Audience Profile – Genre: Hip hop/rap

Target Audience:Gender and Age (Hartley’s 7 Subjectivities) and why It is mainly for males as the main artists are mostly male and their music is from a male perspective. With regards to age it could include anyone age 12-30 as it is mainly aimed towards younger people and so may not appeal to an older generation as they may see it as offensive as much of the genre contains explicit language.

Socio-Economic Needs and why:With socio-economic needs the audience would be those between C2 and E seeing as hip hop often talks of hardship and coming from a poor background and so may not be understood by higher classed people. For example a social grade C1 or C2 African American would be appealed more by the messages and conventions of Hip Hop than a social grade A, regardless of age , gender, or to an extent, ethnicity.

Katz’ Uses & Gratifications Theory and Maslow’s Hierarchy of needsI would associate the target audience with ‘personal relationship’(Katz) and the need for ‘diversion'. This being in regards to the fact that they may converse with one another regarding a particular magazine/article and thus develop a closer personal relationship. This is also explained by the constant need of the target audience to update themselves on the genre, whether that be the latest music, fashion or the private life of certain artist, which also coincides with ‘star appeal’ (Richard Dyer) in that the target audience is interested in particular stars.

Stereotype(s):The usual stereotypes for the target audience would be African-Americans who are particularly materialistic and tend to wear ‘flashy’ jewelry and designer clothing

Name: Alex WestbrookCandidate Number: 3152