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This introductory text is an attempt to describe artists and their identification within a certain role in music industry. This text is a setting of description and opinions with no intent of pointing out at a negative critique of certain industry practices; it is only a “portrait” to understand how things are unfolding the way that they are. The social role of authorship and stardom it can, in a sense, be extended in other media spheres as they search to identify ourself and take part of a certain dualism related to the way we may approach our standard way of living. Is not bad or good either, is only the way how we are and respond to them: We reflect this through our cultural background. Enjoy! and thank you for reading.
This introductory text is an attempt to describe artists and their identification within a certain role in music industry. This text is a setting of description and opinions with no intent of pointing out at a negative critique of certain industry practices; it is only a “portrait” to understand how things are unfolding the way that they are. The social role of authorship and stardom it can, in a sense, be extended in other media spheres as they search to identify ourself and take part of a certain dualism related to the way we may approach our standard way of living. Is not bad or good either, is only the way how we are and respond to them: We reflect this through our cultural background. Enjoy! and thank you for reading.
This introductory text is an attempt to describe artists and their identification within a certain role in music industry. This text is a setting of description and opinions with no intent of pointing out at a negative critique of certain industry practices; it is only a “portrait” to understand how things are unfolding the way that they are. The social role of authorship and stardom it can, in a sense, be extended in other media spheres as they search to identify ourself and take part of a certain dualism related to the way we may approach our standard way of living. Is not bad or good either, is only the way how we are and respond to them: We reflect this through our cultural background. Enjoy! and thank you for reading.
between Stars and Auteurs in Pop industry and how both are related to branding and marketing
Osvaldo Glieca
2
Popular music can be interpreted to have two different meanings: It can simply refer to appeal to people in small communities associated with local musical artists, and it can be related to large scale productions, directed not only for ordinary people or the working class locally identified with their own cultures and costumes - as the term popular may suggest - but for the global market attracting a possible greater number of people with no considerations of their cultural, local, and social circumstances. Obviously, the latter moves toward high regards of the sales figures often reducing musical productions to the mere 3 status of a well packaged object to be sold and bought in the marketplace. Shortly before the Second World War, the philosopher Theodor Adorno a scrupulous, but attentive observer of these changes, coined the term of cultural industries. Adorno argued that the capitalistic system provides people with products that are the opposite of the true art forms, essentially keeping them passively satisfied and politically uninterested. That is, the culture industries create superfluous needs, needs which can be both created and satisfied by the capitalist system, and which replace the people's true needs such as freedom, full expression of human potentiality, and genuine creative happiness. Adornos theories were, at the time, judged as inconclusive, but if we look back at the music from the past of twenty five years or so, I feel that his ideas were quite prophetic, and whereas they were once regarded with skepticism, now warrant serious reconsideration. Another aspect of particular interest in the study of popular music, is as a cultural form of entertainment with implications of the social nature of the consumption. In other words, the understanding of who buys these specific products. This brings us to the matter of Pop Stars, and the charismatic individuals known as Auteurs who create the music. They both work for the entertainment industries, and the popular cultural industries. Since music has been conceived to be a product for the market, the record 4 companies fragment it into different styles thus reflecting peoples individual desires, thus appealing to the audiences representing the different social textures. The Stars or Auteurs were targeting those identified and specific audiences through the musical styles and the musical textual messages. Stars and Auteurs are a complex phenomenon that relate closely to the formation of social identities in which large groups of people have strong interest and admiration. This opens the concept of making a clear division to distinguish the audiences to better recognize a Star or an Auteur. Consumers and listeners are mainly located into two different sections that approache the music markets differently. Firstly, the music for the consumers where the content of the music is minimal, and subliminal messages from the mass-media direct the attention to lifestyles and fashion trends, manipulating the potential audience to consume the music as a domestic product. Conversely, there are serious listeners of music better known as fans, generally adults, that identify themselves in the music genre, or in the Auteur which is seen as a unique representation of his own music manifested as an artistic form, with eventual political, sociological, or philosophical messages in which the listener can share intimately with the artist as the personal experiences that mirrors his own life as well. 5 Again, to understand in which category a Star or Auteur belongs, not only is it essential to classify the audience, but also the authenticity intended as the quality of the music and lyrics that make a clear distinction between forms of music seen as honest, creative or real, and those seen as a commercially standardized to achieve profit. However, since they work in an industry, in some ways it is problematic to establish whether these categories fit into the arts, or the leisure market.
