In the music industry many stereotypes are employed, for example, the rock genre’s connections with sex, drugs and wild antics. In pop many younger people are listening so this nature of labels is not really used, a good example of labels in pop are the girl band ‘The Spice Girls’, they founded the term ‘Girl Power’ and each had their own nicknames. There was ‘Sporty Spice’, ‘Scary Spice’, ‘Posh Spice’, ‘Baby Spice’ and ‘Ginger Spice’. Many pop stars are seen as sex symbols, for example, Rachel Stevens, a former ‘S-Club 7’ member had many sexual stereotypes aimed towards her, in her pop video she was seen writing around in her underwear, having ribbons twisted around her by other semi-clad women. Being classed as ‘Britain’s Sexiest Woman’ by men’s magazine ‘FHM’ sexualised her image, because of her past success and her title too the single went straight to number one. However, these stereotypes can change, after ‘The Spice Girls’, Emma Bunton (‘Baby Spice’) went n to launch her solo career, nobody could call her ‘Baby’ for much longer, gone were the pigtails and the pastel dresses, the had totally sexed up her image and had appeared to grow up. Now the label ‘Baby Spice’ is rarely used, everybody knows her as Emma.
The music Industry is very structured; talent scouts from top record companies go out to search for new talent at places such as school performances and talent shows, they also search through demo tapes from wannabe pop stars. If the person is signed then they get a lump sum of money from the record company, the value can vary, depending on which record company it is, this money is usually spent on improving your image and buying new equipment etc. Of course nothing comes for free, and this money must be paid back to the record company eventually through record sales and royalties, this means that most artists don’t usually make any money until the third album so they churn them out in quick succession, normally the artist is signed to a three album deal so the record company can at least get what they put into it back out. To produce a song artists come into the studio, most pop artists do not write their own songs so the record company picks one suitable for them out. They sing along to a backing track which has been made by a record producer, a record producer is the person who works at the studio behind the mixing desk; they can do a lot of things to help develop the single into a hit such as improving the quality of the artist’s voice. After they have produced their single the artist and the record are advertised. This can include being in pop magazines such as ‘Smash Hits’, billboard ads, performances on radio shows and leafleting. All these things bring awareness to a potential audience of what this new artist offers and by constant appearances in the media spotlight they are reminded of the release date of the single and the artist, thus improving the chances of them buying the single.
Some artists are completely commercialised from the start, shows such as ‘Popstars: The Rivals’, ‘Fame Academy’ and ‘Pop Idol’ create artists completely of the audience’s choice. Whoever they choose receives a lucrative deal from a top record company like ’19 management’ coincidently the record company of ‘Pop Idol’ founder, Simon Fuller. Because of the hype of the show and the manufactured band that is produced, whatever they release is instantly a hit. Many people feel that these shows are wrong and that the novelties of these stars wear off after the first single. In some cases this can be deemed as true but others have broken the boundaries, Will Young, winner of the first ‘Pop Idol’, has had two No1 albums and many hits in the single charts.
Pop videos also play a large part in the profits of record companies, pop videos themselves cost money to make which is covered first by the record company and then with royalties from the channels wanting to show them, in most cases these promotional videos increase sales and help the record company get their money back and the artist make a profit. Sometimes, if the videos cost too much to make the artist has to fund them from their own money. They promote the single and the artist; the videos are seen as a form of entertainment which audiences will like to watch. For example the video to ‘Thriller’ by Michael Jackson was like a short movie, because of the watershed it was shown very late, people stayed up to watch it and the single is still the biggest selling record of all time. The connection between record sales and viewing of music videos is there.
The audiences of Pop Music are very important as they are the ones buying the records. Record companies advertise to their target audience through media which they would pay attention to, you wouldn’t advertise ‘The Cheeky Girls’’ new album in ‘Kerrang!’ Pop artists are constantly hyped up as being ‘the next best thing’ and the best thing since another artist, if the artist they are being compared to is a favourite of a person, they are more likely to go out and buy that single. Also the age of the record buying public is going down, this means that record companies can influence peoples listening tastes from a younger age ad get them into buying records. The appeal of some bands compared to others depends on what is in fashion at that moment, sales of JLo singles would have gone up at the time when she and Ben Affleck split up. Another thing which influences audiences is what is played most on radio stations, big record companies will pay radio stations to put the song of their artist on a the A-play list.
In all I agree with this statement, the music industry, but not as much from independent record labels, is very profit driven. Producers are looking to make a fast buck and constant promotion of the artists seems to be the way it is done. The way that the money must be paid back to a record company also seems to be very money-fuelled, even if the star is no longer popular, the little bit of money they get from royalties etc still has to be paid to the record company, even if they are not signed.