In a time when Social Media is the key to connecting with your audience, how can artists freely and appropriately present themselves, without portraying a distorted truth?
It can’t be denied that artists/labels take full advantage of Social Media platforms like Instagram and Twitter as a direct communication with their fans, particularly those classed as ‘generation z’. Social Media can be one of the greatest marketing and development tools around but if used negligently, it can cause damaging behaviours.
There are various ‘social media influencers’ around, the concept of being an influencer has grown dramatically over the past few years and will continue to grow in the foreseeable future. I won’t be delving into all the types of social media influencers because we would be here for a while, today will be focused on the responsibility artists and labels have online.
Social Media is used as the ideal place for individuals to present their true self without the face to face judgement of others; which is amazing, right?
But, when its taken into account those who have easily influential followers, where does it become dangerous for a person to promote their lifestyles/ideologies online?
As I stated in the “Brand vs Legacy” blog, artist’s are a brand, they have an image to uphold through their music, promotional activities and online. However, there must be a line that separates responsible brand upkeep and a clear negligence of influential behaviour towards their audience. Brand reputation is key for any company and they have a responsibility to portray morally and ethically abiding content online or they face jeopardising their consumer trust. Although I am aware that artist’s can and have destroyed their reputation with silly behaviour, it appears to me that certain behaviours don’t apply online.
“Create an attractive bubble around an artist”
Evidently, the success of an artist depends very highly on their targeting of a key audience. I’ll be the first to admit that I’ve felt a sense of jealousy and even worthlessness when comparing my lifestyle to that of artists I follow online and I know I won’t be the only one. Record labels and artist managers are also very very aware of this, which is why they will use it to create an attractive bubble around an artist. It’s extremely rare to see artist’s giving insight into the struggles they face, this could be due to contractual reasons or a personal choice yet social media is supposed to be for freedom of self expression.
I won’t name artists who show a lack of moral code online because who says they are the ones controlling the content but whether it’s posting of drug usage, drinking, over-sexualised or extremely unnatural photoshopping; somebody is to blame.
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