as girl bands, will never become unappreciated. Nirvana made music with raw talent and relevant messages and thats why it still appeals to audiences, because it's simple combination, but provides iconic music that reminds older generations of key times in their life, or can be used as a soundtrack for young people now, creating memories that they'll remember, theres always a song in peoples lives that can take them back to a certain time and place, and for the older generation, Nirvana was it.

Another reason Nirvana is still relevant is that Kurt Cobain was a frontman that spoke for a generation that hadn't had a lot of idols to look up to. Cobains lyrics were very 'real', he was very frank about what his ideas were and luckily many young people agreed with him. He captured a lot of media attention; firstly with his rise to fame followed by his antics in the media spotlight, such as his infamous drug problem; his life was full of drama and tragedy and of course, some magazines thrived on this. Sadly, his demons caught up with him, but even with the death of Cobain, in a way, he was more appreciated, (look at the late Michael Jackson, he's become more popular since his unfortunate death). Theres also an element of 'what if' surrounding Cobains death, thinking of what music would be like now if the band was still around. The most impressive thing is that Nirvanas music has lasted longer than their time in the spotlight did, it's stretched past the death of Cobain and into the music collections of audiences today.

I believe that Nirvanas typical audience varies over many generations: it speaks to the older generations who listened to it as teenagers and related with the music, including the artists that they influenced and it also relates to young people of today as people are still buying their music and can still appreciate the unique sound and talent of the band, aswell as the tragedy of Cobains life that almost reads like a novel. They're still of interest to audiences as people are still making documentaries and releasing books about the band and there was so much media attention for the 20th anniversary of Nevermind; including a box set release, news reports, MTV dedicated a week to Nirvana on their website, the BBC created 3 articles about Nirvanas 20th anniversary of Nevermind and magazines like Kerrang! released albums of popular bands today who covered Nirvanas songs in a fitting tribute to the band aswell as special magazines tributes where the issue was purely about the band.
This concludes why I believe my target audience would be anyone from 16-25 years of age, because the music passes through every generation without it dissapearing or becoming just a memory, this is truely a testament to Nirvanas talent and passion for what they did best, creating music that would last a lifetime.

Nirvana Mood Board.

Nirvanas style created the 'grunge' fashion sensation, moving away from bright colours into the darker colours such as maroons, browns and olive greens. The style of the band itself is very 'messy' and unkept, not perfect, polished, or photoshopped like many bands that we see today. The bands appearance is very simple, jeans, printed or plain shirts, with baggy coats or jumpers. The whole point of their image is 'anti-fashion', but backfired into trends that exist today, such as plaid shirts. I aim to create my characters in this grungy unkept style, with basic clothing and dark colours.

This image is from Nirvanas famous music video, 'Come As You Are', this sums up the general mise en scene of the video; the video itself features many cutaway scenes of random imagery that to the average audience, wouldn't make any sense, such as a dog walking down some stairs during the video. Like many of Nirvanas videos, there is often a high level of contrast, there is often very bright artificial lighting in a dark setting, contrasting the two. The setting itself is very messy, random items are displaced around the setting and it also shows Nirvanas typical use of high angle shots that are featured in many of their videos, showing you the whole mise en scene. Sometimes the settings such as this ruined warehouse type image, are industrial and this links to my music video ideas, in which I will feature images of industrial settings.

This photoshoot of Nirvana gave me some inspiration for the industrial, urban, inner city mise en scene for my music video due to the enviroment it was shot in, and how simple it is yet how powerful it can look. The fact its shot in black and white makes it seem like it comes from an urban art film and the low angle shows that the band are the most important thing in the shot, keeping focus on them, even without elaborate props etc.

Final Music Video Pitch.

The song I have chosen to create a music video to is Nirvana's - Come as You Are.

Why? The meaning behind the song is that the song itself is a giant contradiction, it's meant to demonstrate the way we act VS the way society thinks we should act. The chorus demonstrates this message brilliantly, the lyrics "as a friend" followed by the lyrics "as an old enemy" clearly contrast each other, followed by "take your time", "hurry up" this causes an oxymoron. The statements clash because one side is saying what society wants from us and the other side is saying how we act with each other.
I think the message that the song broadcasted when it was released in 1992 is still very relevant today, so this is why I decided to create a music video for this particular track.

The video; I want to create a video that demonstrates the message of the song alongside a narrative, but the narrative is quite loose and requires the audience to connect the meanings and stories together as I wanted to get the audience involved in the video instead of blankly viewing it. My idea for the music video is that I film male 3 actors playing the parts of the Nirvana band around an urban, industrial inner city, which will be Birmingham. This will involved a lot of scenery work to build an industrial image. To convey the message of the song, I will feature imagery from around Birmingham, mostly in the city centre. There will be two sides to the video, one will be the dark, urban, industrial 'underbelly' of the city, featuring neglected areas and a huge focus on graffiti / street art. Graffiti is often frowned upon and considered anti-social but others make their careers out of it and it has been a big focus in art and music to demonstrate rebellion, which this song shows a message of, that we act differently from how society expects. The other side of the city is one of a professional, business, economic side, which shows attractive areas which have been developed by business and money such as the Bullring and many high rise offices which provide people with jobs and an income, demonstrating what society would expect from every individual.
With regards to the narrative, there will be two characters acting their stories alongside each other, both will be played by the same male actor. The first character will be a homeless adult who lives on the streets and also has an alcohol problem, he's lost everything and now withdraws himself from society to show those who have become the 'invisible society' and live in the urban underbelly of the city. The other character will be an adult businessman, who wears smart clothes, has a good job and is proud of where he is in life and everything is going fine for him, to show what society expects from us. But as theyre played by the same person, it tells the audience that there is a fine line between having the life you want and losing everything you have.

Rough script;Throughout the video, there will be cutaway shots of main roads and traffic, showing that the city ''never sleeps''. There will also be industrial imagery such as graffiti, neglected areas and antisocial behaviour to contrast with the professional imagery such as office buildings.
The band will of course feature in the video, in a variety of locations, ranging from a main road with two streams of traffic to an empty car park to a set of canals, in most of these examples, the band will be singing or playing their instruments to add to the performance element of the video that Nirvana often portrayed. Often the cutaway shots such as the industrial imagery will not feature the characters or the band, so it could be suggested that all the images are seen through the characters point of view shots instead of average shots. Different shots of characters lives will run alongside each other, cutting back and forth via editing, such as there will be a shot of the homeless character begging on the street then there will be a shot of the businessman character talking on his mobile phone, to contrast the two lifestyles and norms of society.

These are some images that I imagine my music video will include, as you can tell they give an industrial inner city theme, keeping consistent with my ideas for the video. Also the characters will dress and act differently, aswell as doing different activities to contrast their two lives.