Music Artists Research Articles

Market Entry Opportunities for a Music Artist

A music artist whose goal is to succeed in the music market needs to understand what the opportunities are. The music market is developed and full of a wide range of music artists that meet the expectations of different consumers. Every year, new music artists enter the music market, looking for opportunities to expand the recognition of their name as a brand and of their work. The aim of this paper is to find out what are the market entry opportunities for a music artist by analysing information and scientific sources and interviewing experienced music managers.

Body Positivity, Physical Health, and Emotional Well-Being Discourse on Social Media: Content Analysis of Lizzo's Instagram.

Weight stigma is a fundamental cause of health inequality. Body positivity may be a counterbalance to weight stigma. Social media is replete with weight-stigmatizing content and is a driver of poor mental health outcomes; however, there remains a gap in understanding its potential to mitigate the prevalence and impact of harmful messaging and to promote positive effects on a large scale. We selected musical artist Lizzo, whose brand emphasizes body positivity and empowerment, for an instrumental case study on the discourse on social media and specifically Instagram. We focused on 3 domains, including body positivity, physical health, and emotional well-being. These domains challenge social norms around weight and body size and have the potential to positively affect the physical and psychological health of people with diverse body sizes. We evaluated posts by Lizzo, comments from Instagram users, and replies to comments over a 2-month period (October 11 to December 12, 2019). Two coders rated Lizzo's posts and Instagram users' comments for their sentiments on the 3 domains. Replies to Instagram users' comments were assessed for their reactions to comments (ie, did they oppose or argue against the comment or did they support or bolster the comment). Engagement metrics, including the number of "likes," were also collected. The final sample included 50 original posts by Lizzo, 250 comments from Instagram users, and 1099 replies to comments. A proportion of Lizzo's content included body positive sentiments (34%) and emotional well-being (18%); no posts dealt explicitly with physical health. A substantial amount Instagram users' comments and replies contained stigmatizing content including the use of nauseated and vomiting emojis, implications that Lizzo's body was shameful and should be hidden away, accusations that she was promoting obesity, and impeachments of Lizzo's health. In spite of the stigmatizing content, we also discovered content highlighting the beneficial nature of having positive representation of a Black woman living in a larger body who is thriving. Moreover, analysis of the discourse between users illustrated that stigmatizing expressions are being combated online, at least to some degree. This study demonstrates that Lizzo has exposed millions of social media users to messages about body positivity and provided more visibility for conversations about weight and shape. Future research should examine the extent to which body positive messages can lead to greater acceptance of individuals living in larger bodies. Instagram and other social media platforms should consider ways to reduce body-shaming content while finding ways to promote content that features diverse bodies. Shifting the landscape of social media could decrease stereotypes about weight and shape while increasing dialog about the need for greater acceptance and inclusion of people with diverse bodies.

Revolutionizing Music Production with ChatGPT Applications: Accessibility, Creativity, and Impact on the Industry in China

This study investigates the revolutionization of the application of ChatGPT with respect to its accessibility, creativity, and impact on music industry in China. To achieve this, the study employed Z-test technique for difference in proportion and the ordered logistic regression model. These methods were used to explore deeper into suitable strategies using survey with a sample size of 385 music artists including music producers, songwriters, artists/musicians, and sound engineers.

The influence of generative AI on popular music: Fan productions and the reimagination of iconic voices

This essay explores the burgeoning phenomenon of fan-generated content that utilizes generative artificial intelligence (AI) to mimic the voices of deceased or retired popular music artists. This practice can be seen as an extension of Digital Audio Workstations’ (DAWs’) capabilities, potentially leading to the creation of musical pieces that resemble traditional covers and mash-ups. The essay analyzes three representative works in this creative category. Two of them are of a fan nature, exploring imagined alternative paths in the development of popular music, while the third is a parody. As these examples demonstrate, the rise of AI covers raises numerous questions. These include concerns about the nature of human creativity and the potential response of the music industries to this technology’s proliferation.

