Audience (Overview)

There is no defined audience of the Punk and Alternative Rock Genre and subculture, this subculture thrives on creativity and diversity, often creating trends both musically, with fashion and with such topics as anti-sexism, veganism, animal rights and rebellion.The range of political beliefs covers the full political spectrum, this in turn effects the audience and their designated demographics, essentially the concept behind punk is personal freedom. The ethics of the genre itself revolve around radical rejection of conformity, the concept ethic of Do It Yourself (DIY), direct action for political change and not selling out into mainstream society for personal success.

The band we are choosing to do our coursework on is a Post Punk band, with pop-punk, grunge and alternative rock elements. This means that there is a greater diversity in all aspects relevant to target distribution, style and ideologies resulting in a greater scope for both audience and direction for designing a unique and pertinent music video and respective webpage design and album cover. The various styles should appeal to admires of Pop punk, Grunge and Alternative Rock without the alienating of a new audience (such as those who simple like the sound or look of the band) as well.

Fashion:

With fashion many choose to outrage propriety, the common beliefs and so on, the unique combination of hairstyle, piercing, tattoos, merchandising and clothing. The band we have taken interest in is very Post Punk and so the stereotypical green mohawk, sleeveless punk rocker is not relevant to this sub genre of punk evolution. Typical fashion of this combination of genres results in a very varied array of fashion ranging from the hip-hop inspired baggy studded pants to the more "scene" skinny jeans, tight fitted dress shirts, hoodies and also consisting of an overlap with the typical fashion of skater punks, converse sneakers, print dyed attire typically hoodies and scarves, spiky hair being replaced lately with some more 'emo' typical hairstyles such as long bangs and a fringe and some more hardcore styled looks and shorter styles.

Audience Diversity:

As there is such a diversity to the genre of punk itself and the audience as a result is just as diverse. Punk in general appeals to a wide audience with many while sharing many similar beliefs numerous members have a wide range of their personal ideologies etc. this allows for a greater viewer range to target but my result in alienating some fans in turn.

Punk fans typically will be drawn to this style of band, the unique elements present in this band due to the merging  and influence of multiple genres, styles and ideologies will attract fans of each of these respective admires; Indie and Alternative Rock fans, Hardcore Punk and Grunge inspired fans. This distribution of audience has both pros and cons, for instance it may be easier to target the audience as a whole but any focus or concentration that creates an unequal balance in the blend of genres (for instance if a band becomes more mainstreamed and loses its grunge influence) may alienate certain groups and as a result they will divert their attention elsewhere, so to saturate as much of the audience as possible their needs to be a balance, a diversity in the style and combination of genres that satisfies the full spectrum of fans.

The typical punk rocker usually being a working class white male teenager, but of course this is fluctuates across the various subcultures.

Target Age:

The typical age for Punk audience is primarily from 16-45 aged individual with many 30-45 year olds having grown up with the culture and have as such evolved with it. When Punk first emerged many lived and died by the genre in a matter of speaking and have grown up with the evolution and fall of the genre, this makes up the majority of the punk audience yet due to the modernisation of society and the norms that have spawned from this the music industry has evolved with it as a result, punk being no exception.

Target Gender:

The typical gender audience of this style of band is quite balanced between both males and females with males slightly taking the majority. This is possibly due to the diversity in style, theres a little piece for everyone to enjoy regardless of genre. Its also unique that these genres do not discriminate against a certain genre similarly to how other genres might, in fact Punk across all genres a large portion consists of homosexual or bisexual fans especially in the queercore subculture, it is also notable that Punk consistently promotes the idea of sexual equality regardless of sexual orientation.

Location of Emergence:

Initially emerging from the United Kingdom, the United States and Australia. Today the genres have become wide spread spawning many sub genres each with their own relevant location of emergence.

Social Background:

There is again a diversity in the social background, again more the more prevalent and majority audience being the working and lower class as opposed to the wealthy and upper class. This is due to the many ideologies present within the punk genre in particular such as the common belief of environmentalism, freedom, equality and equal rights and having a very "anti establishment'' agenda, of course it varies from band to band and sub culture to subculture but in general Punk seems very orientated at representing social outcasts, the victims of society and so on

Once typically bands only earned a low income with very limited wealth in which to promote their music, now the artists under the Punk genre make a considerable fortune with regards to their disposable income (Viven Westwood being an example of someone who made a fortune creating punk fashion), this is evideent by the explosion of punk fashion sales and so on. The fans typically who would be lower to working class would have little to some money to spend (typically as merchandise).