Extension of income/Power

Stars have become more powerful over the last decade due to increases in influences being portrayed by all the media types (text, videos, internet etc). Certain stars project a certain type of power.

Example 1: 50Cent

During the majority of 50Cent’s videos, its clear to the audience that he is projecting the idea that he has money, creating an economic influence; the more money you have, the happier you can be, the more successful you are.

Example 2: Lady GaGa

Lady GaGa is clearly seen as a purely artistic music video artist, helped by a lot of the final idea’s being having the controlling vote on all ideas. Having had most of her videos spoken about during the first few weeks of the video’s release, Lady GaGa creates an artistic influence that can allow people to project themselves in interesting and new ways, breaking the bond between stereotypes and assumptions.

Example 3: Bono

Bono, from U2, has been seen to ‘have it all’. By creating an ideological influence for the audience, lyrics and personality has portrayed a set of beliefs that members of the audience can aspire to. By being very involved with humanitarian work, it portrays an image to the audience that he is an ideal person: helping others and being unselfish.

Many executives in the music industry have previously debated the use of YouTube to artists, questioning whether it’s a help or becoming a hindrance to the artist making money. YouTube has faced controversy for not making viewers pay to view videos and had previously banned all music videos from playing after an agreement with a record company had fallen through. Websites like www.musicthinktank.com house articles on the use of YouTube to artists, questioning if it’s affecting all artists, or those who are unknown. Various executives, on behalf of the Google company division, have stated that YouTube helps boost sales for artists because others are able to view the videos and preview the full track before paying [most frequently using iTunes] therefore increasing the YouTube viewer’s number as well as sales.