"Gimme Some Truth"

For the past 70 years, researchers and experimental musicians have been working with computer-synthesized music, forming a collaborative relationship with generative artificial intelligences known as human–AI co-creation. The last several years have shown that musical artists are quickly adopting AI tools to produce music for AI music competitions and for commercial production of songs and albums. The United States Copyright Office, in response to this trend, has released its latest policy revisions to clearly define what is eligible for copyright registration. Soon after, the Program for Cooperative Cataloging (PCC) also released new guidelines, providing recommendations for how library catalogers should address AI-generated materials. In both cases, they reject the notion of considering AI as a contributor. The language in each of these policies, however, is self-contradicting, showing that they are ill equipped to address generative AI. This study leverages critical textual analysis and qualitative content analysis and uses case examples to probe the manner in which these policies regard generative AI. Recommendations are made for addressing shortcomings in the PCC’s policies, and moral philosophical frameworks such as virtue ethics and consequentialism support arguments for supplementing catalog item records with information from authoritative external sources, deviating from this policy for the sake of truth-seeking.

Predictors of Cigar, Cigarillo, and Little Cigar Initiation Among Hip Hop-Identifying Youth

Background: We explored predictors of cigar product initiation among Hip Hop-identifying U.S. youth using data from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s Fresh Empire evaluation. Participants were Hip Hop-identifying youth living in evaluation markets who had not initiated cigar product use at their first survey. Objectives: We modeled cigar product initiation odds using discrete time survival analysis logistic regression models as a function of factors related to one’s large social, physical, social/normative, and intrapersonal environment, and other tobacco use. Results: In the unique sample, 26.2% initiated cigar product use. Factors associated with higher cigar product initiation odds included: current/former (vs. non-susceptible never) cigarette smoking (odds ratio [OR]=5.35; p=.008); cigarette experimentation (vs. non-susceptible never smoking) (OR=3.26; p<.001); current (vs. never) e-cigarette use (OR=2.06; p<.001) and hookah use (OR=1.83; p=.011); having at least one friend who uses marijuana (OR=1.43; p=.008); high music use (OR=1.32; p=.035); household tobacco use (OR=1.26; p =.042); increased age (OR=1.18; p< .001); and higher sensation seeking (OR=1.16; p=.018). Youth reporting higher perceived smoking risks had lower cigar product initiation odds (OR=0.86; p=.029) as did Hispanic (OR=0.53; p<.001) and non-Hispanic Other youth (OR= 0.68; p=.023) (vs. non-Hispanic Black youth). Conclusions: The finding that high music use predicted cigar product initiation should be considered in light of cigar brand sponsorship of musical artists and events and indicates a potential opportunity for counter messaging. Peer crowd segmentation in this study identified unique and differing factors that influence tobacco use risk among Hip Hop-identifying youth that are not found in the general population.

The Emergence of Cantopop from Hong Kong's Cultural History from the 1930s to the 1980s

In the 1980s and 90s, Hong Kong-born Cantopop music reached a climax of popularity throughout Asia. The genres development serves as a lyrical mirror reflecting Hong Kongs unique cultural history. First inspired by popular musical forms from the 1920s, its development serves as an artistic resolution to the competition between Asian self-awareness experienced by the British colonys Chinese majority and local pride generated by living in a wealthy Western oasis sheltered from much of the instability that plagued neighboring countries. Cantopop as a distinct cultural product is defined by major historical shifts in Hong Kongs history, from rebellion against British colonial hubris to the aftermath of World War II, international relations during the Korean War, the immigration of musical artists from Mainland China and Taiwan, local reactions to events in China, and Hong Kongs uneven economic advancement as an Asian Tiger. These events would leave a mark on the local Hong Kong identity, expressed musically through Cantopop, as waves of immigration and borrowing from foreign traditions formed a new and distinct political, social and cultural identity. This paper traces and explains this musical development by juxtaposing Hong Kongs history with changing musical trends.

Bearing Psychic Weight and Accountability: Navigating Racism and Microaggressions in Creative Work

This article examines how Indigenous, Black, and people of colour (IBPOC) music industry workers navigate moments of racism and microaggressions. Through interviews with musical artists and industry workers ( N = 55), the article identifies two strategies for navigating situational acts of racism: alleviation and confrontation. Those choosing to alleviate reactions to racism express a psychic weight that stays with them, while those choosing to confront racism report that social accountability guides their actions. These strategies reveal both the persistence of and resistance to the music industry’s somatic norm – the corporeal baseline of whiteness against which non-White bodies are perceived and judged. They also result in a longer-term mental load that becomes constitutive of career advancement efforts.

