Audience Research

In this song “Gives you hell” by the all American rejects, Tyson Ritter is singing about different lifestyles that he and his ex-grilfriend are now living. The fact the song is set in the suburbs is very odd when he is a rock star and has a rebellious personality. It seems a strange location to set a video when the suburbs represent a place of peace and quite and the cereal packet family consisting of a married couple with 2.5 children and a dog. This clashes with rocks loud and non conformist attitude.

His ex-girlfriend now lives with someone else and they have a typical American home and don’t share a bed probably because they are young and not married and may be looked down in the community they are living in. Tyson Ritter shares a bed next door to them with his new girlfriend with there tiger stripped sheets and retro looking room and house, while his ex-girlfriend is living with her new boyfriend in there very normal looking house. What I think the different in houses represents is that even though Tyson is living in the suburbs he will not conform to what others see as the norm, he will do things his own way.

In one of the verses he draws attention to her lifestyle that she keeps:

“I wake up every evening with

A big smile on my face and it

Never feels out of place and your

Still probably working at a 9 to

5 pace”

These lyrics from the song sum up her daily routine and any other working Americans who lives in the suburbs. Tyson Ritter being a rock star does not have to do this routine and has the money to sustain a life in the suburbs with out working hard for it.

The pre-corus of the lyrics are very deceiving because he sings about missing his ex and the loss of her but then flat out says that his lying. So he is teasing her.

The lyrics ‘Where’s your picket fence love’ makes perfect reference to the suburbs and the fence they put up around the lawn. Picket fence is also an analogy for perfect house/life. He is mocking her because he doesn’t see her desire to have these things which is probably why she broke up with him because he doesn’t represent the husband marital type but he has proved he can have them if he wanted them because he moved in right next to them.

In conclusion one of the most controversial music genres in the industry is rock and corresponds with youth culture that is constantly being told what to do by elder people and constantly being told of for being too loud, too uncultured, and too vulgar. This links in with the video well because we have the rock star who is very rebbilous and the surburbian husbad who follows what society sees as right. This music video has helped me understand my audience more and there attuitude towards society and socities attutide towards them. Most importantly this music video has helped me understand why rock appeals to some of my target audience and how i can make my magazine give across a this message.