In Richard Dyers star theory he identified some common values of music stardom bring youthfulness, sexual magnetism, success against all odds, etc. He also states that star image is based upon two paradoxes. Firstly the star must be ordinary and extraordinary for the consumer at the same time. For example this could be travelling around the world, staying in top hotels but then the star also eating the same fast foods as a “normal person”. Secondly the star must be simultaneously present and absent from the consumer. This means always seeing them on the TV, having posters in the room but them not being physically there. All of these points were very important in the creation of our band for the music video, digipack and website.
Firstly we wanted to have a brand image similar to the Black
Eyed Peas. This meant a group with a strong lead. We chose the lead in our band
to be a strong female similar to Fergie in the Black Eyed Peas. We thought that
in our music video our female lead was extremely relatable to Fergie because
she had a more glamorous side which Fergie has in some of her music videos, as
well as a very chilled-layed back style just wearing jeans and a T-shirt that
made her seem more relatable to her audience which we had also as a common
element in our music video when the group was doing the auditions. Having a
variety of looks was a very important aspect of our music video but we thought
that the main thing that our lead female artist had to have was sexual
magnetism. Similar female pop artists like Britney Spears also use their
sexuality in order to have a larger audience because this will encourage women
to be like her hence they buy her music, go to her concert and buy her
products. She is able to achieve this sex appeal through the certain clothes
that she wears and the use of her make up. In our music video our female lead wore
tight-fitting short dresses and make-up that made her eyes look bigger and lips
look fuller in order to try and give her the sexual appeal that we wanted
similar to many other stars in order to attract the male gaze.
Our rapper star image was important because through him we
wanted to portray the glamour of the bands lifestyle. In order to do this when
you see him in the music video majority of the time he is surrounded by girls.
When doing the initial research for the music video we looked at rapper 50 Cent
and how he uses his entourage of beautiful girls to prove the power he has
through wealth and fame. Therefore in our video we used the idea of two models
trying to get his attention to demonstrate his power and fame.
Commonly most DJ’s tend to remain faceless in music videos
but in ours because we wanted to have a band image it was important that the DJ
was shown to be apart of the group. We wanted to show that his music was
popular and mainstream especially in the club/house music scene therefore in
the party scene we wanted to have him DJ’ing with all the people around him to
show that his music was popular and enjoyable. Avicii is similar to our DJ in
the sense that he doesn’t remain faceless and when he performs with other artist’s
majority of the time he is also in one of the music videos. Majority of his
music videos are filmed with him playing at festivals showing hundreds of
people enjoying his music. This is somewhat what we wanted to achieve through
our music video but it was done to a much smaller scale.
Since the digi-pack was supposed to be the first album for
the band we wanted it to demonstrate what the image of the band was like as
well as try and market the debuting song “ A Little Party Never Killed Nobody”.
Therefore our idea for the front cover of the digipack was to have all the
common hangover cures and on the back cover have them all drunk trying connote
the idea that someone had just gone to a party, had a wild night and the next
morning they are left with a hangover, trying common cures to get over it.
Being the first album however we wanted the band to try and get a mass audience
as quickly as possible therefore knowing who the band members were and what
they looked like was very important. Therefore on the first side of the inner
digi-pack we put a collage of pictures of the band. Many popular pop groups and
artists have a picture of themselves somewhere on the album and in order to
make ours as professional as possible we also did this. We found that bands such as The Rolling
Stones and Red Hot Chili Peppers had really recognizable logos. Our idea was that in order for our band to be
successful mainstream it was important for them to have their own logo, where
if there music wasn’t being played or there faces wern’t printed somewhere
people would still be able to recognize the band by. Therefore on the inside of
the digi-pack where the CD gets placed underneath we thought that this would be
the perfect place for our logo.
Our band has very mainstream music that means that they are
very modern and it was important that our site reflected this. In Dyers theory
he mentions that stars should be present and non-present in their audiences
lives. I think that we have achieved through the website where if the audience
wants to know more about the artists they can on the website. Also merchandise
of the band can be purchased on the site similar to many other pop artists
where they sell posters, iPhone cases, bags and T-Shirts to the fans. We also made sure to put up a touring section
of the band so that their audience could see when they are going to preform in
order to go and see them live. Our site was designed for a band with a cult
following. The type of fans like One Direction where they tried to have as much
band merchandise and information about the stars as possible.
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