Visual image in music

I carried out marketing research on a famous artist called Trey Songz, and looked at how he is presented, his genre of music, his image and the values and beliefs he represents.

Trey Songz - Jupiter Love; Trey Songz - Already Taken

Trey Songz is RnB/Hip - Hop artists whose tracks is usually slow and relate to love, pain and success, hence his album ‘Passion, Pain and Pleasure. The picture presented where Trey Songz is shirtless, sexualises him which reinforces his reputation of being an RnB artist. Also his pose is quite calm, and he is holding himself which could have connotations of holding a loved one which relates to the type of songs he makes.  The image had been constructed in this way because it is suitable to the genre of music he makes.

An artist who he is similar to is Tyrese Gibson. In the images, they both have a similar pose, both shirtless, and Tyrese often sings about Relationships, love and other intimate topics too. Because these artists are so similar, it may put audiences off one of the artists where they only like Tyrese, or they on like Trey. This relates to the uses and gratification theory where audiences will choose the media and music that meet their needs and music that targets them specifically that they can relate to. This will help with my project because it has made me realise that I will need to make sure I market my artist as uniquely as possible and make sure he/she/they are not similar to any other existing artist already otherwise audiences may not be interested in their music.

Tyrese – One; Tyrese – Signs of love making

Values and beliefs Trey Songz represents:

-          Having a toned, muscly body is important in a male

-          Tattoos (chest) are a his way of expressing his love for his family – “To God I pray may April’s showers rain down on her Forrest and Grow the strength that started with one Rose”
April is his mother's name, Forrest is his little brother's name and Rose is his grandma's name

-          Importance of relationships and how he loves his girlfriend through his music

Visual image is important in the pop industry because the media has made it this way. They establish a way of telling a male or female how to look and making it obvious that this is the way they SHOULD look. By constructing this appearance, people become more self-conscious about themselves and try and follow this trend. For example in x-factor, artists tend to have their own fashion style throughout the show, but winners such as Leona Lewis, her image has been modified over the years and become more daring in some of her music videos such as ‘Bleeding love’. When marketing my artist, I need to ensure their image isn’t out-dated and also doesn’t blend in with anyone else’s image otherwise my artist won’t get noticed.