Spiders from Mars. (Re)-configuring musicians’ stories through their songs

The present article investigates the idea of movement in terms of re-generation, re-writing and re-semiotization, where movement is not to be intended only as the one from one code to another, but from one dimension to another (from experiential to textual), from one position to another (from surface to core, from general to particular, and vice versa), from one discursive perspective to another (from extended to brief, from detailed to synthetic, from articulated to simple, and vice versa). More specifically, this analysis focusses on Popular Music artists’ biographies and autobiographies, where the artist’s life experience is morphed into a textual artefact, a story, and, notably, the focus will be on the type of titles that writers choose for these stories. Being musicians known for their musical output – simply put, their songs – the present investigations seeks to see how biographers and autobiographers resort to song references in order to provide impactful and coherent handles for their stories, that is to say, titles that will, firstly, help identify the artist in connection to a recognizable part of their production, secondly, that may embody and condense the sense of such stories in catchy one-liners and, thirdly, that will anticipate and cohere with the contents to be found in the ensuing texts.

Resonating Culture: Ethnomusicological Theories Unveiling Zhuhu Music in Yangxin Tea-picking Opera of China

More than a century ago, the enchanting tea-picking songs enjoyed widespread popularity among the residents of Yangxin in China. These songs served as a source of entertainment within the tea plantation quarters. Folk music artists subsequently reworked these melodies, transforming them into short tunes for collective singing and dancing during the Lantern Festival. The integration of Huangmei tea-picking opera with the "lantern opera" further shaped the musical identity of Yangxin tea-picking opera. This research aims to analyze the features of zhuhu music and its contribution to the musical culture of the Yangxin community, with a particular emphasis on analyzing the music's characteristics and its cultural significance. The study will also delve into the evolving status of zhuhu music within contemporary Yangxin society. Employing an ethnographic research design, I combines participant observation and interviews with her own field experiences to provide a comprehensive account of traditional zhuhu performance practices in Yangxin tea-picking opera. Through a musicological analysis of zhuhu's repertoire, the paper uncovers the uniqueness of zhuhu music and traces changes in its traditional form, style, and function, linking these shifts to broader socio-cultural transformations. In approaching the study of this musical performance, I draw upon theories from the field of ethnomusicology. Building on my preliminary investigation of zhuhu music, I shaped the study by considering theoretical insights from various scholars and incorporating my perspectives. The paper will discuss pertinent theories applied to analyze the music of zhuhu as it accompanies Yangxin tea-picking opera. This research not only contributes to ethnomusicological theory and methodology but also deepens our understanding of the musical culture surrounding Yangxin tea-picking opera in China.

The structural and activity method of studying the universal creative personality (on the example of musical culture)

The trend of the global educational process aimed at developing a universal creative personality is leading young people to expand their professional spectrum. The study of the universal personality of a musical artist is a prominent issue in the context of socio-cultural changes in the life of modern society. The aim of the research is to study the specific and characteristic features of a creative personality as well as to clarify the aspects of the formation of a musician’s universal personality. This article uses the following scientific methods to study the issue of universal creative personality of a music student: description, analysis, synthesis, comparison, abstraction and generalisation. The paper highlights the issues of formation and development of the universality of the creative personality in the representatives of musical culture. The authors studied the functions of leading and auxiliary activities in the process of forming a musician’s creative personality in view of personal motivation. The work analyses and highlights the ways of forming and developing the creative aspects of a musician’s personality. This study also examines the typology of the universal creative personality, which resulted in the formation of the following types of musical personalities, in particular, the musician-master and the musician-creator and the differences between them. The article explores the structure and activity of the creative personality of a composer, performer, musicologist, teacher and public figure. The authors’ work can be a subject of further investigation by researchers and teachers who will study the topic of universal creative personality of music students.

Challenging Norms and Practices in Women’s Beach Handball: The Bikini Debate

Since 1978, the Norwegian Act for Gender Equality has created a strong emphasis on the importance of equality in all parts of society. This implies equal access to all cultural and welfare activities and services—including sports. In the media, we often see strong reactions to examples of discrimination based on gender, such as during the 2021 European Beach Handball Championship, when the Norwegian women’s beach handball team was fined by the European Handball Federation for refusing to play in bikini bottoms during their final matches. Media attention was given to the ensuing international outrage, which included well-known music artist Pink offering to pay on the team’s behalf in a gesture of solidarity. In November 2021, the sport’s International Federation agreed to allow women to compete in a similar uniform to men. This study analyses Norwegian newspaper coverage of the responses from Norwegian women athletes, politicians, and the international sports/media community from July 2021 to March 2022. It also provides an opportunity to determine to what extent the media framed and participated in calls for change.

