analysis of questionnaire

I gave my questionnaire to a sample of thirty males and females, ranging from 16 to the over 35 group. I have looked at my results. Some I have recorded in graphical form, in some cases separating out gender and age ranges in the responses. I have then analysed my findings.

1.     Gender

The pie chart shows that 18 male and 12 female took part in my questionnaire. I feel that the fact there are more males than females is reflected in some of the answers.

2.     How old are you?

I split the age ranges into 5 categories, 16-18, 19-21, 22-24, 25-35, and 35+. I felt that these bands reflected people who would be likely to have similar interests and tastes so that I can compare them.

3.     What genre of music do you listen to?

I was interested to see that more males than females liked to listen to both rock music and hip-hop music. This I would have expected as both these genres are more male orientated, in particular hip-hop. I was surprised to see more females than males preferred metal as I would have thought this was a male orientated genre.

I also looked at the different genres of music which appealed to different age groups. Jazz was chosen only by the 35+ age range. I am not surprised by this as jazz is not a popular genre for younger age groups. Rock and pop were popular with the 19 – 21 age group. This was again what I would have expected.

4.     What radio stations do you listen to?

I gave the choice of five different radio stations, and the option to choose none.

Kiss FM – specialises in hip-hop, R+B, Urban and electronic dance

Capital FM – plays the latest hits and a selection across genres

Kerrang – plays metal, punk and rock

Heart FM – plays a selection with certain times being set aside for shows such as Club Classics

Absolute – plays 1990s music

I would expect people to choose a radio station based on their preferred genre. People who preferred rock or metal listened to Kerrang which specialises in these genres. More males than females preferred this station. Kiss FM was preferred by females. Capital FM was a popular choice for age groups between 19 – 24.

5.     What music channels do you watch?

Viva, Kiss and 4Music are all channels featuring videos from the charts and music that is currently in demand. Kerrang specialises in metal, rock and punk, while The Box specialises in being the first to air big hits.

I would anticipate that people would again link the genre of music they prefer and the radio stations they listen to to the music channels they will watch. I was surprised to see that Kerrang was not chosen by many people, even though many listened to Kerrang radio. The Box was a popular choice with 19 – 21 age group reflecting their interest in current music.

6.     What music videos do you enjoy watching?

This was an open question which got a wide variety of answers. The oldest age range did not in general watch music videos, and were only able to comment on odd extracts they had seen as clips on the television. People up to 24 watched music videos mainly on You Tube although some watched on

7.     The question which asked why do you enjoy watching music videos provoked some interesting results. Narrative was important to females, while good lyrics and meaning was important to males. The song and band members were important to both sexes. Good narrative was very important to 19 – 21 year olds which was interesting – they are looking for the content. Lyrics was also very important to this age group. It was interesting to see that the song was the only important factor for the 25 – 35 age group, showing that possibly this group enjoy hearing a song and becoming familiar with it. The song did feature in the answers for every age group.

8.     The answers to the question Do you go to music festivals and concerts was interesting. This is obviously a popular thing to do for all age groups, as some from all age groups said they attended these all the time. Interestingly it was people from 19 - 24 who said they never attended music festivals or concerts, whereas I was surprised that people over the age of 35 did. I think this age group may possibly not have money to spend on these activities as they are expensive and many would be at university at this time. However on further questioning, this was attending concerts rather than music festivals, although one had attended the V festival last year.

9.     Why do you go to music festivals was also interesting. The most common answer was by far related to seeing the bands first hand and enjoying the live music. Some said that they attended each year with the same group of people and enjoyed all meeting up – for them it was a real social occasion. One said they also enjoyed all the other tents which offer other activities as well.

10.                         This again was an open question. About half the people said that they were looking purely at the music content of a music video, and were interested in purely the performance of the band and the music itself. The other half said they wanted the video a story relating to the song and real life drama.