Branding represents the artist in the desired way, to best appeal to the intended audience. There are always going to be people more interested in making money - and after all, an artist can't keep making music without it; so getting it right and selling 'units' is rather important. Artists are encouraged to dress in a certain way, to live their lives to match their image, and to generally be a walking advert to help gather fans and sell music.
Image is a huge part of success these days ('These days' - what do I sound like!) but lets not forget the reason music is so dominant in our hearts. It captures our imagination, our feelings and provides a soundtrack to our lives. As part of my branding I want to emphasise that. I decided that despite the usual necessity to be conventional in order to suceed, that I was going to ignore it. Well not totally ignore it as that would be ridiculously arrogant. Not to mention stupid. What I want to get across is that not everything has to be the same - with a bit more of an open mind so much more can be enjoyed. I'm going to stick with conventions that work, but I will not include ones that don't. I want to stay true to the music and the real meanings behind it; not figures and statistics. I know this approach won't always work, and definately hasn't worked for some in the industry (see, even the word industry implies business, corporation, chain production...!) However breaking conventions sometimes does work really well. I think that if you've got a solid idea that you - as the artist - believe in, then that will come across to your audience. Obviously it needs to be realistic and not totally off-the-scale levels of weird. But there's no reason why artistic inspiration has to be blocked by the walls of convention. For example, a cartoon band:
In 1959, Ross Bagdasarian had the idea to create a 'virtual band' He recorded his own voice and sped it up, matching it with cartoon images to create 'Alvin & The Chipmmunks'. In 2000, 'Gorillaz' did the same thing, and have maintained their cartoon image in all of their branding. Although Gorillaz weren't the first to do this, they definately brought the concept into the spotlight. Alongside their albums and videos etc they have created a whole virtual world on their website for themselves and their fans - including short films featuring their animated characters. They won the argument of money as well, selling merchandise including figures of their characters.
This is what Jamie Hewlett of Gorillaz said about their formation: "If you watch MTV for too long, it's a bit like hell – there's nothing of substance there. So we got this idea for a cartoon band, something that would be a comment on that." That's what I admire about them - they created a fan base around themselves. They set out determined with their vision in mind, not to just fit in, and I respect them for it; it's great that they believed enough in themselves to get out there and do it their way.
Here's one of their videos:
This is what I want to do with mine. I can't do anything too out-there, as I don't have access to all the equipment, money etc, I would need to do some of the things I'd like. So I decided on a set style throughout my video. When I first listened to 'Vince The Loveable Stoner' I pictured lots of crazy dancing.
Despite my need to stay true to the music and the creative inspiration it gives me, I've got to remember not to forget the commercial aspects necessary to advertise the band. Without financial success it makes progressing difficult, so I'll have to make realistic desicions including a mix of generic signifiers so it will sell to an audience. However I won't falsely portray them or the music in favour of commercialism.
No comments:
Post a Comment