Media Investigation: Relating These Issues To My Production

Media Investigation: Materialism in Music – How Do These Issues Relate To My Production?

The crucial factor here is this: do materialistic videos improve the chances of success for the artist? This is important because it relates to how we (my group) can improve our music video and either answer to the said question has the potential to influence our production. In order to explore the possible answers, I will put forward key talking points while considering results from my audience research to support or contradict each point. These key talking points will include the ideas of branding, genre and audience pleasures.

Brands and status symbols are unquestionably important elements in modern life and have the potential to deeply influence our judgements of others. It seems that in any industry, be it clothing, cars or electrical goods, there is a hierarchy of what is deemed ‘desirable’ or ‘undesirable’. For instance, a Mercedes is widely recognised to be more desirable than a Skoda. But what is it that cements a product’s place in the ‘desirable’ category and becomes recognised as a status symbol (an indicator of wealth and/ or desirability)? In the case of Mercedes vs. Skoda, it is clear that a combination of differences in quality and price have lead to the longstanding perceptions of the two brands being on almost opposite ends of the desirability scale. However, this is a very ‘out-dated’ example (in the sense that the perceptions of each brands were shaped centuries ago – and with much less influence from the media than there might be today). In order to discuss the influence the media might have on shaping mass opinion on products, a more modern example, such as that of the iPod, must be considered. If the most important differences in desirability between Mercedes and Skoda were quality and price, can the same be said for the iPod compared to its rivals? Well, according to www.pcworld.co.uk on 28/11/09, it seems there is a very slim price difference, the most expensive iPod Touch (64GB) costs £299 whilst the most expensive non-Apple MP3 player is the Sony NWZX1060 Touchscreen (32GB) at £289.99. At the top of the range, then, it seems that in terms of price the iPod touch isn’t significantly more expensive than its nearest rival, but, in terms of quality, it out-trumps its rival with twice as much memory (64GB vs. 32GB). Lower down in the range though, an iPod Nano (8GB) costs £115 while the SanDisk Sansa Clip (8GB) costs £39.99. With the performance of these two products being equally balanced, why is it that the iPod is being sold for almost three times as much? And, more interestingly, why do people by the iPod over the SanDisk when it is, for apparently little good reason, this much more expensive?

However, it’s only when we start thinking about it that the question becomes difficult, the answer is really very simple; usually it’s either “because I saw it on TV” or “because everyone else has one” – last year in a Media Studies lesson a show of hands revealed that all (of which I must admit I was a part of) but one member of the class owned an iPod, and none except that one person checked out the specifications of competing MP3 players before making the purchase. Our classroom scenario is a little bit of proof that the majority of audiences respond more to advertising and word of mouth than private research and comparison. We can then perhaps assume that, in the modern world, the quality of advertising is equally or even more important than the quality of the product in the creation of a status symbol – for the quality of two products may be very similar, but the quality of advertising may be very different. The iPod is now undoubtedly an established status symbol; in the ‘Audio’ section of www.pcworld.co.uk there are separate categories for ‘Apple iPods’ and ‘Portable Audio’ (http://www.pcworld.co.uk/martprd/editorial/MP3_homepage/?int=left_nav). It seems clear that materialist consumerism exists in these industries, but can the same be said for the music industry? After all, we do refer to it as an industry, but do audiences really consume music in the same way they do the car/ electronic/ clothing industries? Furthermore, do audiences of different genres consume music in different ways?

It seems perhaps a little unlikely, since music has long been one of the most expressive of art forms. By assuming that audiences consume music in the same materialistic way as they do clothes, one effectively brings into question the validity of modern music as an art form. After all, you surely wouldn’t regard an advertising poster to have the same artistic values as a painting by da Vinci/ Raphael/ Monet/ Van Gogh? In my research I have shown that much of today’s most popular music videos are strongly materialistic and, in a sense, ‘advertisement-like’. For example, Taio Cruz’s “Break Your Heart” (number one in the UK singles chart on 11/10/09), portrays Taio Cruz as a very desirable protagonist, – at least, from a male point of view – he’s rich, fashionable and has all the women he could possibly want. By doing this, he creates an image or persona of himself and his music, using tools such as attractive women and glamorous locations to increase his desirability and consequently that of his music also. The point to consider is whether such techniques can create a hierarchy of desirability among artists and their music in a similar way as in other industries, i.e. will people listen to popular and fashionable artists in order to be seen as fashionable themselves – is modern popular music consumed as fads just as any other industry? Can an artist be regarded as a status symbol? A further point to consider is that Taio Cruz has also recently launched a fashion and accessory brand named Rokstarr which has so far had a focus on sunglasses and is becoming increasingly popular among other celebrities and artists (e.g. Kelly Rowland, JLS and Kanye West etc.).

