Pop videos have many purposes, such as advertisement, creating a brand, illustrating the song, appealing to a visual audience, expressing an individual's emotions, telling a story and marketing an image. Often, artists are sold as a brand and the music video acts as a product of the brand, in the hopes that the audience will be persuaded to buy into the brand. Synthetic artists, such as the Spice Girls, believe that their image was of more importance than the product they were trying to sell. However, organic artists believe that the song and the meaning of the song is more important, and the artist's image has little to do with the sales.
The Spice Girls
In the mid-1990's, Bob Herbert, Lindsay Casbon and Chris Herbert set about to create a popular girl-group to compete with popular boy bands which dominated the music industry in the mid to late-1990's, such as Boyzone and Backstreet Boys. In February 1994, Heart Management placed an advertisement in 'The Stage' trade magazine, trying to call out to the music audience, asking " WANTED. R U 18-23 with the ability to sing and dance? R U streetwise, outgoing, ambitious and dedicated?" After hundreds of auditions, Victoria Beckham, Melanie Brown, Geri Halliwell, Emma Bunton and Melanie Chisholm were chosen, and they formed the Spice Girls, as a carefully selected group of strangers, although the industry sold the group to the audience to make the audience believe that they were just a group of friends goofing around and creating top-selling singles together.
However, as the Spice Girls believed their image was of utmost importance rather than their songs, their clothes were carefully chosen for their appearance on the American Television. Each Spice Girl was given a nickname, which became their trade mark. Victoria Beckham was "Posh Spice," and when appearing on American Television, she wore a sophisticated, slinky and graceful black number, Emma Bunton was "Baby Spice," and she was known for her innocent, sweet style and she wore a baby pink dress. Mel C was known as "Sporty Spice," and she had a tomboy style. She wore her favourite Liverpool shirt when on American television. Mel B was known as "Scary Spice," and she sported leopard-skin trousers. Geri Halliwell, "Ginger Spice," would wear red hot pants, top and bra.
Everything about the spice girls, including their nicknames, scary/posh/baby etc, was all under the control of men or corporations. Geri Halliwell (Ginger Spice) almost didnt make it into the group for she looked older than the other girls. However, when asked how old she was, she stated "I'm as old as you want me to be. I'll be 10 with big boobs if you want." The group had endless merchandising and sponsorship deals, and they were involved in everything, ranging from Pepsi Ads to Polaroid Ads to actual Barbie-style Spice Girl Dolls.
Spice Up Your Life
This song and music video is basically the Spice Girls persuading the audience to have the Spice Girls in their life. They are promoting positivity and creating the message that if you listen to Spice Girls and you stick with them then your life will have positivity and that "when you're feeling sad and low," the Spice Girls will help, with "every boy and every girl."
Wannabe
This single really displayed the group's brand. The music video presents the group as really good friends and the audience can see the bond between the group. The lyrics of the song suggest that the group is trying to spread a message to their audience; to stick with your friends. This song helped attract a massive female audience for they sing about how "if you wanna be my lover, you gotta get with my friends," and "friendship never ends."
Comparing Two Artists
To many artists, their image is the most important part of their career. Their own style makes them unique and stand out from other artists. Lady Gaga is a perfect example of a artist who's image is more important than her brand and she is also an artist who is presented under Laura Mulvey's theory of the male gaze. The male gaze is present throughout her videos for she wears quite revealing clothing and her dances are very sexual. In 'Bad Romance,' Gaga is dancing in front of a crowd of men, wearing bra covered with diamonds, and at one point, she sits on one of the men's laps and sings "I want your love." This use of Gaga exploiting her sexuality shows that she cares more for her image and how she is perceived by her audience than her actual music, as she is known for her crazy behaviour and costumes.
Adele, however, is a perfect example of an organic artist. She is different to Lady Gaga for she believes her music to be more important than her image. As Adele is not the typical image for the music industry, her sexuality is not exploited throughout her videos, and so her music is very important for her success. Her focus on her product rather than her image creates a difference between her and artists who are more preoccupied with their image, such as Lady Gaga, and it creates a unique selling point for there are a lack of mainstream artists who focus primarily on their product.
Adele's music videos are quite simple, and it allows the audience to focus on the lyrics rather than being distracted by a fancy video.
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