Adrianna A2 Media blog

Our product, a music campaign for a band, consisted of an all-female pop-rock group called “the Michelles”. This band was represented singularly from a female perspective, criticizing the stereotypical nature in which girl groups are classically presented, and therefore subverting the audience’s expectations of a “girl-band”. “The determining male gaze projects its phantasy onto the female form which is styled accordingly… Women are simultaneously looked at and displayed, with their appearance coded for strong visual and erotic impact so that they can be said to connote to-be-looked-at-ness.”-Laura Mulvey. Mulvey coined the term “the male gaze” in her book Visual and Other Pleasures. Our product actively contradicts the theory of the male gaze, by identifying rather than objectifying the women we portrayed. This was, in part, due to our target audience, which was young women. There is an intentional lack of “body shots” that is common in female music artists’ products. This creates a focus on the characters and performance within the video rather than the objectification of these women, so it does not conform to this theory.

In the music video “Dollhouse”, the song itself is about breaking the mold and rejecting classic gender roles. One of the lyrics riffs on the song “Barbie Girl”: I’m not your perfect Barbie girl, in your perfect Barbie world.

To reflect this tone, the band is seen literally breaking down the “perfect world” created around them. As they do so, they are free to become their true selves. Rather than objectify the women, the band is seen literally ripping objects apart, and simultaneously breaking down the stereotypical setting they are placed in. In the beginning, the band remains performative but unexpressive. As they begin to break the mold, they become more animated and engaging. Their costumes are now torn and pinned in order to better fit their style. They accessorize with combat boots, fishnet tights, and leather; transitioning into the pop-rock look of their genre. This would play into the ideology and branding which the products communicates; empowerment within femininity.

There is also an appeal to the teenage or young adult social group. This video speaks of teenage rebellion and self-expression, communicated clearly by the messages in the graffiti on the wall: gender symbols and messages empowering to women, “Girls Rock!” and “Riot”. The pace of the destructive shots is quick, reflecting the youthful energy of the band.

This motif continues through the design of the digipack, using similar imagery that similar artists use, with vandalism, dark themes, and a continuation of the color scheme. For instance, in the final set, the band changes into their own styles. In order to accurately represent this age group the social media we used, Instagram and Twitter, was accessible to young adults. In our posts, we used photos and videos of our band using the same dark color scheme and the captions used colloquial language. Their nature and behavior appeals to a teenage audience: the video covers issues of rebellion and non-conformity which are associated with this age group.

Q2:

Across our campaign, we created a star image that could be sold to our young female audience by appealing to their psychographic. Rather than create a realistic band, we presented our band and its dynamics as a “commodity” in order to create a cohesive brand, According to Richard Dyer’s star theory. We presented our "star (as) constructed images, represented across a range of media and mediums." by using a recognizable band font, a consistent color scheme, and a clear style. Each of our elements followed the same color scheme, using color symbolism. By mixing black and pink, immediately connotes a sense of both femininity and edge which represents our core ideology of empowerment within femininity, it also follows the expected conventions of our genre, which appeals to our target audience. In the digipak, the color scheme is pretty much polarised within the same four colors, black, white, and pink. This is seen particularly in the digipack design, on the front and back panels, where the images are edited to represent only these three colors. The music video follows this same aesthetic, through both the set and costume. The setting is made up mainly of pink walls, a pink bed, but black instruments. Each band member is dressed in pink and black with very little variation, not only creating a continuous image but also solidifying them as one cohesive band.

The font used is handwritten and bold, creating a sense of vandalistic style that plays into their rebellious nature. This motif is harmonious with their social media posts when advertising shows, merchandise, and releases, the fonts and colors remain consistent in order to ensure a sense of continuation. This is shown literally in the music video, where the band is seen graffitiing the name of their album “riot” onto the back wall. This ensures that the vandalistic motif continues throughout all three products.

In order to create a brandable product, we fabricated a dynamic between the band which we could advertise to our audience. Particularly by establishing a hierarchy within the band, highlighting our lead singer. It also allows our audience to have a sense of personalization, by having a “favorite”, or feeling a sense of dynamic. Simultaneously, it allows the band to be a “untouchable” product. This is in following with Dyer’s star theory “A star must be both extraordinary but ordinary” We did this by ensuring that she had the most screen time in the music video, two panels of the digipack on her own, and she was the focalizer in many of the social media posts.

