Stereophonics

Stereophonics are a 4 piece indie/rock band formed in Wales in 1992. The band currently consists of Kelly Jones (lead vocals/guitar), Richard Jones (bass/backing vocals), Adam Zindani (guitar/backing vocals) and Jamie Morrison (drums). They have released 8 studio albums, including 5 consecutive UK no.1 albums, the latest being 2013's "Graffiti on the Train". Their debut album "Word gets around" released in 1997 charted in at number 6 in the UK, with singles such as 'Local boy in the photograph' and 'A thousand trees' still being some of their most famous work to date. Their most well known song is 'Dakota', released in 2005. The song is the band's only UK number one. The band is distinctive in sound due to lead singer Kelly Jones' raspy voice, which has been described as 'whiskey'. His voice has drawn criticism as well as acclaim. Having sold over 9 million copies worldwide, the band are one of the most successful rock acts to come out of Wales.

DEMOGRAPHICS 

To find demographics for Stereophonics I looked up various sites across the internet to find any information I could

AGES

Stereophonics' music is largely geared towards younger people. However as the band has been around for over 20 years they have quite a large following between the ages of 35-50, as these were people who would have liked their music when it came out. Having been to see Stereophonics on 3 separate occasions live I always noticed that the crowd was a lot older than me with the majority usually being between the ages of 35-45. When looking on last.fm I found that the majority of listeners were aged 16-30, with only a small percentage being aged 35-50. Here we have a photo of the crowd at a Stereophonics gig in Leicester and we can see from the photo that a big part of the crowd are older than usual for this genre of music, aged around 30-50.

LOCATION

Stereophonics have a considerable following worldwide, but would be most well known in Ireland and the UK, where they would be most popular. As well as doing a UK and Ireland tour, they have played shows across the countries of the world such as Japan, South Korea, Australia and Singapore in the past year. Also in the past year they've played concerts around Europe in Switzerland, Italy, Germany, Portugal, Belgium and France, among other places. The picture on the right shows a promotional tour poster for a gig they played in 2008 in Hong Kong. When looking on ask.fm I found that whilst there was listeners from all around the world, the majority were from Europe. The country with the most listeners was as expected, the UK. There was also listeners from Sweden, Poland, France, Russia and Turkey as well as others from Europe. The few listeners that came from outside of Europe came from places such as United States and Brazil (these 2 were the most popular for outside Europe), as well as Mexico, Indonesia and Venezuela.

SOCIAL BACKGROUND

Social background, again, for a band with quite a lot of mainstream popularity could be anything really. When they first started out they were a heavier rock band and would have had a smaller following, mostly young indie people who like to be a bit different. Their more mellow stuff since then has gained them a more wide variety of listeners, with songs such as 'Have a nice day' and 'Maybe tomorrow.'

GENDER

Again, this genre of indie/alternative rock music would be usually associated with males but having seen from expereience from crowds at their gigs, they have a large female following. When looking at the gender of listeners on ask.fm, I found that aroung 70% were males and about 30% were female. In the photo on the right of a Stereophonics gig in Belfast in 2010, we can see that a large percentage of the crowd is female.