Monday, February 17, 2014

READY TO TAKE THE ARTIST IDENTITY CHALLENGE?



       WHO ARE YOU? or rather....WHO DO YOU WANT US TO THINK YOU ARE?
Used to be the labels decided who you were going to be in terms of public perception and the branding of an artist. These days the artists and their team are responsible for creating and expressing their own brand identity...and communicating it to their target audience in creative ways!

 When we are looking to solve basic issues of brand identity it's a good idea to see how other successful brands have been built,(usually song by song, video by video, tour by tour etc.)
I would suggest this homework assignement to help you move towards more clarity in this area.

First think of who has been a breakthrough artist in your style of music in the past few years. Someone who has done a good job of marketing their brand..Some obvious examples would be Katy Perry's Teenage Dream in Pop or Kasey Musgraves "Same Trailer, Different Park" in County.

                                                                       

Your Homework assignment (should you wish to take the challenge!!) is to analyze your chosen artists hit album track by track answering each of these questions below.. by the time you are done you should have a much better sense of how the brand identity has been achieved and helped established the artist in their market.

Ready? Lets GO!!!!!

1)What is this song about? Subject matter?

2)What are the details in the lyric that bring the listener into the artists world and make us feel like she's somebody that we know and care about?

3)How does the production arrangement details help the song express the subject matter?

4)Who is the target audience for this song (race, age, interests,style of music etc)

5)How does this song build the "story" of who the artist is as a person and what they stand for?  What new aspect of their personality does this song express?

6) Did the "look" of the artist change over the course of the album marketing?
If so, how did each new look add to the communication of the artists brand?


For those who wish to explore these issues in a more in depth way, I am coaching a Career Strategy Workshop Sunday Feb 23rd in Toronto where we will be looking at the bigger issues involved in identifying YOUR brand and helping you figure out the first steps of communicating that brand in the market place. Contact me at micah@singersplayground.com

VOICE TECHNIQUE WORKSHOP, PERFORMANCE WORKSHOP AND CAREER STRATEGY WORKSHOP with MICAH BARNES  at WINTER PLAYGROUND 2014
INFO AND REGISTRATION HERE: SINGERS PLAYGROUND