All these motifs, fonts, colors, and stylistic choices create a sense of style which is depicted mainly through the mise-en-scene of our front cover. This creates a tone of teenage rebellion and breaking the norm which is typically associated with the pop-rock genre. We would attract our target audience by appealing to the conventions of the genre.

In order to understand our audience, we created an audience profile. This helps us market, address, and appeal to a specific group of people, which is likely to make our upcoming band successful. Our primary audience, specifically young adults, would be mostly female. The ideology and motifs which our band uses are classically aimed at this demographic. We were also aware we had to appeal to the parents of those young girls who would be financing the merchandise sales tour tickets and album downloads. Therefore, we assured nothing our band did or said was too taboo, yet remained true to the pop-rock genre. According to the uses and gratification theory by McQuail Blumer and Brown, there are four main groups of uses and gratifications: diversion, personal relationships, personal identity, and surveillance. The first group we use is diversion. We provide our target audience with an escape from their reality through our band. On our digipack, we placed our band on the front cover. This sells the image and brand to our audience immediately. All the members are looking directly out, towards the audience, therefore making a personal connection, because they are looking at you.
Through the music video, they provide a glamorized version of rebellion. They are seen ripping and destroying a set with no repercussions. They perform all these actions in perfect make-up coordinating outfits, with edited color and sound which make the band look picture perfect.

This is a fabricated image we can sell to our audience despite the actual circumstances being completely unrealistic. Additionally, we also use the Personal Relationships group, by making our audience believe they experience some form of social interaction with the band. This meant we made them relatable, humanizing our band through social media and music videos. We used posts that create a personal relationship, by speaking directly to the audience in our captions, introducing each band member with a single post, and letting our audience feel as if they could befriend our artists, that they are “just like them”. We used personalized modes of address, often referring to the band’s fans as “Shellys!”, this makes the audience feel as if they are a part of something. We address them informally, (See Figure)

which makes the followers feel as if it is directed more personally to them as if they are closer than they actually are to the band. The final scene of our music video is the set-up of a mock concert, which allows our target demographic to feel as if they are sitting in the front row at a concert, or getting a private viewing of the show. This provides a sense of intimacy, which the lead, Lottie, uses when she addresses the camera constantly, and we use close-ups of the playing and talent of the girls so the fans can really see things “up close” and make it more personally impactful to young teen girls.

As a new band, it was important that we followed conventions because this meant we could accurately estimate the expectations of the audience. When starting this project, we looked into several different music artists, some from the same genre, some with the same target demographic. When deciding on the pop-rock genre, we researched artists like Kelly Clarkson, Avril Lavigne, The Runaways, Gwen Stefani, and No Doubt. From this, we were able to establish some key conventions, a sense of edge and nuance, a nonchalant attitude, and staple colors like black. They all had heavy make-up with dark clothing and classically “edgy” accessories which played into the conventions of the genre and our audience’s expectations. As a new artist, we followed these conventions by dressing our band in the same color scheme. We used these same colors in the lighting of our music video, and the black and white filter over our digipack. When researching the social media timelines of these artists, we use similar language and address our audience similarly (See Figure). We also re-tweeted the tweets from artists in our same demographic in order to create a sense of synchronicity which would set us up as a similar band. We did however subvert classic conventions of the genre in order to better fit our brand.

We avoided extreme vulgarity and rebel behavior, as the audience we appealed to was younger than No Doubt or Avril Lavinge and therefore we remained more parent-friendly than our similar artists. This included the objectification and sexualization of our band members in order to appeal to a male or older audience. There was a sexualization of each artist we researched, however, it fit our brand better to find empowerment in femininity rather than sexuality due to the younger demographic.

When researching similar artists, we couldn’t find another modern female band within our genre. We researched the Runaways, but their most popular song, “Cherry Bomb”, was released in 1976, five decades ago. By creating an all-female band we provided something new in an oversaturated market, which is dominated by solo artists and pop stars. We also ensured that they each had a different look, so there was a diverse and nuanced look which hadn’t been seen before/ In doing this, we avoided the girl-band cliche, where they all look the same, bands like Atomic Kitten and The Bangles. Today, it is very uncommon to find an all-female band in pop-rock. Which meant we could target a whole new generation of young girls as our audience.