Often artists are sold as a brand. The artists music video acts as a product of the brand, in the hope that the audience will be inspired to “buy into the brand”. For many synthetic artists their image is seen as more important than the quality of the product. However for organic artists it is the song/ meaning of the song that is seen as more important and the artists ‘image’ has little to do with the sale of the song. A good example of an artist who's product is more important than their image is Phil Collins where as a good example of where image is seen as more important is the Spice Girls.
The Spice Girls
In the mid-1990s, Bob Herbert, Chris Herbert and Lindsey Casbon realised there was a gap in the market for a girl band and set about creating a girl group to fill this gap and compete with popular boy bands that dominated the pop music scene in the mid- to late-1990s such as Take That and the BackStreet Boys. In February 1994 Heart management placed an advertisement in the Stage trade magazine saying "WANTED: R U 18-23 with the ability to sing and dance? R U streetwise, outgoing, ambitious, and dedicated?" After 100's of auditions they decided that Melanie Brown, Melanie Chisholm , Emma Bunton , Geri Halliwell and Victoria Beckham would be perfect for this gap in the market. Shortly after forming, they were signed to Virgin records and in 1996 they released their debut single "wannabe".
Each spice girl were given nickname and a particular style which became their trade mark. Melanie Brown was "Scary Spice", Melanie Chisholm was"Sporty Spice", Emma Bunton was "Baby Spice", Geri Halliwell was"Ginger Spice"and Victoria Beckham was "Posh Spice". Each Spice Girl had a different style to appeal to a range of different audiences. Baby Spice had a very innocent sweet style, Sporty Spice had a very sporty/tomboy style etc. When appearing on American Tv their clothes were carefully chosen.Victoria wore a sophisticated slinky black number,Emma wore a baby pink dress, Mel B wore leopard-skin trousers, Geri wore red hot pants, top and bra and Mel C wore her favourite Liverpool shirt and tracksuit bottoms.
The Spice Girls were sold to the world as a group of friends, just goofing off and making top-selling singles together.They were actually a carefully selected group of strangers chosen, after hundreds of auditions.They had endless merchandising and sponsorship deals, and were involved with everything from Pepsi ads to Polaroid ads to Barbie-style Spice Girls dolls.
Everything about them was under the control of men or corporations. Geri Halliwell (“Ginger Spice”) almost didn't make it into the group, because she looked older than the other girls; when they asked her age, she reportedly said, “I’m as old as you want me to be. I’ll be 10 with big boobs if you want.”
The Spice Girls debut single "Wannabe" really established their brand. The video shows them as a group of friends with different styles and personalities having a good time. The lyrics of the song helped attract a strong female audience as they are singing about how "friendship never ends" and that "if you wannabe my lover you gotta get with my friends".
comparing two artists
To many artists image is important as it sets them aside of all the other artists and makes them unique. It helps them establish a brand which they can then sell. Lady Gaga is a good example of an artist whose artistic image is very important to her success, although she is talented if Lady Gaga did not have her controversial wacky image she would not have experienced the level of success she has. All of Lady Gaga's music videos a very high budget and some are like mini films.
However to the more organic artist the product is of most importance. Artists such as Adele and Ed Sheeran care little for the image yet are considered as some of the most successful artists in the world right now. This focus on the product sets them aside from many of the mainstream pop acts that are in the charts at the moment which acts as a unique selling point as there are very few mainstream acts who focus on the product. Adeles music videos are very plain and simple which allows the audience to focus on the music rather than the video.
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