By shelz.
In the age of image, marketing a woman in music, at any age, is a complicated affair. Even in a youth obsessed culture, youth is never enough alone. And while pretty girls certainly have an easier go of it, not even beauty is enough. Ask Mya. You will run out of fingers counting off the beautiful ones who failed at becoming singing sensations.
When a woman on the wrong side of the age and beauty standards shows up in a record label board room, chances are, there is no stock promotion plan for her at all. She can’t be sold as the idol of teens, or the perv fantasy of the mid-lifers. Nor can she be spiffed up enough to take the role of the refined, ultra-sophisticated chanteuse. Old and hot is sophisticated. Old and not is grandma.
More times than not that woman is probably sent packing as the marketing department can’t imagine how to sell her image. Never would they ever consider that her talent was enough. Who does that? Who pays money for a record made by a woman because she can sing?
Well, if the projections are correct, probably about 3 million people by 2009’s end.
In a year of sagging sales, shrinking market share, a migration to downloading rather than purchasing physical CD’s, and constant debate over dated rules and regulations of music distribution, Susan Boyle has done the impossible. She garnered a deal, set records for most Youtube and Wikipedia views, and broke the record for most records sold by a female artist in her first week debut. By January 1st, she may very well top the likes of Taylor Swift, Eminem, and The Black Eyed Peas for most albums sold in 2009. What’s so powerful is that she did it fully clothed, sans barbed wire and faux scandal; with no sex tapes, and no red carpets. She did it with her talent.
Beneath the Soundscan surface, the improbable rise of the Scottish spinster to global superstardom becomes even more remarkable when you note that her album is challenging widely held beliefs about the logistics of the music business itself. Aging women who have succeeded in this industry have stood the test of time; navigating the industry for years and surviving on their cultivated fan bases as their careers age, with heir paid dues generating respect and longevity. Even then, the iconic can take a wrong turn and still face the firing squad. Ask Janet Jackson. It’s very rare that an artist breaks into the game already middle aged, gender notwithstanding, and becomes a phenomenon.
People believe that this happens primarily because the young dollars are the ones spent with reckless abandon. Teenagers and young adults are typically tapped by marketing experts because they are the demographic most likely to buy music. And their decision making process when it comes to those purchases is influenced by the image the artist displays. In other words, if you can determine what’s hot right now with the kids, and stuff some artist into that box, they will buy with little regard to the quality of the music. But since it is the kids discovered and perfected the art of internet piracy, that market may just be turning into the withered dust bowl that the older crowd has been viewed as. Considering even Hip-Hop was led in sales this year by the 30 and up artists, it makes you wonder if the paradigm of the music buyer has shifted. 17 year old high school students didn’t snatch up millions of copies of Boyle’s album. Their parents did. AND they bought the physical CD.
So as we watch some artists morph from fresh faced adolescents to barbed wire-clad sex queens, it’s obvious that the old paradigm is at work. And for every album that drops another layer of eroticism will be added until they are whipping out body parts at sporting events in the hopes that the peep show will produce a gold album. Then the flip side holds some of the older artists who have to fight tooth and nail to maintain their stance on the lofty pedestal of the cultured; walking the thin line between the past and the present to retain relevance. In between, we have Susan Boyle, a woman who is the complete antithesis of those cookie cutter images, but is managing to outsell them both.
With this in mind, the industry may want to re-evaluate how they sell women in music and who they are selling them to. And instead of investing on rip away bras, fishnets and plastic surgery, they may want to consider splurging on voice lessons. It looks like music consumers may be suggesting with their pockets that they just want to hear someone who can belt out a decent tune minus the unrelated pitch. Maybe it’s time to simply sell…good music? What a novel concept.
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Why is Janet Jackson even mentioned in this post? Janet Jackson is 43 last time i checked that was not middle age. Also Janet Jackson is a former child star turned singer she is not a middle aged women breaking into the music scene.Janet is an entertainer and Susan is just a singer.You are comparing apples and oranges here.Also Janet had a 2004 superbowl scadal to deal with.Like i said why is Janet’s name even mentioned here ?
I’m sure the author will respond to you , but as a reader, you just cosigned everything the author said.
“Aging women who have succeeded in this industry have stood the test of time; navigating the industry for years and surviving on their cultivated fan bases as their careers age, with heir paid dues generating respect and longevity”
Janet Jackson is in her 40s. That’s middle aged. As a pop musician, that’s almost old age.
The superbowl gimmick was a plan that failed. It actually backfired. Just as the author said.
Thanks for reading however. Please stick around.