What Music Means To Me; Reflections

As a research task and to help us learn more about the consumption of music for both ourselves and our class mates, we had to make a presentation about what music means to us; this involved talking about music as a child, as a teenager and now. I found the task really helpful as it brought to my attention patterns of consumption and also gave me a better idea of what was involved in our coursework task. Everyone spoke really personally and, whether the tracks had an emotional link or not, it gave everyone a chance to think more about their own personal consumption of music and also the consumption of others.

When do you listen to music; who with; where; how?
In my opinion, this question is very personal and this came across in people's answers. For me, i listen to music all the time; i love having my iPod in my pocket and my headphones are always hanging from my top, ready to be plugged in at any time. In the morning when i'm getting ready for school, i listen to Chris Moyles on Radio 1 - mainly because the combination of chart music and talking is a good way of waking me up. However, once i've left the house i listen to my iPod all the way to school because i like the escapism of feeling like i'm in my own little world where no-one else can hear or enjoy the songs i love. I listen to my iPod throughout the day, finding myself listening to certain bands at certain times; for instance i'll listen to calm music while i'm working as it's easy to listen to and is good as background noise. From the presentations i learnt that everyone's daily music routine is personalised, however they all seemed to have similar trends like using radio to wake up etc.


Pleasures of listening to music;
Personally, i listen to music for lots of different reasons. Sometimes i use it to complement my mood, or if i'm in a bad mood it can definitely cheer me up. I listen to the charts and download all the songs that i like weekly so i have them on my iPod but i tend to stick to old favourites because they remind me of a particular time or place. I also like to listen to new and quite 'underground' music like dubstep, mainly because this is what i listen to when i go out and if i hear a particular track i like in a club then i like to find out what it is and put it on my iPod. I also really enjoy singing along to songs with my friends, it makes me really happy if i'm in a big group of people or even with just one or two friends and we're all singing along to a good song.

From watching others present their favourite tracks and reasons for listening to thems, i got the impressions that the pleasures i personally get from listening to music seemed to be similarly shared by others. People listen to music to either release certain emotions, to get away from their surrounding or to take them back to a particular memory.


Patterns of music consumption;
After everyone's presentations, several patterns seemed to emerge. As children, we all seemed to listen to whatever our role models (older siblings, parents, cousins etc) were listening to, with no particular taste of our own. A lot of people said that the music they listened to came from CD's such as 'NOW, that's what i call music', consisting of all the latest chart successes, and from the TV chart show Top Of The Pops. This suggests that as children our musical tastes were strongly influenced by record companies and chart institutes rather than our particular tastes. However, as each person talked about growing up, you could see a clear growth in their musical taste - being able to find and listen to music themselves allowed them to find certain genres or bands that they liked, although in most cases these were still linked with what they had been introduced to by a brother or sister at an early age.

Another influence that was only accessible with age was that of gigs or concerts. My classmates spoke of how gigs they have attended have really shaped their musical taste - the epic atmosphere that can only be achieved at a live gig is definitely something that made our music consumption more enjoyable. There is definitely something special about seeing an early teen favourite live in concert as I, and others, spoke about in our presentations.


How was this task relevant to our coursework project?
The 'What Music Means To Me' task was very useful in allowing us to learn more about audience consumption and how to target an audience when creating a music video. I've learnt that brand image is crucial, especially when targeting young audiences, as if there is a music video or band that particularly stands out, for whatever reason, then it tends to stick in peoples minds. When creating our music video i've realised we'll have to think about more than just creating a well produced visual, this task has helped me learn that for a lot of people the enjoyment goes beyond just a catchy song or video - although of course this varies with age. If i was producing a video aimed at a younger audience, i would create an aspirational artist that kids could look up to, however as the target audience grows with age, so does the complexity of their consumption needs.