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Can Manufactured Bands Ever Be Classified As

‘Good’ Art? The Effect Of The Market On The Construction Of Music Essay, Research Paper


Can Manufactured Bands Ever be Classified as ‘Good’ Art? The Effect of the Market


on the Construction of Music


Introduction


Manufactured bands now make up a major percentage of chart music today,


not least of them Take That, Boyzone, Bad Boys inc., East 17 and other all-boy


pop bands. In this essay I would like to discuss how the standard of art has


been lowered by the capitalistic system of the music industry, using a specific


example – “Upside Down”, which is maybe the latest addition to this genre of


music.


By this genre of music, I mean the all-boy bands which have been


specifically manufactured and targeted at the ‘teenybopper’ age class (and also


the gay market?).


Personal Opinions


To argue that this form of art is ‘bad’ art, one must have a reference


point – a set of values by which to judge. This is almost always a personal


opinion, and I would first of all like to explain my personal opinion.


I believe that ‘good’ art has something to offer to the individual


perceiver, be it painting, book, film, dance or music. These are all different


forms of art, but one thing binds them all together – the fact that they are


creations, created and crafted to the personal specifications of the artist.


This makes the product original.


Two values by which I judge music are creativity and originality. I


believe that good art provides ‘food for thought’ – that special something which,


after the tape has finished, after leaving the cinema or closing a book, leaves


an ‘aftertaste’ – something to think about, be it, ‘how did he/she play that’ or,


‘what was he/she trying to say with that piece,’ the list goes on.


Basic Market Analysis


For the purposes of this essay, I want to split marketing into two


general strategies. The first of these is where the designers make a “product”


to their own specifications and then look to see where and how they will be able


to sell it in the overall market. The second strategy is the opposite of the


first – the designers examine the general market, target a certain area and


tailor make a product to fit this area exactly.


The latter of these strategies is the one employed when a band is going


to be manufactured. The designers have studied the market and worked out what


they think they can sell a certain group of consumers.


Hirschman’s ‘three market segments’ model (see figure 1) can be used to


explain which type of bands fall into which category. The first segment is


titled “Self-orientated Creativity.” The primary audience is the person who


creates the piece and the primary objective is that person’s self-expression.


This is art for the sake of art and is sometimes called “selfish” art. The


second segment is titled “Peer-orientated creativity”; the primary audience are


peers and industry, the primary objective is recognition and acclaim. The third


segment is “Commercialised Creativity “and focuses on the general public with


the primary objective of money and profit.


The people who create art for the sake of art may not even approach a


record label, as it is solely for themselves. This approach is focused on the


product, made their way, not taking the commercial aspect into consideration.


The people who fall into the category of peer-orientated creativity do


want to publish their work but do not tailor their product to increase its


marketing potential. An example of this could be any band that has its own


distinctive style, e.g. Led Zeppelin, which when it was first published,


definitely did not fall into the category of pop music. Although they became a


success and sold millions of records, they did not compromise their music to do


so.


The third group are one hundred percent commercially based. Any music


made by a band in this category is produced for a pre-specified area of the


market with the sole intention to make money. The product is tailored according


to what the mass audience wants, therefore any aspect of art is compromised.


Case Study – Upside Down


Upside Down fit perfectly into the third category in Hirschman’s Three


Market Segment Model. Put together by two managers, they use the second of the


general strategies I have described above – first check the market to find an


opening and then tailor a product to fit it.


In this case young girls aged roughly between 11 and 16 have been targeted.


Having decided this, the next part of the process is, based on what the managers


think the consumers want (or what they think they can tell them they want), to


tailor make a product to suit the market. In this situation, the question is,


“What do girls aged between 11 and 16 want to see when they go to a concert?”


The answer is, having experienced the reaction to Take That, Boyzone etc., that


they want young boys, in nice clothes, very good looking, very sexy looking, who


are going to look great on their bedroom walls when they get their posters out


of Smash Hits. So this is exactly what the managers design and produce for them.


The four boys that were eventually chosen were picked from the


applicants who had responded to this advertisement:


“Are you between 17 and 21 and good looking? (We’re only looking for


the best!)”


“Do you want to be in a teenage all-boy band sensation?”


“Do you want to follow performers like Take that, East 17, Bad Boys inc.


and Boyzone into the covers of Just 17 and Smash Hits?”


“Do you want to be part of a band selling millions of records?


From the seven thousand applicants, a shortlist of 250 was drawn up from


their photographs alone. These 250 were auditioned in one day, each audition


lasting about as long as it took for the managers to discuss how the individuals


looked.


Once the four boys had been trained by a voice trainer, the next step


was to find material for them to perform. Their first single-to-be was bought by


the managers from a firm selling previously unreleased songs. Several different


potential hits were played to the managers before they eventually picked one to


record in the studio.


Upside Down’s first studio sessions yielded a different sound than their


released single. It was described in the documentary as having nearly a white


soul-music quality, but the managers were not happy with it at all. They


proceeded to record the single again with Stuart Levine – well known for his


success in achieving a more ‘commercial’ sound for music of this type, and his


was the recording that they finally used.


Upside Down’s first public performance took place on the Smash Hits Tour,


which, not surprisingly, was attended and practically consisted only of girls


aged between 10 and 15!


Evaluation


Figure 2 is a diagram which can be used to define the difference between an


object or work of art in the traditional sense (art for the sake of music) and a


cultural industry (art for the sake o

f making money).