‘Rokstarr’ is also the title of his latest album – allowing for simultaneous promotion of his music and his brand. This isn’t a unique occurrence; the rap group G-Unit launched the ‘G-Unit Clothing Company’ in 2003 in collaboration with Marc Ecko (the founder of Eckō Unlimited) and Pharrell Williams (rapper/ producer and member of The Neptunes, N.E.R.D and Child Rebel Soldier) launched two lines of luxury clothing; ‘Billionaire Boys Club’ and ‘Ice Cream’ in 2005 together with Nigo (founder of BAPE). All of these brands describe themselves as ‘luxury streetwear’ and consequently all have an aspect of exclusivity and can also be regarded as status symbols. The websites of the brands show extremely materialistic welcome pages:

Note the immediate, blatant objectification of the female body as an advertisement tool.

This is an especially interesting advert for a pair of sunglasses, since only one half of the pair can be seen and the viewer is quite clearly drawn to another area of the image...and it isn’t difficult to guess which. This particular pair of sunglasses (The Mono – designed to make a statement) costs £165. We can note also that, when searched on Google, that the description of the website reads “ROKSTARR music production and high street fashion”, yet nowhere on the website is there any information about Taio Cruz’s music. This suggests that fashion and music are very closely linked, perhaps supporting the claim that audiences consume music in a similar way to other industries in which materialism dominates. It also suggests that the music a person listens to will heavily dictate what kind of clothes they wear, that each genre is exclusive to a particular type of audience holding a particular set of ideologies and that audiences seek to be included and labelled in these groups. This would also suggest that the true pleasure that audiences gain from music is more to do with social classification and recognition than the actual pleasure of listening to the music for sheer entertainment purposes. This would support the argument that audiences consume modern popular music in a similar way as they do fads from other aspects of popular culture (most notably fashion) and that social inclusion is key to an individual when choosing which music to listen to – just as it is when an individual chooses which clothes to buy.

The Billionaire Boys Club homepage is more quirky than ‘in-your-face marketing ploys’. However, when we ‘enter the store’ we are presented with a heart-warming message that reads ‘Wealth is of the heart and mine, not the pocket’, which becomes rather ironic, perhaps even laughable, when we look at the price of products.

A plain white t-shirt with the brand name costs $80.

This jumper costs $515.

These Ice Cream trainers cost $205.

Considering the price of these products, surely there is something contradictory about the motto?

These are printscreens of the Billionaire Boys Club ‘group’ (a fan page) on Facebook, which people have joined and then uploaded and commented on pictures of themselves and their collections of Billionaire Boys Club/ Ice Cream products. This is a good example of audiences using the music they listen to as a social tool and this particular group has 3, 715 members from many different countries – there are comments from France, Argentina, USA, UK, South Africa and The Mauritius. Of course, however, these examples and my research up to now has only shown a link between materialistic/ ‘advertisemental’ music videos and success without establishing a definite cause-and-effect relationship.

My audience research shows that, out of the 52 participants aged 13-18, 63% said that ‘a bad music video can ruin a decent song and a good one can improve a mediocre song’, while 29% said that ‘only the music counts’. The same research also shows that R&B was the most popular genre. With the majority believing that a mediocre song can become successful with a good music video, this suggests a stronger link between the argument that artists can sell themselves by other means than their music, i.e. their desirability doesn’t rest simply on the quality of their product (the music) but also on other factors such as creating a fashionable image (advertising). This is also supported by a comment left by a participant in reply to the question “In your opinion, what/ which of the following is important in a good music video?” who said ‘dance routines that become ‘cool’ such as SOULJA BOY’ and the fact that R&B was the most popular genre, as we know it is rich in materialistic music videos. The comment left by the participant is significant because it supports the argument that artists can create a positive or desirable image of themselves by including factors that are ‘cool’ in their music videos. It is this ‘cool’ factor which can arguably turn a mediocre song into a status symbol of ‘cool’ – which audiences respond to and consequently consume as the latest fashion.