대중문화예술인의 스트레스와 제도적 요인의 관계 연구

This study aims to analyze the stress experienced by popular culture artists in the changing work environment. This study used the data from the '2021 Survey on Artists &amp; Activities' in Korea. We analyzed the impact of institutional factors on artists' stress by popular culture field through Ordered logistic regression analysis between film, broadcast, and popular music artists and their stress levels. Career Interruption, Activities period, education, On-the-job injury, residence area and full-time status of broadcast artist significantly affected artist's stress. Also, Public Pension Salaried Workers of broadcast artist, and Group membership of popular music artist significantly affected artists' stress. On the other hand, Experience with Artist Unemployment Insurance were not found to be significant variables. This study suggests that the impact of institutional factors may differ depending on the nature of the popular culture sector, and shows the social limitations of the Artist Unemployment Insurance. The findings suggest that institutional improvements are needed, such as including artists in the scope of existing welfare schemes.

Relentless Melt: visual trends and aesthetics of contemporary visual music films in Hong Kong

In recent years, a growing trend of abstract and experimental animation has emerged in Hong Kong, with an increasing number of works produced over the last two decades, particularly since around 2015. This article examines how Hong Kong artists approach abstract animation, the predominant aesthetic trends, and how these trends relate to or diverge from Western traditions in visual music, following pioneers such as Hans Richter, Viking Eggeling, Oskar Fischinger, Harry Smith and Norman McLaren. Employing content analysis, as used by Emmanouil Kanellos (2018) and textual analysis, this study investigates 95 selected works from the Relentless Melt screening series curated by Max Hattler and organized by the Hong Kong-based society Relentless Melt. By categorizing the data under two separate systems – the ‘What System’ and the ‘Where System’, as suggested by Margaret Livingstone in Vision and Art: The Biology of Seeing (2002) – the analysis encompasses aspects related to the perception or recognition of objects, faces, or other properties under the ‘What System’, and the perception of motion, depth, spatial organization and figure/ground segregation under the ‘Where System’. Unlike pioneering visual music artists who largely abandoned mimetic constructions in their aesthetics, some Hong Kong artists employ various types of representational abstraction. In addition, many do not shy away from expressing concepts or narratives in their hybrid visual music works while retaining fundamental elements, such as audio-visual synchronization. This project represents an initial step towards a more systematic understanding of Hong Kong’s visual music practices, aiming to promote plurality over homogeneity by critically examining the multiple facets of artistic practice in Hong Kong. It is hoped that this study will contribute to international scholarly discourse and establish a trajectory for further exploration.

Saudi youth views on hosting western music festivals: problematic performances and positive perceptions

ABSTRACT This exploratory study distils the views of Saudis aged 18–30 on hosting Western music festivals as part of the “Saudi Seasons” tourism strategy. Although the strategy has typically focused on developing cultural heritage tourism or business events, several Western music festivals have also been introduced. These festivals included prominent international music artists across various genres and represented a major shift in the types of tourism experiences previously found in Saudi Arabia. Most festivals were primarily designed to attract younger Saudi cohorts and therefore this study explored the views of the Saudi youth through a series of focus groups. Focus group participants revealed that Western music festivals presented a range of paradoxical issues and highlighted the complexity of rapidly developing new tourism experiences. Thus, this study underscores the critical importance of carefully cultivating future Western music festivals so that they produce positive social impacts within the conservative cultural and religious context of the country.

How Libraries Can Foster a Vibrant Local Music Community

This column outlines how libraries can add value to their both their digital offerings and programming while providing local music artists with a curated, low-barrier entrance into streaming media. Library-hosted digital music collections give up-and-coming artists increased exposure and credibility to listeners and open a wealth of opportunities to engage with their communities.

