Studying Pop Stars

Looking at the 100 greatest singers of all time list you can clearly see a lot of them have deceased but still their music continues to sell.
For instance the members of the '27 club' who are known for living fast and dying young have continued to have long lasting careers, way more successful than alive artists who were once popular and now are forgotten about! They music has been adopted by successive generations of fans and their whole persona.
Most pop music is short lived and quickly forgotten about, loosing all meaning overtime; it constantly evolves and changes quickly, however the type of singers seem to stay the same. There are certain qualities that make artists successful, such as youthfulness, rebellion, sexual magnetism, creativity, originality, etc.
However there is a clear pattern among these stars, the longer they remain successful, the more difficult it is to continue this standard, as eventually their originality burns out and fans loose interest. Living fast erodes these stars away and it is very difficult to quit while ahead to maintain the high successful standard, however most dont quit and eventually music moves on and forgets you.
This might be why artists who have died young have been so successful, as they don't become old and unattractive, keeping their musical talent still intact. This also gives an appealing story to fans, with a beginning, middle and an end.

Jamal Edwards - SBTV

After reading the biog of Jamal Edwards from The Guardian article I realised that the growth of technology and the internet's audience has made it possible for normal people to make a name for themselves.
Edwards expresses how he's a rebel and will film absolutely anywhere, with no permits; making his work a guerrilla operation. He started his YouTube channel in 2007 when he was just 16, wanting to expand grime and hip hop music, making it more accessible on the internet, as you cant really find grime on mainstream TV. This has shown that all you need is a camera and some drive and you can make a very successful business, I will take this into account when creating our artist, making sure to publicise on YouTube.
His business went from filming London rappers free styling on the street or in a car to filming Ellie Goulding, Nicki Minaj and Bruno Mars. He has just signed a deal with Sony RCA to create his own imprint within the label. Now with 50,000 subscribers and 39 million views on his channel, he is taken very seriously, and people admire his success and drive in this industry; even drawing the attention on Simon Cowell and Richard Branson!

Why Piracy is Perpetuating Plastic Pop

Reading this article by Helienne Lindvall I realised piracy is a key issue in the music industry, and is something we need to take into account when constructing our product next year.
The new dilemma of fans unwillingness to pay for music has destroyed creating a "rock'n'roll revolution" and has instead produced a continuous stream of assembly-line artists.

Lars Ulrich and his band Metallica sued the illegal music sharer Napster after discovering the vast amount of free downloads of their music. They experienced a massive public backlash for suing and lost a lot of fans and respect! However a few years later Ulrich seems to have 'come to terms' with downloading free music and describes it as 'awesome' as fans explain this is the only way they could find and discover bands they like.




Ever since this event artists have been scared to speak out about their objection to free downloading in fear of public abuse. However Lily Allen was prepared to, and gave a dig at older artists who had been very successful, saying it was easy for them to make money from the music industry. She argued that for young artists like her, would never get a chance to make a living out of music. After this attack, she was bombarded this hate from the public, even some death threats, forcing her to remove her website!



There has been a lot of concern for the future of young musicians from artists who thrived before the digital age of free downloading. If young musicians do not fit the stereotypical pop-star formulae that is the X-Factor mould, they will struggle to succeed in this harsh industry.
Massive Attack who have been active since 1987 expressed to the BBC how frightening it was to actually see the vast amount of downloads on unlicensed sites; most being 25,000 per site! They believe that that could destroy their whole profit and living, and in the future it will only get worse; eventually cheapening music.




Even Noel Gallagher expresses his frustration with the consumer who demands for their free music on the internet to download. He explains it cost him a quarter of a million pounds to make it, out of his own pocket as he's on his own record label. He believes this is why tours are becoming so long, artists are forced to drag it out even more just to gain profit as records get more expensive to make and less people buy them, his tour being a year and four months!

Billy Corgan from Smashing Pumpkins believes that due to technology now offering the choice of people not paying for music, the music culture has been turned into a service culture. Artists are no longer appreciated as much and, he believes now they are forced to beg for attention and plead for their fans to buy their album. However Corgan stresses that it is not even the price that puts fan's off buying their music, the general person no longer believes in making that purchase, no matter the price. The type of artists have also changed into being ready made manufactured, commercial bands; Corgan believing that if he was to be manufactured they would chose someone else with straight teeth, better attitude and palatable music to a wider audience.


Taking all of this into account I believe we need to be very cautious when creating our product; being our artist, song and style of music video. I think the type of artist we will create will appeal to a wide variety of fans; not just being mainstream pop, but also other genres. I think they will still be suseptable to their music being illegally downloaded as this is now the case with almost all artists. I think the only way people are attracted to paying for music, is when they enjoy the whole album and will feel more inclined to invest in the whole package of songs. Therefore I will try to create an artist who is not just a one hit wonder, but will have a good selection of songs in an album that people are more attracted to buy.