The previous graph shows the responses of those who selected one or more of either R&B, Hip-Hop or Rap as their preferred genre(s). It tells us that, while well-choreographed dance moves and relevant visuals are still the most important factor, other factors such as a desirable/ fashionable protagonist and glamorous locations have risen significantly compare to the initial sample of all 52 participants. We also notice that well-choreographed dance moves are more important than relevant visuals (the other way around compared to all participants). This is perhaps significant as well-choreographed dance routines provide an opportunity to include a ‘cool’ factor – just as in the example of Soulja Boy. The graph also shows a decline in the importance of attractive women, however this can be attributed to a heavily gender biased sample (6 males vs. 20 females). We can say this with confidence as 83% of male participants highlighted attractive females to be important, compared to the 50% from the initial sample who selected the answer. There was also a rise in the importance of attractive men from the female participants, rising from 39% of all females to 45% of females who prefer R&B/ Hip-Hop/ Rap.

Pie Chart Showing the Importance of Music Videos According to R&B/ Rap/ Hip-Hop Fans

27%

57%

4%

4%8% Not at all, only music counts

Quite, really bad ruin decentsong/ good improve mediocre

more important than song

Very, song only good if goodmusic video

make or break a song

This pie chart suggests that R&B/ Hip-Hop/ Rap fans do place a higher importance on music videos than our initial, mixed sample did as the ‘not at all, only the music counts’ response dropped from 29% to 27% while the ‘music videos have the power to make or break a song’ response rose from 6% to 8%, the ‘very important, a song can only be good if it has a good music video’ response doubled from 2% to 4% and the ‘the quality of the music video is more important than the quality of the song’ response also rose.

So, we have identified that audiences who prefer R&B/ Hip-Hop/ Rap music are more likely to respond to materialistic content in music videos (such as glamorous locations, attractive members of the opposite sex, desirable protagonist etc. – all of which were included as ‘materialism signifiers’ in my previous research) when compared to a mixed audience. But is there a link between how important music videos are and what content is regarded as important? I shall now examine this by analysing the responses of those who regard music videos as either ‘Quite important, a really bad one can ruin a decent song/ a good one can improve a mediocre song’, ‘Very important, a song can only be good if it has a good music video’, ‘Music videos have the power to make or break a song’ or ‘The quality of the music video is more important than the quality of the song’. Here I will use a mixed audience (i.e. not a specifically R&B/ Hip-Hop/ Rap orientated audience) in order to focus more on the link between the importance and subsequent importance of content in music video rather than genre.

Interestingly, this graph shows that materialistic factors such as attractive members of the opposite sex and glamorous locations are seen as less important in an audience who hold a higher level importance of music videos than an R&B/ Hip-Hop/ Rap audience. This suggests that there is a stronger link between genre and materialistic values than there is between the level of importance placed on the video and any materialistic content.

This therefore suggests that the answer to the initial question of ‘do materialistic videos improve the chances of success for the artist?’ could be yes for some genres (e.g. R&B) but perhaps not others. This is further supported by the results of our target audience (an indie/ rock audience) – among whom attractive members of the opposite sex, glamorous locations and a desirable/ fashionable protagonist were all seen as less important compared to the R&B audience. This would consequently seem to suggest that, when applying the initial question to our genre and considering our target audience, the high levels of materialism found in R&B music videos wouldn’t have the same influence if transferred to indie music videos. This has been reflected in my past research, since the song ‘Sweet Disposition’ by The Temper Trap (a rock/ alternative rock song) was a huge outlier compared to other songs in the top ten – scoring an all-time low of zero out of fourteen (Taio Cruz’s ‘Break Your Heart’ was ten out of fourteen). To our group, therefore, the answer to the initial question is ‘no’, given the low importance attributed to materialistic factors by our target audience.