A2 Media - Research

Audience

Musician and filmmaker Rob Zombie observes, "Most of the kids who come to my shows seem like really imaginative kids with a lot of creative energy they don't know what to do with" and that metal is "outsider music for outsiders. Nobody wants to be the weird kid; you just somehow end up being the weird kid. It's kind of like that, but with metal you have all the weird kids in one place."

Heavy Metal fans often go by the name of "metalheads", "headbangers" or "thrashers". Each of these obviously has connotations to the music itself the music that these fans follow like a religion. Typically heavy metal fans have developed a culture of alienation in regards to the rest of society, they tend to see themselves as outcast and refuse to conform to mainstream traditions, espicially in regards to music. In many regards this is where the long hair, symbol of metal fans, comes in it is almost like a rebellion against the typical demands of society to have short and tidy hair, fans of metal feel that they need to rebal, if against nothing at all sometimes. The long hair, leather jacket, chains, studs and patches are what define metal fans, and the folow tradition by ritually going to concerts and taking part in onling band websites etc.

In regards to the music itself the term "sell-out" has become a term frequently used in representing people who turn away from metal music and drift toward lighter rock radio music. Using this we know that in order to target our intended audience we must actually represent the fans of the genre as well, by this we must make sure that our video is not a "sell-out" so its not mainstream and does not conform to mainstream tradititons.