In class, in groups we assigned one person to be the manager of a band and the other people had to create the image and identity of the person the manager imagined. I was the manager in this case, and chose a Southern American girl called Cara who plays indie-rock music. She plays small venues to stay close to her audience and has a passion for music. On top of that in her spare time she loves travelling and playing her guitar.
My influences were taken from a range of sources, such as the style of Cassie in Skins, music I love, and qualities I think make a person influential. By doing this I learnt that it can be very simple to create the image of a musician as something audiences would love by simply asking them what they are looking for. The current audience for music may not just be looking for pop stars who play on their sexuality and are told how they should market themselves. A large percentage of people endorsing music listen to this music and artists because there is not enough other choice on offer, and perhaps there are still lots of gaps in the market to be filled for alternatives.
This class project has helped me with my coursework by influencing me to just ask people what they think they would be attracted to in a girl band, and simply asking a range of our target audience and see if any of the suggestions are similar and could easily be incorporated into our music video. Everyone has certain role models and people that they aspire to be like, but perhaps this is not emulated by a lot of the big pop artists today. Therefore to create an artist identity and image in our coursework I think it would be helpful to do something slightly different, but also perhaps to a questionnaire to the audience beforehand to see what THEY like and satisfy our target audience.
