Research on the XX

The XX target audience and public awareness

The reason why I’ve decided to use the XX's song 'Night Time', is because it advertises young bands emerging into the music scene and their music is generally very relatable and true to life. Indie music describes the major concerns of people. In order to create a music video based on my genre I need to understand who my main target audience is by researching who appreciates the music and in particular, who connects and relates to it.

My target audiences for my media product is mainly for ages 17-24 years old. This is because the music is relatable to teenagers who turn to music as a source of comfort whilst going through relationship problems. Many indie tracks are a narrative based story which discuss past relationships and poignant life events, they are easily relatable to peoples lives. 

The XX have had a significant amount of articles written about them in well-known newspapers and magazines. This shows they have a large hold on the music industry and continue to influence. They are well reported about as well. The Guardian newspaper targets a well-educated, relatively young, predominantly male and liberal audience, the main target audience of the XX, and newspapers such as the telegraph have said how adaptable their music is, and how important they are to the development of Indie music.

Specifically, on the bands website there is a community blog and a merchandise store. The blogs advertise events which fund themselves through the widespread attention they receive. This helped them advertise for the release of their most recent album, 'Coexist'. The website is vitally important because the majority of the XX's target audience are young and regularly use the internet to discover new music and genres. Additionally, many of the XX's songs are used for TV advertisement and background music for movies because of their mellow sound and adaptability. The XX make electronic-edged music that's ghostly and enigmatic. This resulted in massive recognition on screen because it was heard appearing on live TV. This meant people were made curious of its origins and background behind the music, making them completely different in the world of music.  

The XX released their new album by sending it to a small fan base who then sent the link on to fans all over the world through social media. Word of mouth aided the publication and people continued the trend cycle. Social media has helped them establish a target audience through constant advertisement and continual access and connections to their audience. Music downloading and social media have made the pre-release album stream an integral part of the modern music marketing scheme, and the XX have successfully drawn attention to themselves.

Record labels

Young Turks - 

An independent British record label, based in London. Founded in 2006 by Caius Pawson. The label owns other groups/artists like Jamie XX, Sampha, FKA Twigs, Koreless etc. The majority of their bands would be categorised under the alternative indie genre. 

XL Recordings - 

 The record label are an English independent label founded in 1989 by Richard Russell. They own groups/artists such as Adele, The white stripes, Vampire Weekend, Dizzie Rascal, Låpsley etc. Due to the wide variety of bands, it is clear that the record label do not support a singular genre of music, unlike the 'Young Turks'.