The Creation of Aloof
Recently, my class has been assigned a Music Marketing Project in which we research, create, and market a band within the genre we were given. My group of four received the genre nu metal/alternative rock, and although we were slightly overwhelmed by the amount of research and planning that had to go into this project, we were excited to begin our process, and began by researching about our genre.
What is Nu Metal/Alternative Rock?
The song we were designated fell more under the nu metal genre than alternative, but we spent our time researching both the former and latter. Nu metal and alternative rock are under the same umbrella when it comes to genre; however, nu metal is a subgenre of alternative rock in which elements of heavy metal are combined with other genres (hip hop, grunge). Influence for the nu metal genre is usually drawn from other heavy metal genres, as well as varied music styles. It is relatively new compared to its parent genres, but we found that it has acquired many notable groups already, such as Deftones, Slipknot, Linkin Park, Korn, Crazy Town, and Limp Bizkit. These genres typically appeal to anyone within the age range of 16-25, usually promoting ideals like teen rebellion that cater towards their audience. Furthermore, we also researched other bands within the genres to learn more about the variations of music that fall under the genre, and how these bands typically market themselves to the public eye. We created a Music Marketing Research Chart (portion pictured below) of artists such as Marilyn Manson, Turnstile, and Iggy Pop, who all embody the nu metal/alternative rock genre. After studying the distinct marketing strategies of each, we found that each artist placed utmost importance on their own self-image, how they looked and appealed to the public. Marilyn Manson, for example, exhibited a dark image with his in-person and social media persona, giving into an "edgy" and "rebellious" demeanor that attracted more fans of the genre. Iggy Pop, another notable nu metal/alternative rock figure, relied on visual self-expression by performing shirtless, embodying punk to the fullest, and being known as the man who performs without a shirt. These bands also released released their songs and albums to various streaming services, and promoted heavily on social media, which prompted us to start brainstorming our own marketing techniques in order to successfully advertise our band.
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| Music Genre Research Chart (portion pictured). |
Marketing Within the Genre
Without a doubt, social media is one of the most popular forms of advertisement in the current day and age. Nowadays, marketing companies rely heavily on social medias like Twitter, Instagram, and TikTok, and the ability for their artist to have a large presence on these apps strongly determines how well their album/song will do. This is because, like we found, around 82 percent of people in the U.S. use social media, making it a prime area for advertisement. So, we wanted to center our campaign around social media, and establish a large fanbase on our Instagram and Twitter. We created both an Instagram and Twitter, but focused primarily on our Instagram since we believed the visual aspect of the app would appeal more to our target audience (teens and young adults). With a visual component, we would be able to express to a greater extent our desired "vibe". We want to come off as nonchalant, even disorganized, and the freedom of Instagram would definitely help us achieve this. Also, in deciding our band name, we took into account the marketing of our band, and of others in the same genre. Similar bands have either short, simple, meaningless names or longer, more symbolic names. So, we decided to merge the two options into one: a short, symbolic name, Aloof. Aloof, meaning not friendly, cool or distant, truly embodies the "vibe" we were going for, which was a disinterested, non-meaningful persona. The length of the name was chosen particularly because of its easy ability to market; the shorter the name, the easier it is for the eye to read, and the more likely people will look into your band. In addition, much of the nu metal/alternative rock advertisement centers around wanting to be "different:, so we took common aspects of band advertisement (merchandise) and added our own twist. We planned to sell less-common merchandise, like socks, pins, vinyls, stickers. These may seem "normal" for artsy bands, even metal bands, but it is not common for more mainstream artists, who simply sell clothing or accessories. With this, we hope the uniqueness of our band will stand out even more.
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| Aloof's Instagram. |
Developing Our Band/Band Image
We started the development process of our band by deciding what image we were wanting to achieve. We had to keep the aspects of the alternative/nu metal genre, but we also wanted to add uniqueness to our band, something to separate it from the rest and make it different. So, we began brainstorming the amount of members, the band name, and backstory. We ultimately, decided for one of our group members to be the face of the group, with two other band members that were lesser known/hidden. We wanted to base our entire campaign around him primarily, especially having him as the prime focus of our music video. The song itself is greatly symbolic of mental illness or substance abuse, and we wanted to keep this representation and make it an integral part of our campaign. We planned to make our social media pages random and disorganized to embody this; we would post irregularly and without meaning, and we ultimately wanted it to appear as if we were not putting much effort into the promotion, though we truly are. During this time we also began the creative process, including coming up with a band name, storyboarding our music video, and designing sketches for our album cover (pictured below). For our band name, we wanted to have a meaningful name, but not something too symbolic where it would be too complicated for our target audience (teens and young adults) to understand. When it came to our album cover, we wanted to keep the same unbothered, disinterested persona and created something messy and imperfect. We roughly sketched out different ideas for the album, that way we would be set on our idea before moving to Adobe Photoshop, our app of preference for the creation of the album cover. After doing so, we put the rest of our time into storyboarding the music video, again keeping the messy, rock theme, and creating a presentation to market our band and advertising strategies.
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| Rough sketches of ideas for Aloof's album cover. |
Challenges and Next Steps
The planning aspect of the project was extremely detailed and time-consuming, but the tedious nature was worth it, because we were able to learn significantly more on how artists are marketed, and how every decision in their campaigns is strategically planned out beforehand. Although we had fun brainstorming new ideas and using our creativity to the fullest, we were definitely challenged in terms of time, which is similar to what the actual marketing companies experience. We felt that we had so many ideas, even too many for the time we were given; however, we managed to plan accordingly and go with what we thought would appeal to the public, and us, the best. In addition, we faced challenges in terms of giving our group a "wow factor", or something that would simply set them aside from others. The music industry is extremely competitive, and we realized with this project how difficult it is to come up with something completely unique. Therefore, we definitely struggled in making our band unique and different from the other artists within its genre, yet appealing to the public eye. Furthermore, we now plan to continue filming and editing our music video, and perfecting shots to our liking. After doing so, we will solidify our campaign with its final touches before adding everything to our visual presentation where we will market Aloof and our advertising strategies to the class.