Since the 1930s when gramophones were introduced to play back recorded music, record companies started to consider how music would be consumed and began working towards the conception of an industrial market. It was a time of sudden change and great progress, not only in music, but in all aspects of society, reflecting a panoramic view of the social texture. The perception of music was seen not just as a pure art form, but as a type of amusement and enjoyment typically associated with dance. Throughout the history of the recording and mechanical reproduction, there have been genres of music that produced more Stars than Auteurs, and 6 vice versa, but the theory of approaching the music market is grossly the same for both. However, by the beginning of the 1950s with the advent of Rock n Roll, an important and influential factor starting to emerge was in the matter of the visual aesthetics, and how Stars were promoted, not only making it more attractive to rebellious youth culture, but opening the market to other sectors such as the cinema, fashion, and clothing. These industries would otherwise not have been accessible to the Auters who were working with what were essentially, outdated styles such as Swing and Cow-boy melodies. As a result, Stars were required to emulate Black cultural influences, especially Boogie-Woogie, making it acceptable to a predominantly white, American and British audience, and creating what has been labelled Rock n Roll. Later, in the 1960s with the Motown Sound and girl- groups, particularly The Supremes, entertainment music was still marketed to the white, young American audiences in a blend of R&B mixed with Gospel. This music was written and produced by expert arrangers, principally Holland Dozier Holland, and Smokey Robinson, then performed by Stars to make the product more visibly accessible. These developments laid the foundations that began to differentiate a Star and an Auteur. Stars, independently from the style of music they perform, needed to have particular talents, appealing to people because of their fascinating personality or their appearance, and representing 7 for the people a form of escapism from everyday life; Disco music from the mid 1970s symbolizes this quite clearly. This genre of music was a simplified version of the Funk genre, but without the syncopations, and had a strong pulsation based on a straight eighth-notes feel. The style was a pure dance form with a related dress code incorporating stiletto heels, miniskirts, and backless dresses for woman, and tight trousers, unbuttoned shirts, revealing the macho attitudes of the men. Other extra musical elements, such as narcissistic extravaganza and glittery opulence, all added to the hedonistic intoxication of the Disco mania. At the disco, the participants of the dance ritual became the real Stars, where everyone took part in dressing-up and it was this that made you feel important. The beginning of the 1980s saw the emergence of female emancipation; Pop Stars such as Madonna above all the others, who at the beginning of her career was one of the most popular and iconoclastic teenage fashion idols, mixed self-assertion and coquetry along with the then current Disco style, winning a following of millions, especially young women, and subsequently causing much debate among their feminist elders and their conservative mores. The examples of Disco music and Madonna, as in other forms of popular culture, indicate that the Star system it is much about illusion, appealing to the desires and fantasies of the audience that being about talent and 8 creativity. Stars work in the music industry with the special role of identifying themselves through the audience in order to have a number of loyal followers. Pop Stars, then, are probably not much interested in art, but craft certain already existent musical forms to provide popular tunes, clichs, and lyrics characterized by bland sentimentalism which express commonplace feelings such love, loss, and jealousy. The pop singers ability to appeal us lies in the personality they can inject into a song such that the listener can make it their song . Conversely, Auteurs distinguish themselves by relating the lyrics to notions of sensibility, personal enrichment, political and social statements. In this view, Auteurs are producers of art, extending cultural forms and thus, challenging the listener. The capacity of the Auteurs is to express fully their personal unique musical universe. Some popular music can be considered an art when it makes an aesthetic distinction from the mass culture, where the intention of an individual as a creative source is focused towards innovation and originality in the style. The difference also lies in creating a lyrical statement that induce the listeners into making their own chain of thoughts that aim to raise the moral sense through the unique vision of the artist. This tendency can be traced back to at least 1965 and the nascent career of Bob Dylan, which subsequently had a huge influence on song writing and encouraged a serious 9 attitude to Rock music. No less important was the impact of the so called British Invasion that marked the dominance of British music in the American market of that period. From here on, the distinction between Pop music and Rock started to be much more accentuated; highly creative British bands of that time crafted musical statements and performances which were viewed as works of art. Throughout this period, Rock music and their Auteurs took music more seriously than pure entertainment, partly because of the improvisation and musicianship involved, and the virtuosity required, especially in guitar playing. Nonetheless, the Vietnam war, the fight for Black civil rights in USA, and the Students cultural revolution in Western Europe, brought about a self consciousness which was reflected in the Rock music in which they identified, and was seen as a diversification from the conservative world that they sought to change. Popular music