Pop research

Justin Bieber is a well know pop artist who has a very big female fan base. He has millions of fans and hits on Youtube. What makes him a pop artist? His music is all simple and catchie, this makes it easy listening and you start to think of more than just the music and into his style. In his music video's we see him going after girls and sticking to the usual pop video style. However in one video we see Usha joining the teen party, we now get a different view on him and he starts to bring the R&B genre into his music but mainly his videos. His style is very casual and simple in jeans in a hoodie,although he puts a twist on his style with hats going back to the R&B look. Pop itself doesn't have a fan base but the artists inside the genre has fans who like to share their news about the artists within the internet world. Using social media like Facebook and Myspace is a big sites to use for getting new listeners into your music.

Club nights and Gigs

It is unlikely to find a nightclub just doing pop songs, you might find a club doing Indie or RnB but because pop music is in most songs you hear it in a lot of places. They might not have themed pop nights but they might have an era of pop such as 80's pop nights. In the same way festivals specifically featuring pop artits do not exist, however they may appear as special guests at other festivals. T4 on the beach is now a huge gig for pop music. This gig came from channels 4's T4 morning programme which inculded the new up to date music. The people that go here are usually a group of  teenagers, male and famale, this gig is a day time gig in the summer. This gig has made such a hit they now have one in Novemeber called stars of 2011 which brings together all the new artists of the year. A local club in Newmarket called Deniros has a pop,party and cheese genre every Sunday night. The X-Factor do a tour which is mainly pop based, they tour the country in arenas.

Over all to make it in pop you need to be something different and stand out from the crowd. You need to know where the best gigs are for your target audience in the pop genre it's T4 on the beach. You need to have a good style, and something for your fans to have while you haven't got a new hit out such as a clothing range or make up range. For pop the music most of the time has to be up beat and fit a wide range of people. To get more people listening the music 

Radio and TV stations

Pop songs are played on most well know stations. Radio 1 DJ's get given a list of songs which would fit their listeners. Chris Moyles plays the top charts, these inculde all pop songs and some R&B. I think this is because he is one DJ that gets most of the daily listeners and he trys to keep his audience open. Local Radio such as Heart Cambridge radio plays new music and old classic music usually being pop, however looking on the Heart website we don't see much about older music and it's all about artists such as JLS,The wanted, Olly Murs and Lady Gaga. This might be because younger people are more likely to be looking at their website than older people who might not have internet access.

 Smash hits is a radio station but also a TV channel which every day plays the top 10 songs which always includes a type of pop. Their website for their TV channel is very brightly coloured in the same way pop music is portrayed. They are definately trying to hit a young audience because they have music videos playing out of a stylish mobile phone, their channel is to show music being played in a "jukebox" style, the channel is dominated by pop. Smash hits used to have a gig called Smash hits poll winners party which used to get shown on BBC 1 it was like an award ceremony. It then got moved to channel 4 to later be cancelled, it's last showing was in 2005.

Magazines & Fanzines 

The pop genre comes across in lots of different magazines, because pop is such a big genre, it has a wide audience but mainly a big area in youth. For younger children their is magazines such as Pop Girl, Twist ( as seen below) and Girl. These are for the younger audience between 8-14. The artists in these magazines are mainly people like the Jonas Brothers, Miley Cyrus and Justin Bieber. These artists all aim themselves towards young girls as they all have the same style of pop music. On the other hand for teenage market there are lots of magazines mostly for teenage girls there are magazines such as Sugar, More and Heat. The way pop comes across in these is less about the music and more about the artits and who they are dating and their style. The actual pop music starts to die out, there is only a small section on music at the back of the magazine talking about new albums and singles.  

 People make fan sites on an artist like Justin Bieber who has a a lot of fan sites. The main one that comes up on Google is about what he does in a day such as him going to Great Ormand Street Hospital. The site is all about him there is no connection to anyone else in the pop industry. They encourage male fans to look like him there is a competition to look like Justin. We learn a little about his love life and who he is rumoured to be with. Most artits have fan site but Justin has more than others. These fan sites usually get there information from pages such as Myspace,facebook and the artits Twitter page. These sites are created by fans for fans and may mean the information is not always accurate. However most artists do have an official fan page produced by their own people.

 Fashion

Fashion is a big part to the artits style and how they come across to their target audience their fashion style is a key part to whom they may appeal to. Lady Gaga for example dresses outrageously this might attract some fans but for some people her style might not appeal and therfore they will be put off her music. There are some certain looks to this genre for example Boy Bands dress to attract a female audience (revealing muscle tone). However they don't want to disregard male fans and dress in high street fashion to enable their look to be copied. The pop music industry has a wide target audience and their dress style needs to be tasteful and because this audience is young the artists are seen as role models. On a recent X Factor show an appearance by Christina Aguilera was seen to be inappropriate for this prime time TV audience due to her revealing outfit and dance moves. This has had a knock on effect to her appeal but had nothing to do with her music. Many female pop artists tend to bring out their own ranges in make-up and perfume, Pixie Lott has gone one step further by bringing out her own small clothing range. This is to promote themselves as a brand so even when they are not releasing a new single or album they are still in the public eye.

  

(Pixie Lott)                                                     (Lady Gaga)   

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