"Branding is the process of creating a distinct identity for a business in the mind of your target audience and consumers."
Henry Jenkins: Fandom Theory
Mr. Wunker asked the class to make a poster of different Media Theories. I volunteered to do Henry Jenkins and Paul Gilroy. I used Canva to make my poster.
Cross-media branding should be used to promote the artist across multiple products as well as to allow fans to associate the products with the image, often artist groups are sold as a brand and the music video acts as a product for the brand, this allows the audience to accept the brand.
Jenkins establishes five levels of fan activity, which he stated in "Textual Poachers: Television Fan & Participatory Culture" where there are 5 levels of activities that fandom traditionally. engage in, when it comes to their favorite types of media (Books, Films, Tv Shows)
1) A particular mode of reception- fans watch with a mixture of 'emotional proximity and critical distance.
2) Particular interpretive practices- including creating 'strong parallels between their own lives and the events of the series.
3) A base for consumer activism- fans speak back to the networks and the producers.
4) Cultural production and practices- 'fandom generates its own genres and develops alternative institutions of production, distribution, exhibition, and consumption.
5) Alternative social communities- fandom offers 'not so much an escape from reality as an alternative reality.
The Weeknd Branding Case Study
"Even no branding is branding"
merch & site:https://www.theweeknd.com/
Stage Name: The Weeknd, other aliases: XO, Kin Kane, the Noise
Abel Makkonen Tesfaye (born February 16, 1990), known professionally as the Weeknd, is a Canadian singer, songwriter, and record producer. Known for his sonic versatility and dark lyricism, his music explores escapism, romance, and melancholia, and is often inspired by personal experiences. He has received numerous accolades, including four Grammy Awards, a Latin Grammy Award, 20 Billboard Music Awards, 17 Juno Awards, six American Music Awards, two MTV Video Music Awards, and nominations for an Academy Award and a Primetime Emmy Award.
Born and raised in Toronto, Tesfaye began his career in 2009 by anonymously releasing music on YouTube. Two years later, he co-founded the XO record label and released the mixtapes House of Balloons, Thursday, and Echoes of Silence, which gained recognition for his style of contemporary and alternative R&B and the mystique surrounding his identity. In 2012, he signed with Republic Records and rereleased the mixtapes in the compilation album Trilogy.
He explored dark wave in his debut studio album Kiss Land (2013), which debuted at number two on the US Billboard 200. After its release, Tesfaye began contributing to film soundtracks, with his acclaimed single "Earned It" from Fifty Shades of Grey (2015) winning the Grammy Award for Best R&B Performance, while also being nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Song. Tesfaye earned critical and commercial success with his pop-leaning second album Beauty Behind the Madness (2015), which reached number one in the US, contained the US Billboard Hot 100 chart-topping singles "Can't Feel My Face" and "The Hills", and won the Grammy Award for Best Urban Contemporary Album and was nominated for Album of the Year. His trap-infused third studio album Starboy (2016) saw similar commercial success and included the US number-one single of the same name and won the Grammy Award for Best Urban Contemporary Album.
Tesfaye explored new wave and dream pop with his critically acclaimed fourth studio album After Hours (2020), which featured the chart record-setting single "Blinding Lights" and the US number-one singles "Heartless" and "Save Your Tears". His dance-pop-inspired fifth album Dawn FM (2022) included the US top-ten single "Take My Breath", and "Sacrifice".
Among the world's best-selling music artists with over 75 million records sold, Tesfaye holds several streaming and Billboard chart records. He is the first artist to simultaneously debut on the top three Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs, while "Blinding Lights" is ranked as the greatest Hot 100 song in Billboard history. Often considered a prominent figure in contemporary popular music, Tesfaye was listed by Time as one of the world's most influential people in 2020. An advocate for racial equality and food security, he was appointed a World Food Programme Goodwill Ambassador in 2021.
The Weeknd started to get attention in 2010 after his anonymously posted songs were featured in Drakes' OVO Sound blog. Around 2011, he got featured in Drake's album "Take Care". Despite the demand for interviews, The Weeknd refrained from doing live interviews and communicated with fans exclusively through Twitter. In 2012, The Weeknd finally showed his face in his music videos for “Rolling Stone” and “Wicked Games.” This was a huge step, but his cryptic videos helped maintain a low profile. “I don’t want to sign under another artist because I feel I can be just as big or bigger.” (The Weeknd); Drake wanted him to be signed with his label but The Weeknd decided to establish his own label; "XO Records" which was a joint venture with Republic Records.
The Weeknd's aesthetics and overall artistic style make up his identity and branding. As an avid listener of his craft, I believe his style in music and the way he builds a phase every time he releases an album solidifies his image to his audience. For example, he has a continuous narrative with his album; for After Hours, he was basically telling a story in every music video he made for the album. Each music video follows a concise narrative with a majority of the videos taking place after each other.
Starting with “Heartless”, Abel and Metro Boomin arrive in Las Vegas and drown themselves in booze, gambling, and drugs.
“Blinding Lights” finds Abel coming down from the fun, cutting between him dancing on the empty streets like a bloodied madman and racing through the streets of Vegas.