nowadays has become a huge area that is continually evolving and embraces many different creative aspects of musical production; the work of the Stars within the music industry, is driven by the production team who consequently appear as they strategically promote the artist. The music industry not only embraces the aspects of the mechanical reproduction of music and the collection of royalties, but many associated markets of prime musical importance, such as the music press, TV, merchandise, musical instruments and sound reproduction as well. 10 The Auteurs, on the other hand, tend to be in charge of the music, self-promote themselves and often, they are the leaders in charge of the entire production. Auteurs typically have a comprehensive understanding of the structural elements of their medium. They have a solid grasp of songwriting, musicology, and studio mixing techniques, beyond just merely being able to sing or play an instrument. Subsequently, they are the people responsible for the creation of distinctive and recognizable styles. Many people may work together to form this vision, like session musicians or mixing engineers, but one person, the producer, serves as the driving force in behind all the activities. This is may be evidenced by a consistent selection of various stylistic elements all crafted to present the message as the Auteur wants it to be expressed. Some serious music producers in the business are considered real artists too, and their influence to the Auteurs in following specific directions, can be useful for determining the achievement of brilliant results, not only for revenues. In this respect, producers such as Phil Spector, George Martin, Giorgio Moroder, and Rick Rubin (just to mention a very few famous ones), became important and active participants of the music along with the actual performer. At this stage it is necessary to state a common point between Auteurs and Stars, in that they are both working within an industrial system. They are both responsible for 11 their final recorded product, and since all musical texts are social products, Auteurs and Stars working in popular genres are under constant pressure to provide their audiences with more of the music which attracted that same audience in the first place. This raises the question of whether an artist is responsible for a market in which many other individuals gain profit as well. Obviously, this is a long debate; the concept of art versus business (as well as marketing and culture) takes place in all music sold - since it is a result of the same process. At this point it becomes complicated to decide who is the real artist. Generally, this theory applies to both Auteurs and Stars in all the musical styles and genres. For example, David Bowie was responsible for both the auteurship and his own stardom, reinventing himself throughout his entire career and placing himself between the worlds of art and fashion. He was the first musician to appreciate the importance of the artists as brand, and he understood that brand identity and brand loyalty did not necessarily equate to musical consistency. This explains why changes in musical direction can loose established audiences, even though it may have been the intention to create a new one. Nevertheless, as I mentioned above, nowadays there is a big difference between Stars and Auteurs and how they promote themselves. The Stars commercial success lies beyond the music, in the direction of visual aesthetics, 12 fashion and branding as well. This influence is obvious when we consider the pop phenomena of the Spice Girls, who combined an old fashioned form of amusement, the girl group, with the most sophisticated and controlled approach to the marketing. On the other hand, an auteur like Tom Waits instead, has released several albums only after a live tour in small venues for loyal fans. In my opinion, nowadays music is all the same; Rock has lost its spirit and rebellious approach, while pop music is more lucrative and poor quality more than ever. The role of investors in the music industry has led to tensions between the creative and the production sides of the business, with the former accusing the latter of excessive concern with commercial success. We are now facing a globalized standard of identical products. As those products become increasingly similar, record companies are turning to branding as a way to create a preference for their offerings. Branding in music has been an essential factor in the success of well-known artists such as Metallica, Run DMC, Rolling Stones, REM and U2. Record companies becomes aware that branding goes far beyond building names for a set of offerings, branding is about promising that the music offered will create and deliver a certain level of performance. The promise behind the brand becomes the motivating force for all the activities of the band or artist and its production-partners. Thus, if Madonna 13 promises that the latest album is expected to embrace a hip- hop feel, while remaining a Pop/Dance record, then everyone at the production side is driven to create and deliver this level of performance. Branding determine the way that an Auteur or Star must engage to define what it wants to be excellent at, and how his product differ from other music competitors. A brand gives personality, and can evoke emotions, it is built considering characteristics such the creation of a logo, targeting the public and its preferences, the interests and ways by which they might be attracted, the geographical places, its particularities, culture, and population. Obviously the digital era brought all the expenses consistently at lower prices, and the Internet revolution has inexorably brought changes with legal complications in terms of new laws, new contractual issues, and new business model. To a broad sense Rock and Pop Stars, independent musicians, and even amateurs, are at the same level to promote music across the planet, and new musician seem to appear everyday.