THANKS AND GOODBYE: A CORPUS-ASSISTED DISCOURSE ANALYSIS ON EMOTIONAL DISTRESS IN BTS’ SUGA’S K-POP COMPOSITIONS

Mental health issues have become prevalent among music artists, more specifically among Korean pop (K-pop) idols. Bangtan Boys’ (BTS) Agust D (aka Suga), for a time adopted his alter ego to voice out his inner turmoil. Using corpus discourse analysis grounded on emotion-focused therapy framework, we analysed the linguistic patterns used by Agust D in his trilogy of mixtapes i.e., Agust D, D-2, and D-day released in 2016, 2020, and 2023. Findings showed his creative use of language in describing his contrasting emotions e.g., fear and anger. Linguistic evidence suggests that his anger is a primary maladaptive emotion which channelled self-criticism triggered by fear and shame, and denial of his feelings was a form of self-defence. Changes in the linguistic patterns were significant as they presented his state of mental well-being, coming to terms with his inner struggles, and fully embracing his true self.

Impression management through social media: impact on the market performance of musicians’ human brands

PurposeHuman brands in the music industry use self-presentation tactics on social media to manage audience impressions. This practice has led to many posts asking followers to adopt behaviors favoring the human brand. However, its effectiveness in leveraging relevant performance metrics for musicians outside social media, such as popularity in specialized media, music sales and number of contracted concerts, needs further exploration. This study aims to reveal the effect of impression management tactics conveyed on social media on the market performance of musicians’ human brands.Design/methodology/approachSecondary data research classifies 5,940 social media posts from 11 music artists into self-presentation tactics (self-promotion, exemplification, supplication and ingratiation). It shows their predictions on three market performance metrics in an annual balanced panel study.FindingsImpression management tactics via posts on social media are mostly self-promotion, improving the musicians’ market performance by increasing the number of contracted concerts. Conversely, ingratiation generated the most positive effect on the musician’s popularity but reduced music sales. Besides lowering the musicians’ popularity, exemplification also reduced the number of contracted concerts, while the supplication had no significant effect.Originality/valueTo the best of the authors’ knowledge, the research is the first to use social media postings of musicians’ official human brand profiles based on self-presentation typologies as a complete impression management tool. Furthermore, it is the first to test the effects of these posts on market performance metrics (i.e. outside of social media) in a longitudinal study.

Left off the circuit: the impact of shrinking live music tours on cities

ABSTRACT In recent years, leading music artists have been performing significantly fewer shows, in part due to growing concerns for their wellbeing, but also because of rising energy cost, environmental issues, and industry consolidation. As a result, many cities now host much fewer top ‘headliners’ artists and bands than before. This study investigates what being effectively ‘left off’ tours means for cities. Proceeding from industry data, it first quantifies the decline in the number of stops for large tours between 2010 and 2019, and shows that many North American cities increasingly find themselves on the outside looking in. It then provides insights drawn from interviews with city officials on both the negative and positive impacts of this trend. Namely, this study suggests that hosting fewer shows results in economic, cultural and reputational losses, yet also enable cities to grow a stronger local scene, design better policies, and develop distinctive new offerings.

Que “Macho” é Esse?: “Anormalização”de Subjetividades em Videoclipes de Bregafunk

Abstract The entertainment industry is featured by discursive productions of ideological nature. Accordingly, different music genres work as identity vectors; thus, it is possible perceiving the representation of male individuals as the dominant gender in some of them. Bregafunk music stands out among these genres, since its music videos highlight straight and virile men, by showing women, LGBTQIAPN+ individuals and fat bodies in a stigmatized way. Based on the Foucauldian theory, the current study addresses the subjectivity “abnormalization” process carried out by another socially dominant subjectivity as way to defend and maintain its position. In order to do so, the current research presents the following investigative question: how do bregafunk music video productions represent alterities to male subjectivity? In total, 777 bregafunk music videos posted on YouTube between September 2012 and September 2020 were herein investigated, based on the foucauldian discourse analysis, in order to answer this question. Results have evidenced the dominant discourse of “male bregafunk music artists”, which is anchored in a strategy focused on perpetuating stereotypes and chauvinism. Thus, it was possible concluding that this subjectivity is a variation of the alpha male, who resorts to his cultural repertoire and social context to consolidate himself as the dominant identity by subjugating other identities through a double move comprising self-affirmation and denial of others. In addition, it was possible inferring that targeting women, LGBTQIAPN+ and fat individuals may be a defense strategy to address the growing political space gained by these identities in recent decades.