Research: Branding and the music industry.

In the music industry, artists in different genres all have unique branding images. In the pop industry, the range from scantily clad 'sexy' images to bright, colourful and youthful. For example:

Avril Lavigne.

Even though her music genre is pop, her image is completely different from that of someone like Rihanna whose image focuses more of sex appeal. Avril's image has consistently been punky/emo, this is often portrayed in her choice of album covers.  As shown below:

All of these images convey the same style of clothing, which reflects her style of music. All of the above are somewhat dark and gothic, but her latest album cover 'the best damn thing' shows more colour and style, presenting that her image has slightly progressed from a dark, morbid punk rocker into a rather quirky punk rock, colourful style. This style is shown in her choice of mise-en-scene. The lighting is either really dark low key or really bright high key lighting, avoiding anything natural, somewhat like her image, as she isn't trying to portray the natural hippie image like some artists are. But her punk pop genre has a vast audience and fan base who all have the same style as her, therefore having a similar image helps them associate with their artist. This punk brand image is also reflected in the blacks, whites and pinks which connote girlyness mixed with darkness and light, all in one. The skull and cross bones also connote her punk image as they are often associated with death. Unlike most pop artists, she doesn't gain a fan base through being scantily clad, unlike Katy Perry, whose image is based around sex appeal...


Katy Perry:


Katy Perry's image consists of sex appeal as well as being eccentric and colourful, this is always shown in her choice of outfits and album covers...

Both of the pictures show her in limited amounts of clothing, representing that her image is supposed to be 'sexy'. The 'Teenage Dream' album cover vividly presents this image by showing her half naked led in a provocative position. However, she is also led on a bed of candy floss, showing the fun, colorful and youthful side to her artist representation. This is also conveyed in the choice of lighting, both album covers are bright high key lighting, unlike Avril's that is mostly low key dark lighting. The album cover for 'One for the Boys' is similar, the use of high key lighting and colourful props and costume all represent her bright image. But again, she is posing provocatively, reminding the audience that her primary image is sex appeal. The color pink that she is often shot with also connotes girls, who her main target audience is. Her videos are always narrative based story videos, which also help strive towards her fun brand image. The font on Teenage Dream is also in candy cane colours, representing fun and youth. 


Emma.