Research on Star Image and Representation

This is the link to my Artist Research

An artist needs to have a certain image, in which represents the music they create and sell; that will allow them to be recognised easily in the media and when their music is being released, an advantage that effectively help sell their records. In terms of Soul music, an artist's image is normally persistently similar with long, elegant dresses (typically one block colour), suits with high heeled boots, extravagant but unprovocative clothing, etc. that have no changed drastically over the years.

Looking at singers such as Etta James and India Arie, they portray they stereotypical style of a Soul singer's style where anything provocative is kept to a minimum (if at all) and their face and/or clothing to made eye-catching so the audience are able to learn something about the artist from her clothing and her overall appearance.

Etta James is shown in a clean cut black-and-white suit with a cloth to cover her cleavage and a brooch (meant to represent something meaningful and valuable) placed on her chest. This is very stereotypical of a female Soul singer, especially in the 1970s/1980s, where dressing in what essential is a men's dress was meant to signify their strength and how they didn't need to be sexual to produce and sell good music.

India Arie is a more modern example of this where she is shown in a plain black shirt, a headband and a few extravagant jewellery with minimum make-up. This, again, is very stereotypical of a female Soul singer even a couple of decades on as she isn't grabbing the audience's attention using her body but her clothing, all replicating an African tone that shows her to be keeping to her roots as an artist.

However, looking at very popular Soul singers such as Mariah Carey, they are much more sensual and portray a sexy elegance where she wears a long gown with diamond earrings but shows cleavage and more skin and this is because she acts under the demands of the record label in which want her to be this more sexualised figure that keeps her in the spotlight.

Here Mariah Carey wears a sophisticated dress with a small amount of jewellery (following the typical genre characteristics of Soul fashion) but she shows off her cleavage very clearly, the thin straps that keep the dress from falling off illustrate her sexuality and the colour red represents lust and sexual desires. Carey is a modern example of how the big 4 control artists and how they present themselves to their audiences, even for a softer and more raw genre like Soul, so that their records sell.