The “After Hours Short Film” takes place immediately after his Jimmy Kimmel performance and follows him as he leaves the studio and walks through the streets of LA. Abel becomes progressively more paranoid, as a darker impulse creeps up on him before he’s dragged through a subway station by an unknown force (an allusion to his vices taking hold.).
(VIDEO WARNING: Really graphic and could be quite disturbing to others)
It sets the stage for the video of “In Your Eyes”, Abel has now become a stone-cold killer possessed by his dark thoughts, acting similar to Mike Myers from Halloween. He chases a woman through a club before she decapitates him and parades with his severed head before tossing it onto the street.
The story ends there, and shifts into a completely different narrative, as Abel begins to tell an even deeper story with the videos for “Too Late” and “Save Your Tears”. Picking up where “In Your Eyes” left off, “Too Late” follows two bandaged white women obsessed with plastic surgery as they stumble upon Abel’s severed head. The video explores the over-sexualization of the black body and how Hollywood elites like themselves obsess over black artists like Abel, only to use them for their own personal intentions. The duo plot to kill a black male dancer and use his body for their sexual desires. It also highlights the darkness surrounding LA, beneath the luxury houses and lifestyle lies an even darker and more violent presence.
“Save Your Tears”, the most recent video, looks at Abel’s stardom among these high-class elitists. Filmed just after his protest against the Grammys, this could be considered his way of protest to the higher class. Performing in front of an audience ripped straight out of Kubrick’s Eyes Wide Shut, Abel sports a bedazzled suit with facial prosthetics enhancing his jaw and lips, looking like a caricature of himself. Almost his way of asking: “Is this how you want me to look? is this the ridiculous-looking flawless superstar you expect me to be?” He dances around the crowd spraying champagne and spitting it in their faces, he tosses a golden trophy offscreen (further signifying his Grammys detest) before inviting a woman onstage to shoot him point-blank in the head.
OUR BRAND
Stage Name: Myriad
After a lot of thinking and brainstorming, we really couldn't think of a name for our artist. However, I kept on remembering the name I used when I got featured in a friend's song. I used Myriad because my friend kept mispronouncing my real name "Myryl". Since me and Annie still couldn't think of an artist's name, I just used the same stage name (Myriad), Myriad means countless or extremely great in number which is good for branding because we could model our artist as someone who's a believer in countless opportunities and chances in life thus Myriad as a stage name would make sense. I decided to use Myrrh as her real name as its close to Myriad, I consciously didn't want to make her stage name and "real" name far from each other, as I have observed many real artists also practice this (ex. Taylor Swift, Selena Gomez, Katy Perry, etc.)
Distribution|Marketing|Target Audience|Interaction w/ Fans
When it comes to the distribution of music, our artist will use the modern way of distribution. This includes YouTube, Apple Music, and Spotify. For our digipak, we will release it on our artist’s website as a physical product. We will offer the signed and normal versions of the digipak.
Many popular artists are signed to large record labels, for us, we decided that our artist will be signed to a small (not world-renowned) label. We named our record label “AM Productions”; this name is from our name initials [A(nnie) M(yryl) Productions]. Despite our artist being signed to a label, we still brand her as someone with her own opinions on activism and issues around the world. This gives a sense of being a human who has concern and sincerity towards other people.
YouTube is free, however, music still has copyright claims that allow the revenue made from the song to go solely to the real artist. Sevdeliza, the real artist of the song has a copyright claim and is licensed by Twisted Elegance. We’re still able to her song “Marilyn Monroe” under Copyright Disclaimer Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. Non-profit, educational, or personal use tips the balance in favor of fair use. We fit into these terms as our video is for educational purposes.
For our marketing strategy, we will use social media platforms that appeal to our target audience. Our target audience is those of 18+. Since the beginning of the pandemic in 2020, there was a massive rise in TikTok users. This said, we want to use Tiktok to promote our artist, for example, we will have her “official” TikTok account post-15-second clips of music releases or product release announcements. Furthermore, TikTok can be a great platform and opportunity to have her song as a “trending sound”. As her song is about woman's empowerment, remembering the power within themselves, and the transformation of women to independence; this will massively appeal to “feminists”, “pro-women”, and people who want to share their activism in the online community.
We will also use Instagram to promote her events and performances. Moreover, we can pay for advertisements and promotion packages on the ‘for you page’ which will further promote our artist. Upon uploading on YouTube, we will use hashtags (e.g. #womenlifefreedom) to increase the chances of being recommended and showing up on the search bar.
For interaction with fans, we will mostly use TikTok and Instagram. For example, when her fans post a TikTok fan edit of her, our artist will engage by commenting and recognizing their work. Through this, more fans would gain confidence to interact with her as they will believe that our artist is someone who likes to talk and engage with her fans. For Instagram, our artist will interact with fans through “Instagram Live” or through posting Q&A tags on her Instagram stories. This will help build a relatable persona to her fans because they will realize that our artist is like normal people who is an avid user of social media too.
LINK ON RESEARCH
Similar to The Weeknd, we want our artist to be connected and engaging with her fans. I think this will cultivate an organic and loyal audience who's gonna support our artist in social media promotion and also in revenue by streaming the artist's song and buying her merch and digipak. Furthermore, our artist's music video style is also similar to The Weeknd, in the sense that our artist also tells a story of her feelings through music.