How does the music video 'Left Hand Free' by Alt-J appeal to its target audience?

Band background
Left Hand Free is a song from English indie rock band Alt-J. It is their second single from the bands second album 'This Is All Yours'. The song was released second as it immediately gives a feel of what the bands music is like. Alt-J, are an English indie rock band formed in 2007 in Leeds, by Gwil Sainsbury, Joe Newman, Thom Green and Gus Unger-Hamilton. The band's debut album 'An Awesome Wave' was released in May 2012 in Europe and September 2012 in the United States, and won the 2012 British Mercury Prize. Gwil Sainsbury amicably departed the band in early 2014. Their second album, This Is All Yours, was released on 22 September 2014 and went straight to UK number one. The band's unusual sound stems from the fact that due to living in student halls, where noise had to be kept to a minimum, they were unable to use bass guitars or bass drums. Left Hand Free with its Southern rock influences, it is typical for an Alt-J song. 

Audience
The audience for Alt-J is very much of the lifestyle of the band themselves. A university student, male or female, who doesn't enjoy any mainstream music or activities. These are things such as listening to chart music or anything that is played on the radio frequently. This is because the audience are people aged between 18-30 who are not your typical young person. They they listen to indie rock and keep away from anything mainstream from fashion trends to places to see your friends. The music they listen to will fall into the indie category and are bands such as Mumford and Sons, Arctic Monkeys, The Killers etc.. The clothes they will wear are from charity shops or unbranded clothing as they would not spend a lot of money on what they wear. They would meet their friends at coffee shops or in unusual places to maintain the anti mainstream persona they portray.

Figure 1

This is the band in figure 1 and as you can see they are dressed more individually than the mainstream population of their age group. They wear smarter shoes, baggy jeans and a more casual style. They are also stood outside a small quirky shop that relates to them as it is off the mainstream and a place where only they would go. Two of the band are wearing glasses which relates to them not caring about what is generically 'cool' as they wear what they think is 'cool' to them. They are altogether going for a indie/nerdy look of a university student.

Figure 2

Figure 2 shows an Alt-J fan who is dressed the same as the band. He is wearing the glasses, jeans, shirt and smart shoes. This is the target audience for Alt-J. The guy will live near or in a city and lead the students lifestyle. However the constructed audience is this guy who looks like a indie intellectual young man but sometimes the actual audience can vary and people who are into other indie bands or like art/ alternative types of indie music will listen to Alt-J but they do not usually attract many people outside the target audience. 



How the music video appeals to their target audience

In Left Hand Free it consists of young people getting alcohol and going to do summer activities. The way in which at the beginning there is a shot of a girl buying alcohol at a store immediately attracts the target audience as students can relate to the situation. The band have used the audience being able to relate to the video at the beginning to catch their attention and make them feel comfortable with it, this is reinforced by the costume as it is very much what a typical girl of that age would wear and the location is a very recognisable place. This has been used to allow the connection to be made with the music video. The male audience has been addressed as the camera is focusing on the girl with a shallow focus as the Alt-J fan base is mainly male they have used this to grab the males attention as another way to get them engaged to the video.

The video then shifts into what the target audience would aspire to do. For instance in the picture to the left the guy is in a river with his friends using a rope swing and this will target their audience as young adults are the main focus and doing activities like this in the summer is what Alt-J's audience would want to do. It captures them by the use of location, the location is very mysterious and this intrigue their audience by allow them to escape into a video which has their ideal summer day. The video then goes to them having a barbecue by the river and this leads on to the idea of the ideal summer day which is perfect for the age range of their audience.