10. Constructing a Mainstream Artist!

Rosie Dixon - Our Mainstream Artist

Hannah Froggett - our
Rosie Dixon model

Our mainstream artist will be 17 year old Rosie Dixon whose claim to fame is through the British Talent Show (X Factor) where she came second place. As well as being able to sing, she gained more fame from her sob story - her mother and father are divorced and she now lives with her single dad since her mother is a drug addict. She also had a twin brother she used to sing with but unfortunately he died when they were both younger. Most famous artists have a sob story which gains them sympathy from the audience. 


Target Audience
Our target audience is white, working class girls because they will be able to relate to Rosie since she is a white, working class girl and they can aspire to achieve what she has. Another reason for this target audience is that they play a big part in raising sales in the music industry. However, when she gets older in order to expand her audience we will sexualise her image which will appeal to males also.

Props
Rosie Dixon always wears a bracelet - sort of like a friendship bracelet that her brother made for her when they were younger (she also made him one) and as well as gaining sympathy from the population this will also influence other girls to go buy these bracelets which will bring in money.

Hair and Clothes
A lot of Rosie Dixon's target audience will follow the current fashion trend which has been branded as 'hipster' and so for her audience to be able to relate to her we will construct her image to be 'hipster' however, if the current fashion trend changes we will also change her image which is common with lots of mainstream artists. 

'Hispters' generally wear denim/camouflage jackets, crop tops/denim shirts/oversized jumpers/tank tops, flowery skirts/denim shorts and patterned leggings - galaxy style is a popular choice. Rosie Dixon will also wear large 'nerd' glasses and a beanie hat along with bright/exaggerated lipstick and/or flowers in their hair. 

In terms of hair, the hipster style is usually loose and wavy, or big and backcombed, and bright in colour such as blonde or light brown, with often dip-dyes of more extreme colours like pink or green. Another hairstyle that is popular is a pale-washed colour for the full head of hair. Hairstyles are often a big factor in the way an audience may inspire to want to be like someone, where popular artists usually have fans that get their hairstyle because that hairstyle is associated with them. 
For example, 'the bieber flick', Rihanna's bright red hair, or Cheryl Cole's purply-brown loose hair. This worked well alongside Chery's advert for L'Oreal to promote her hair almost as a separate product. Our artist therefore will have loose long blonde hair, which can be dip-dyed to create a more unique style at a later date if she needs to gain more popularity in terms of her image.

Music Video Concept
We decided that for Rosie Dixon's first music video will be a promotional video showing her life and how she got to this point so that her audience can 'get to know her' and therefore build a better relationship between them and her. 

The song will start off slowly and so the video will be in black and white and this section will represent Rosie's depressing past and her broken family life which increases the audience's sympathy. At the beginning she will probably wear a simple, dark coloured dress which will contrast with her 'hipster' fashion when we reach the second part of the video. In this part of the video she walks across a bridge to represent her entering her new life and also 'water under the bridge'. She notices a door, which is in colour, to show her bright opportunity which she can now embrace, which she walks through. The second part of the song will become faster and livelier towards the end and this will be her transformation into a 'butterfly.' The second half will be brighter and in colour and Rosie will wear butterfly wings to symbolise her 'flying away from her past' and also a butterfly is used as a symbol of recovery. This portrays the message of 'if you try you can succeed' and 'everything will be okay in the end' which is the intended message of many music videos.

The setting of the video will be in typical working class places, for example, car parks and shopping centres as this portrays Rosie as 'normal.' The music video will also contain a dance routine which is a vital part of many music videos and also having dancers in the video shows Rosie can act as a collective with her audience. Another benefit of a dance routine is that people will begin to associate the dance with the song and therefore gain more popularity as it will be more memorable for example, Beyonce's: Single Ladies and (on an unrelated theme/note) Psy's: Gangnam Style.

Song Choice

As this is Rosie Dixon's first song we decided she would sing a cover of a well known song instead of one of her own as this would get her more popularity as the audience are familiar with it and can compare it to the original which gains more publicity. The song we chose was Katy Perry's 'Firework' as this fits with the theme Rosie is trying to get across - breaking free from her old life - which will match with the firework explosions and bright colours. Firework is a very popular song that has already been popular with Rosie Dixon's target audience and so will hopefully gain her the same amount of popularity. We have chosen to use the acoustic slow version because that matches the depressing first section and then we will speed it up towards the end to match the original for the ending to show a contrasting difference. 

Firework Acoustic Cover by Charlotte Wakefield.                                                                                     

Firework by Katy Perry

Press and Publicity

 

At the beginning of her career we will present Rosie Dixon as a new, innocent girl who is breaking away from her background and so we will show her mixing with famous, inspirational celebrities who will make her look good. 

To personally promote herself we will get her interviews on chat shows and radio shows and her Facebook and Twitter profiles will allow her to connect with her audience and keep them up to date on her activities (tour dates, merchandise) this can also be done via popular television channels and magazines since Rosie's audience is mainstream. For more positive publicity we will also line her up to have a perfume deal/her own clothing line.

Possibly a bit later on (when her popularity starts to fade) she can go out with Louis Tomlinson from One Direction to gain positive media attention (especially if they bond well.) If this fails, her relationship can go badly with Louis or she can cheat on him and to gain more publicity (bad publicity is good publicity after all!) the press can photograph her throwing up at a club or taking drugs where the press can then compare her to her mother.

 

Inspirations

In order to create Rosie Dixon we took inspiration from popular artists in the music industry today so we could get a sense of their image, costume and music sound which are the most popular today - this would make Rosie Dixon more successful. We also looked at the backgrounds of different artist and so we created Rosie's background - that her childhood was rough and she had to work hard to get where she is and the fact that she was on a talent show. The artists we took inspiration from were artists such as: Amelia Lily, Rita Ora, Lucy Spraggen, Ke$ha Demi Lovato, Miley Cyrus, Jessie J and Rihanna and from thee we created Rosie Dixon. 









As this was a group effort the other members blog are here:

http://alexandrahaleya2media.blogspot.co.uk/

http://libertyshawa2media.blogspot.co.uk/