What do they share: Lady Gaga, Beyonce, Adele, Rihana…?
I am not into music. It happened that the French weekly magazine “Courrier International” issued a special number on women: Women in power, in sciences, in music…On the ground that if power corrupt, it can also corrupt people willing to take advantage of people in power…
It happened that I read the piece on pop music, and I leave it to you to judge on the good content of the article. The Guardian wrote: “The market for pop music is not big enough to for more than four pop singers. Somehow, it is expected that a couple of the top female singers will make room for two fresh faces in a year or two. Soon, we might realize that only one female singer held her ground and become of the same stature as Aretha Franklin, Whitney Houston, Diana Ross, Britney Spears, or Mariah Carey…It is as we ask talent hunters to get busy on the street and fetch new young and photogenic faces for the pop music industry…”
Miranda Sawyer of The Observer responded: “Girl solo singers are easier to manage than a bunch of boy brats. Consequently, it is more profitable to focus on female singers.” Leonie Cooper of New Musical Express simplified the equation: “As more women and girls attend concerts and do buy magazine dedicated to music, it is logical that female divas of the pop are more numerous”
It appears that Lady Gaga and Rihana are expected to stay on the scene for longer than the other top pop singers. It does not mean that the other singers will vanish into thin air and vacate the place, but they won’t grab as much of the market.
Medias tend to generalize and simplify singers into two categories: One category is for the coquettish and sexy pin-up (Kylie Minogue, Beyonce, Britney, Christina Aguilera, or Duffy…); the other category is reserved for the rebel and moderately engaged pin-up such as Avril Lavigne, Gwen Stephani, P!nk, Lady Gaga, or Amy Whinehouse…)
Most of the pop singers tried to change category at different seasons and were successful in increasing their share of the market. There is a new trend of author-interpreter pop singers and have the last word on their public image such as Lady Gaga, Jessie J, Nicki Minaj, or Clare Maguire…) The Swedish electropop Robyn owns her own label company and got out three albums within a year, while resuming her concert contracts.
Rihana special voice is conducive to dancing songs. One common factor that all pop singers share is that “sex doped sell” and they make good use of sex to increase selling. For example, “Baby one more time” of Britney sold over 10 million since 2000.
The blog “Hipster runoff” created the word “slutwave” for this sex trend in crude songs and bare bodies, and Rolling Stone magazine adopted the term. The female hip-hop trio group “Yo Majesty” reproduced the macho attitudes and grabbed their pussies…Lady Gaga said: “A few women opt to run after men, others after their dreams. If you hesitate to choose, remember that your career will never remind you when you wake up that it does no longer love you.”
The idea of promoting a pop icon as representative of a life-style is very strong. For example, Cheryl Cole is current ambassador of L’Oreal, Lady Gaga for MAC cosmetic, Rihana for Nivea…One more advantage for female top singers is that they have no difficulties integrating commercial successes and individual integrity
Note: The authors of the piece “Les filles donnent le La” are Ines Munioz Martinez-Mora and Lucas Arrault.
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