Recently I started to wonder who's SCANDAL's target audience. They wrote lyrics that girls could relate to, the "strong girl" image is often part of their lyrics, they inspire girls to get involved with music (they lead Japan's 2nd "girls band boom" (alongside with other acts like Akaki Kouen, Chatmonchy, Flip, Negoto, Lovendor, Shishamo or Tricot), etc. And they are way more popular among girls according to JPU Records' Facebook/website views (70 vs 30 percent(!!!)) So did they ever stated that their main audience are (teenage/early 20s) girls?

They've explicitly stated that their target audience is *not* just girls. That would limit their audience. They are constantly saying that they write songs for guys and girls of all ages, and they want to see all those people at their shows.

I've been to three of their shows in Japan and honestly it seemed a pretty even mix to me, although I didn't try to do a count or anything. But clearly they have a lot of male fans and a lot of older fans too.

Yes I went to their London concert and it was a mixed crowd of all ages.

Quite interesting topic.

I have colleagues and friends with the average age of 32 who are fans of Scandal. They have not performed in the Philippine soil so, I can't give even a rough estimate. I have to conduct a survey for that.

When I was in Hong Kong with friends last May (calling MamixHaruna, Anziel and hanautasancho ^_^), let's say 65/100 concert goes are single men. It's a pretty mixed demographic there based on the concert goers alone.

Another weird observation which is a bit out of topic --- Every time the band members trying their best to speak a foreign language during concert set breaks, only half of the crowd applauds. Meanwhile, if they return speaking in Nippongo, the crowd goes wild, hahahaha!

MamiNoodles wrote:Another weird observation which is a bit out of topic --- Every time the band members trying their best to speak a foreign language during concert set breaks, only half of the crowd applauds. Meanwhile, if they return speaking in Nippongo, the crowd goes wild, hahahaha!

I think that kind of effect on the crowd is two-fold. First, it's easier for the band themselves to communicate whatever they're trying to say in their native language. Even though the audience may understand only parts, the overall verbal communication seems...smoother? People like that kind of consistency.

People can also be interested in foreign or unfamiliar things. We (as most of us here aren't native Japanese speakers) would get more excited hearing Haruna hype up the crowd in Nippongo than english and vice-versa with a Japanese crowd and Western band.

Lexian wrote:People can also be interested in foreign or unfamiliar things. We (as most of us here aren't native Japanese speakers) would get more excited hearing Haruna hype up the crowd in Nippongo than english and vice-versa with a Japanese crowd and Western band.

Yeah, I think people mainly want to see in person what they've seen and heard the band do on recordings and in videos. And that means speaking Japanese. Of course it's nice if a band has a message in the language of whatever country they're in, but it's not what people came to see.

I remember seeing Puffy play in NYC once, the crowd got really restless during their English MC's. I actually felt really bad for them, people were shouting stuff like "just play a song!" It must be difficult for Japanese bands to play overseas because of the long MC's they're used to doing. None of the options they have are good; they either have to cut them out and play a whole set with no break, or they do them in their own language and few people understand, or they try to speak the local language and it might sound stilted or awkward.

Anyway, back to topic, this is a photo I took at Budokan:



You can easily tell the sexes of everyone even from the back. It seems pretty even. That said, I'm sure it's natural for an all-female band to attract somewhat more girls than guys (just as the reverse is true) and it's also natural for them to occasionally write individual songs with lyrics aimed mainly at other girls.

Obviously, this is different from location to location, but the LA and Anaheim shows were heavily male dominated. From where I was standing in front of Mami on both nights, between the two shows, I saw exactly two ladies in the audience. I know there were more based on what I saw waiting in line and after the show, but it wouldn't surprise me if it were well more than 80% male at those two shows.

Haruna speaking english gives her a very sweet and caring personality (my experience from the Essen concert), I guess it is partly due to it not being a language she has much experience in and partly trying to be as nice as possible to a foreign audience. Her personality feels a lot stronger in japanese. I like both.

For me a mix of english (or other local language if they know it) and japanese parts is ideal for non japanese audiences. Learning a few words of the locales language (non-english ones) puts the cherry on top of the cake.

