HOW GLOBAL IS THE APPEAL OF YOUR CHOSEN TEXTS?

 

 

The global appeal of my chosen three artists is changed by their ideologies and marketing strategies.

 

Lady Gaga, known as the 20th century queen of pop, had worldwide sales of 15million for her album 'The Fame' released in 2008. She achieved this by being on a major record label Interscope which allowed her to distribute her album worldwide. This company has enough money to promote her and her music to each continent giving a mass population as an audience which gave her the platform to Tour these counties continuing promotion.

 

 Releasing 6 music videos from her album, 'The Fame' made Lady Gaga appear in the charts constantly over the 18 month period. 'Just Dance' her first single from he album topped charts in America and the UK, giving her a loyal fan base with the pop song. When 'Paparazzi' was released she had dominated the westernised markets where it It gained a place in the top 10 in over 12 different countries worldwide. The big budget video for Paparazzi was an 8 minute long mini movie- following in the footsteps of Michael Jacksons Thriller video. A Swedish director to make the French new wave style film, who also worked with artists such as Madonna, who also had worldwide success. The mise-en-scene attracts a large, multicultural audience as many teens all have the same aspirations and ideologies to do with money and love. The opening shot of the music video you see the palm trees, showing an exotic location, it then pans across to a white mansion which looks luxurious, many fans will see this as the lifestyle to have.

 

Finally, the use of the internet has allowed Lady Gaga herself to develop a parasocial relationship with her fans. On twitter, Lady Gaga has 37.8 million followers, meaning that many people see her tweets and are influenced by her posts to do with music, fashion, news etc. It lets her fans know more about her as she shares personal information. The twitter account also responds to the fans tweets, this makes them think Gaga knows each of them personally and cares for them, i.e. a parasocial relationship. However I don't believe a global superstar will be doing this herself which shatters the allusion she has created, but most of her fans are besotted with the 'Mother Monster' they ignore all bad publicity or statements.

 

In contrast to Lady Gaga, my second chosen text is Radiohead, a niche English rock band that targets the alternative scene. The band formed in 1985, and in 2011 the band released their 8th album 'King of limbs' which sold around 400,000 copies. Radiohead developed an established fan base from its early days which were promoted through their record label. However now Radiohead managed to secure number 6 on the Billboard top 200 in the USA with the 'King of limbs' by self promotion through their website and one music video for the album 'Lotus Flower'.

 

The only promotion Radiohead did, was release the low budget music video of 'Lotus flower' and a live concert through their website, months after the album was released on February 18th 2011. The video is an arty production that targets the global niche audience they already have in which they  brought experimental music to the mainstream platform.

 

??????????????????????????????????????????

 

An artist who did not have the Internet to promote and gain wider global success was Nirvana. Nirvana who had a short few years in the music industry as Kurt Cobain, the lead singer, committed suicide in 1994, changed  the mainstream music by introducing the grime genre.

 

The first step to Nirvana reaching a global audience was the decision to move from SUB POP records to Geffen records. SUB POP