Intended Audience v Inferred Knowledge
Non-fiction can be a difficult genre to broach for a writer. Part of this unease is based on your perceived audience; how much they know, and how much you are meant to inform them.
A couple of years ago, a writing group recommended that I put the manuscript past a book editor. Not only was the manuscript proofread, I was also given several tips on how best to mould it into shape, to make it ‘publisher-ready’. The editor was someone aware of the subject matter, but not wholly involved. Ideally suited for my anticipated audience. Aside from expected chronology and narrative bumps, one issue kept coming up. The amount I knew about the music scene and how much I expected my intended audience to know in return.
It became clear to me that, as a non-fiction writer, I could easily expect too much from an intended audience. Hopefully, those who wish to buy the book (once published) are already clued-up to various events that are featured. There are certainly expectations that I would have. For instance, they should know that Arctic Monkeys’ first single went to number 1, that technology existed that allowed music fans to download single tracks as digital files and ‘rip’ them onto CDs, and that there were established British music festivals including Glastonbury, Live at Leeds, Tramlines, and Reading & Leeds. That’s not a huge amount to expect an intended audience to be aware of.
Then again, there are numerous key points that the book makes which should prove for interesting reading. This goes beyond the mere existence of digital music sharing to look at its influence and how music fans spread tracks across the internet, then interacted via online message boards to build interest in their favourite bands without major label support. The manuscript takes a deep dive into how band members FELT too as they were realising their dreams yet also suffering under unrealistic expectations. There’s enough common knowledge about the time in question to draw in an intended audience yet also enough detail in the manuscript to intrigue onlookers who want to learn more. from those that were there That’s the intention anyway, but it helps to have a good idea of your audience initially.
(Know Your) Intended Audience
Several publishers insist that you confirm the intended audience for your book in your proposal. I have an idea of who I believe will want to read my book, and that includes;
Fans of the featured acts.
- Those that still tour (Arctic Monkeys, Reverend and The Makers, Kaiser Chiefs, The Cribs, and The Pigeon Detectives). You can also include Self Esteem with Rebecca Lucy Taylor then being part of the band, Slow Club.
- Those that split then reformed (Bromheads Jacket, Milburn, The Research, ¡Forward, Russia!, The Long Blondes, Black Wire, The Sunshine Underground, and Little Man Tate), and
- Those that split up and did not reform (Harrisons and The Ivories)
Fans of the previous music scenes in Sheffield (Synth-Pop) and in Leeds (Goth/Post-Punk).
Readers of contemporary national music magazines from the time, including NME and Q Magazines.
Those keen to learn about how a music scene operates, such as the roles of club night promoters, the music press, music venue operators, and record producers.
Those interested in the period of 1998 to 2009 in the British music scene
That’s a relatively wide group that doesn’t even include family and friends that I’ll likely disown if they fail to order a copy. The group also covers people that would have seen those bands emerge at the time, and also fans of those acts at a later date. For instance, during recent Arctic Monkeys gigs, you will invariably find three distinct audience subsets. original ‘OG’ fans from the early 2000s, music fans who were born then but are now old enough to attend the band’s gigs, and British music fans who appreciate that the band is a ‘must-see’.
You could even argue that the intended audience is an international one. Certainly, acts like Reverend and The Makers are still touring, indeed, they’ve just played gigs in Mexico. Self Esteem is garnering huge interest going into album run #3, while bands like Kaiser Chiefs, The Cribs, Milburn, The Pigeon Detectives, and Little Man Tate, will be touring in the summer. Fans of each act should be keen to find out how they came to be in the early 2000s.
Inferred Knowledge
Certain elements came together in the New Yorkshire Wave, elements I’d include as inferred knowledge. These are aspects that I would expect the readership to have an idea of, yet I’d also be expected to fill in some gaps and provide some detail. That would include how those featured acts formed and the dates their singles and albums were released.
Though Q Magazine announced its final printed edition in July 2020, NME Magazine still exists online and in a (limited) printed form. Both magazines were important in how interest developed in those bands and the scenes they emerged from. Specifically, NME Magazine and its ‘Gangs of New Yorkshire’ feature from August 2005 (featured in detail in the manuscript). There’s also the notion of how the music press would build bands up only to knock them down later when they saw fit. Feuds were instigated and developed between bands to create drama for the music press to then report on. Essentially, bands became pawns in a bigger game to sell copies of magazines and newspapers.
As circulation for both publications dipped around the time that the New Yorkshire scene crashed, there’s a lot to learn about how the music industry suffered as a whole during that time. How we consume media has changed too, Myspace has been overtaken by Facebook and X (fka Twitter) and music downloads have become legitimate, chart worthy business. Music streaming and Spotify have emerged to threaten physical music sales, bands can control their own narrative via their social media accounts, and local British music venues are closing at an unprecedented rate, around 125 in 2023 alone according to The Music Venues Trust. The manuscript chronicles a time before these changes, a better time many would argue, and what’s wrong with reminiscing?
There are threads in the manuscript that include parts of inferred knowledge which then expand and join up with other threads. For instance, you could link the emergence of The Strokes and the New Rock Revolution around 2001 with Arctic Monkeys forming a band and the rest of the bands that formed the New Yorkshire Wave four years later. That link pulls on that known grouping of bands with the influence of the music press to publicise them, including NME Magazine.
Though I would not expect readers to have intimate knowledge of the local music scenes in both Sheffield and Leeds, I’d expect them to know of their existence. The manuscript goes further to provide details on how venues pushed local bands and offered them a stage on which to perform. There’s also a ladder of venues in each city for bands to climb, the more popular they got. I’ll cover the ladder of venues in a later Substack post.
Anecdotes and Hidden Details
The crux of the manuscript’s appeal is all those anecdotes and hitherto hidden details. That’s the main reason why it is an oral history and why I interviewed around 50 individuals. It’s all well and good knowing what happened, but the details, the opinions, and the key events that occurred are well worth reading about. They document the journey, characterised by the emotions that were felt along the way.
Inferred knowledge means that most readers will know that Arctic Monkeys went to number one with their first single, but how did the band and their families find out? How did the producer, Alan Smyth, make all those bands sound magnificent, what was his background? How hard was it for women like Kate Jackson, lead singer, co-writer, and art director of The Long Blondes to work in a male-dominated, occasionally toxic environment? How did the bands feel when they were pushed into feuds with other local bands by the national music press? What did the bands and music fans think of the ‘Gangs of New Yorkshire’ feature? How was the feature organised? How did Tramlines Festival come to be?
You’ll have to read the manuscript to find out.