Hmm... In my opinion the band's target audiences are within the member's age group. In that way the members can relate to their songs and to who they want to address them to. Based on the songs especially the ones they have written they will be most likely followed by those in their mid 20's or in their teens. But it doesn't mean that people outside the age group won't like their songs... It's more of the individual's perspective on music maybe. But then again it's a pretty even mix in their concerts when you look at it.

I always though scandal had way more male fans during their uniforms day but as they slowly left that fashion style behind and making themself a name between japanese female artists/bands, scandal's audience became a good mix of both guys and girls (even if you judge which genre is the most "popular" by watching live performances, you would hear fanchants that seems made only by male but if you look at all the people you'll spot lot of femals too XD)

obviously scandal's target audience are young people/people in their 20 because the girls write lyrics based on their emotions and experience of young adults right now, so it would be natural of who enjoy those songs are people who can truly relate to at that specific moment (so young people). the fact that scandal made also some songs with great tie-in in anime/films put them under the spotlight for youngest

I'm surely not the target audience of the band (French guy just turned 36) but my love for Scandal constantly brings me back to my teen years when I used to obsess over bands to an overwhelming degree. The girls are like a Fountain of Youth for me! (And I don't even particularly care about their lyrics.)

flyingwill wrote:I'm surely not the target audience of the band (French guy just turned 36)

Their target audience is all ages. They've said that many times; I don't know where people are getting that it's some narrow age range and only a single gender. That makes no sense even from a business perspective.

Obviously they write about what they know, but they intentionally try to write a lot of stuff that's universal too. And it's no secret that they are not the writers of all of their songs anyway; a lot of them are written by older men. The overall result is that they attract, and are trying to attract, a really broad fan base.

I'm still not sure they were specifically aiming for a worldwide audience though. (I know that most Japanese — or most non-English-speaking bands for that matter — don't either, but anyway.) Maybe that's more the case now, but I still tend to think that their earlier image had a more specific target. It's still hard for me to justify that I genuinely love a band made of cute young girls dressed in school uniforms. It's a very Japanese thing.

In my personal opinion , we cannot calculate SCANDAL’s target auditory by just outer signs like age , gender and so on . Songs of SCANDAL  are directed to the people who still didn’t forget how to feel . Inner philosophy of SCANDAL is not always easy to explain by words but always easy to feel . In other words , if you feel the magic of SCANDAL – you are lucky , but if you don’t feel it – nobody is able to explain you . Maybe it’s just my personal feeling , but I think that impression that SCANDAL songs leave on you , almost doesn’t change , no matter if you know the lyrics or you don’t . In my opinion , that means that SCANDAL is successfully achieving one of their main goals , that members have mentioned in their interview for a few times – to talk with people’s hearts directly by the means of music . But please don’t think that I’m trying to say that SCANDAL’s lyrics is not so important . Of course , it is , but . . . how should I say it . . . somehow you can understand general sense of the lyrics even before knowing the translation of it . I don’t know how SCANDAL do it – but they do ! It is one of the things that makes them so unique . Another priceless things is that personal fans of each girl are almost exactly 25% of total SCANDAL auditory . I guess that it’s impossible to name another band that are like this .
Talking about SCANDAL speaking in Japanese or another language – yes , during London live we were especially supporting Haruna-san and other members speaking in Japanese . When Haruna-san asked a permission to speak Japanese (though she doesn’t need to ask) , my reaction was
.
I cannot say for other people , but I had  two general reasons :
1 . To show that there are many people in the venue who understand Japanese language and make SCANDAL to feel more free .
2 . To express special respect to Japan in general and to SCANDAL as a part of it . Somehow I feel that SCANDAL and Japan are very similar . And that it’s impossible to understand SCANDAL better without better understanding of Japan itself .

I think only boy bands or coldly calculating American teen pop singers really aim for a specific demographic.
Scandal may touch certain groups more with their lyrics, but their music makes everybody move! My daughter and I both enjoy the music, which is what any artist wants, to touch as large an audience as they can. I appreciate that the ladies want to do it on their terms.