A brand of a band

Throughout my short music career (about 7 years if you include me writing songs and recording artists through a $20 4-track, and $20 radio shack microphone), I had many artists that were a favorite because of their “off camera” lifestyle. They had a brand, an image that has been latched onto them that surpassed their music and sometimes surpassed real life. Their image made them seem larger than life, and it made fans spend money to go see their “god comparative” performances. Where did all that go wrong? It seems now because of the internet, we as fans of music know some things about these artists that they probably forgot. It became so easily accessible that no more were their fanatic fans since we all became one. Being a fanatic takes a lot of work and that “god comparative” performances became just something we can see on youtube now.

Right now there is no god figure because a god would last longer than a year or two. We saw the god in Michael Jackson try to break out and look what happened to him to keep up his “appearance”. What happened to the large marketing teams? What happened to the people that made gods out of musicians? To break a god costs money that not many people have any more with very little return. We turned to demi-gods of niche’s, or the long tale. I finally got to read this book by Chris Anderson and I’m learning that in today’s world there almost can’t be that “hit” no more. We broke genre’s up to the hundreds and now they are breaking into their own thing. Underground rap is not underground anymore if billions have a chance to listen. Same thing with punk rock! You are fighting the “man” yet you are on Robert Murdoch’s myspace.

-Look at the Beetles in their day. They were compared to a religion. They had people who murdered to go to the shows, and had fans that would camp out just to see it.

- Look at Lil Wayne now. He is huge, people want him on their album, and he is willing to put his name out there. Will his fame fade? All depends if he ever decides to quit.

discography

-The Jonas Brothers is now a branding icon. Connecting with Hannah Montanna and DIsney channel has been a merchandisers dream.

Jone Bro’s merch

-Battling the merch and brand even has its branding. One of my personal favorite artists, Immortal Technique is a good example of fighting the mainstream with good results. His music is politically motivated, as well as connecting with millions of americans on day to day issues that they deal with.

Immortal Technique’s 3rd world album

A brand is an image that artists either keep or fall (Name another Sir Mix A lot song other than Baby got Back). People say artists sell out when they break their brand of before mainstream, so starting with a brand is key for any artist or band. A brand of a band is like something you live with. Their are a few exceptions, but that is very few. If there was an emergence of marketing of the brands of bands than I think their is salvage in this industry. Instead of hits we have niche’s and demi-hits, and its about finding your own and making it big there. Specific Branding.

From the mind of

Keveeno Reeverts

The resurrection of boy bands (insert scary/ cool looking font)

I am a little late on reporting this, but I still will report on the resurgence of this brand new idea of boy bands. Websters definition with the Keveeno explanation of a boy band is; a band acumalitive of mainly boys with the subtraction of a female presence meaning that possible there is a female presence within one of the boys soul, hence the Lance rumors. Boy bands usually are used as marketing around a female pop sensation, as with Britney and N’Sync/ Backstreet Boys. Today though has gone younger to try and ressurect record sales with this Hannah Montana and The Jonas Brothers. So pump up the vocal enhancers, hide the wardrobe malfunctions, this is the ressurection of The Boy Bands

Without looking up the statistics, I’m pretty sure with the hype the Jonas Bro’s are getting, they sell out shows more often then sell out their records. This all shows a striking resemblence to when I was in Middle/ High school and N’Sync was huge. The girls at my school though was more into Usher/ B2K and more of the RnB pop sensations, but there were a few that caught on with this boy band craze. Well, as does these political debates right now, it gets old. There was a break where they pushed artists who just were not ready as there was a steady decline in music sales accross the board. I guess there was a breaking point where they need something… anything. They found it in The Jones Bro’s.

Success in todays market is strongly pointing toward a more live performance rather than cd driven. When will the statistics of billboard top 200 become irrelevant and selling out shows become more of what defines success today?

From the mind of

Keveeno Reeverts