Noah and the Whale, the British Indie Folk band, have attended music festivals such Latitude, V Festival and Glastonbury. They were formed in London in 2006, and their name comes form the band’s favourite movie, The Squid and the Whale. This and the film’s director (Noah Baumbach) make up the name of the band. They have made an appearance on the Jeremy Warmsley internet television show Welcome to our TV show, and the band’s debut album, Peaceful, the World Lays Me Down, reached number 5 in the UK Album Chart that year. In 2009 the band brought out their second album, The First Days of Spring. The song that we are doing, 5 Years Time, reached number 7 on the UK Singles Chart in 2008, their highest-placed song in the charts to date.
The “Star Image” of Noah and the Whale is how they are perceived by their audience. The audience, as I have researched at one of the band’s forums,
http://noahandthewhale.forums.umusic.co.uk/, and
http://www.absoluteradio.co.uk/music/artists/noah_and_the_whale/fans/thread/86917/.To be honest, people have said that they don’t like the song 5 Years Time, but some have said that they like it and the song has “grown on me”. A good choice then, I think - create a video for a supposedly unlikeable song (although I like it) that should create some amount of awareness of the band. Looking at this small piece of research, I can easily see that the people who have posted these thoughts on the Absolute Radio forum have no particular interest in the Indie or Folk music genres, and when a song like this comes along they would much rather add their pounds and pennies to the millions earned by artists such as Madonna, Beyoncé, or even the late Michael Jackson.
Josh completed more of this:
As you may have seen, the band deliberately portray themselves as slightly offbeat and quirky and still have a relatively small fan base. A major factor that could contribute towards this idea and the band's image is how they dress. However this small fan base is very positive about the band, for example their is much enthusiasm for the announcement of new singles and tour dates on blogs such as Absolute Radio, Amazon and of course the band's official blog:
noahandthewhale.forums.umusic.co.uk which also includes entries from the band themselves often commenting on how their tours are progressing or if they are recording any new material.
I would suggest that the target audience for the group is a relatively small group of people who have an existing passion for indie and folk music and are part of a community of friends that does. They will probably also have a general interest in music of an alternative genre to that usually in the UK Charts which is usually dominated by Pop, Metal and Rap. The band however has discussed in interviews about moving towards a more punk rock sound which could possibly alienate some factions of their fan base.