The horizontal axis represents the range of products from works of art


which are aesthetically or artistically orientated to the works of art which are


market orientated. At the right hand side, the product is determined by the


market, and at the left hand side by the artist. The vertical axis shows the


range from prototypes, i.e. a unique piece of work, through to cultural


production on a mass scale.


As I described above, in the context of peer-orientated creativity, Led


Zeppelin became a big-selling band, but did not compromise their music to do so.


On the model, they would be represented by the ‘Work of Art’ (upper left


quadrant) which would then move down to the lower left quadrant where the work


is still orientated towards the artist, but reproduced because it has become


popular (i.e. moved down the vertical axis).


Upside Down, on the other hand, stay firmly in the lower right-hand


quadrant of the diagram, represented by ‘Cultural Industries’. As their product


is tailor-made for the market, and always intended for mass reproduction, it


cannot be said that they have ever produced a prototype.


This whole attitude suggests and promotes the idea that money is more


important than art. This (business) venture is geared towards nothing else than


making money. In the documentary interview run by the BBC, The managers stated


that their aim was purely commercial, to quote one of them, “Launching a band is


launching a product. Identify your market, package your product as nicely as


possible, target your audience and sell it to them.” They also stated that only


then would they have achieved anything when “Ten thousand girls are screaming at


the boys on stage, some passing out from excitement and being taken away by the


St John’s Ambulance Brigade.


To create an image, the managers put the word out that the four boys from


England’s next Mega-band would be in such and such a place at such and such a


time. They then turned up with the band in the designated places and times to


allow the ‘fans’ to kiss or be kissed by, or get an autograph from the stars of


the next biggest band in England.


The boys, however, are also in it only for the money, if not at first then


definitely now. They were given an allowance (not very much), and told that the


serious money would start rolling in as soon as the records were starting to


sell. In an interview with the boys, just after they had had several thousand


pounds worth of clothes bought for them, one said, “We haven’t really got used


to having all these expensive clothes bought for us yet, but hopefully we will.”


I find this approach to making music a very manipulative one. The pre-


targeted market of eleven to sixteen year olds must be one of the easiest to


manipulate. In this age, people are trying to find themselves or make themselves


into the type of people that the media tell them they should be – if someone


placed an advert in Just 17 or Smash Hits stating that every cool teenager now


bought their fashion clothes from Marks & Spencer’s, this store would probably


record a 300% increase of sales in the Womenswear Department.


On the other side of the stage, however, the boys in the band are also


being manipulated. They are still, after over a year of being signed to the


managers, receiving the pitiful allowance assigned them by their managers. They


have been led to believe that they will be very rich, have given up university


studies and jobs to do so and yet have come no further financially. The records


are selling but until a certain number have been sold, they do not receive any


royalties, to allow the managers to recoup the quarter of a million pounds they


have invested. And when that sum is reached, will they still be around or will


the public have gone crazy about another four or five sexy-looking boys who are


essentially no different, just something new?


Apart from the dubious financial situation, the band have absolutely no say


in what they want their sound to be like. After the recording of the single


(which, incidentally the band had no hand in picking), one of the boys was asked


what he thought of the finished product; he answered, “I liked the sound of the


first recording better – it was less commercial-sounding, but it depends if


you’re doing it for yourself or a prospective audience.”


With his own recording technique, Stuart Levine obviously managed to get a


more ‘poppy’ and commercial sound which the managers preferred. This ties in


with one of Frans Birrer’s definitions of pop music, “Popular music is music


that is not something else. This ties in, in turn, to the ‘McDonald’s’ Method -


McDonalds actually deflavour their burgers so that less people will dislike


them. In exactly this way, and for exactly the same reasons, Upside Down, or


their managers at any rate, have deflavoured their music – diluted it so that no


one element is too strong for people’s musical tastebuds.


What the band have also been led to believe is that they possess a lot of


talent, and have accordingly acquired quite a high opinion of themselves and


what they are doing:


“I think that masterminded bands are much better – it means that the best


talent, from a large area, is brought together and concentrated,”(!):


The performers themselves were obviously not chosen for any musical talent


or creativity, but on the strength of their looks. During the auditions, the


managers discussed the potential of the applicants. Comments ranged from, “No,


absolutely not – I don’t like his style,” ; “Pity about him, he’s got a good


voice but look at his skin – we won’t be able to do anything with his acne,” to


“Looks great – bad voice, but nothing the studio can’t fix,” or “Yeah, he’s not


bad, but I don’t know about his hair. Maybe with some dye and matching coloured


contact lenses?.”


If the band were so talented, as they have come to think they are, then


surely the managers would not have needed to send them to a professional voice


trainer, when the only ‘live’ singing they have to do is in the studio? (All


‘gigs’ are mimed) The voice trainer also did say,(rather dubiously I thought),


“We-ell, they have hope; they aren’t the worst I’ve ever had.”


It seems that the managers have achieved one of the earliest goals they set


themselves – “What we’re basically looking for is four or five good-looking boys


who are eager to be moulded, well, guided, you know – given a helping hand to do


what we want them to do.”


I want to conclude by saying that, based on my personal opinions of what


‘good’ art should be, Upside Down are a good example of ‘bad’ art. The art in


this venture lies not in the music but in the management. The question is, is


management an art.?


References:


BBC Omnibus Documentary on the Process of Manufacture of Upside Down, 1996


LEDA Circuit on New Opportunities for Employment Creation through the Cultural


Sector, 1995


Phil Saxe’s Notes on Marketing Strategies

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