Similar Artist Research - Bombay Bicycle Club

Bombay Bicycle Club are an indie rock band from Crouch End, London. It is useful knowing this exact area because we can now do research into their background and how successful they actually have been in coming from such an area. It is composed of 4 members, Jack Steadman, Jamie MacColl, Suren De Saram and Ed Nash.

In an interview with ContactMusic, a site which interviews and reviews different musicians, the band said they were influenced by many 1990's american bands including Pavement and Sonic Youth. This is useful information as we can further research into these artists and see what type of style they have allowing us to gain more information.

I have read over the whole interview which ContactMusic carried out with Bombay Bicycle Club and some of the information is useful, as we can use it to inform decisions we will make on our project. The link for the interview is here: http://www.contactmusic.com/interview/bombay-bicycle-clubx03x08x09

In terms of how the band fashion themselves, they also draw a lot of their style influences from the 90's. A piece on the band as a whole and their style and then each member's individual style was carried out by Fashion Beans, a website which focuses on the fashion on celebrities etc. This article can be viewed here and is well worth the read as it gives details on individual pieces of fashion for each artist and allows us to tailor certain aspects minutely to our final artist.

http://www.fashionbeans.com/2010/bombay-bicycle-club-style-steal/


Their Albums:

I had the blues but I shook them loose:

I absolutely love this cover because of the vintage image in the background. These vintage or atleast vintage looking images are becoming ever popular now especially with stores like Urban Outfitters, who use many of these images in their products and to influence the styling of their shop. The simplicity of the text and the stark contrast between the black and white image and the blue of the text is also very well done as it catches the eye of audience. It's not over professional but looks like an album that one would want to buy. This cover doesn't give much away about the band, therefore intriguing a possible audience. I think it would be useful for us to draw influence on this album, because of its simplistic yet attention grabbing nature and adeptness to todays market.

Flaws:

This album cover I'm not as fussed on. While again I fee it has that edge which is becoming popular in the market today, for me, I think its quite boring and not eye catching enough. The simplicity and dark colours I feel aren't appealing for a young audience and thus this isn't something I think I would like to apply to our piece. I do however like the text that is applied for the titles. I think this simple, vintage style font is really good looking when applied to an album and would be one which would be worthwhile considering. I think however, the font used needs to be informed by the music and therefore, if for example we used quite a loud song this wouldn't be suitable. Therefore, this has highlighted to me the need to consider all aspects including music and artist when designing small parts of the album, including font.

A different kind of fix:

Again, I really like this album cover and the colours, the natural colours used. I love the fact that the same titling for Bombay Bicycle Club from the first album has been applied again here. I love the colours and the font and their simplistic style and how they don't give away much about the contents of the album. The abstract nature of the 2 faces and colours and pattersn within are a useful tool by enticing possible audience to check out the album. All of these methods we could apply to our artist and would be worthwhile for us to consider.







Website:

Again, as before with the previous 2 artists, Bombay Bicycle Club implement the same style within their website. It is very simple, with neutral colours implemented and not complicated or distracting for a viewer of the website. As this is pretty much the same as the other websites, I don't think its necessary to go into much evaluation, however it confirms that in terms of our website design, we might be better to go with a simpler design.

Demographic:
I used music analytics website, beluga.grooveshark, to gain an insight into how their fans are distributed and it is as below:

This is useful because it shows us what group of people we need to target mostly, but also how the current methods Bombay Bicycle Club adapt, are not targeting other demographics. Thus showing that if we want to target a higher demographic, that we might need to think of new methods for marketing and styling. However, I always thought we were  going to target a younger female/male demographic and therefore this is simply helpful in showing us that this genre is popular amongst this demographic and the styling, sound and marketing of Bombay Bicycle Club is successful for this age range confirming that it would be worthwhile for us to considering implementing some of their techniques.

Similar Artist Research Marina and the Diamonds

Marina Lambrini Diamandis, or Marina and the Diamonds, is a 28 year old Greek-Welsh singer and songwriter. She first discovered her talent in secondary school and eventually went on to to study at a dance school in London. Here she auditioned for many different things including musicals, with eventually being signed by a

record label. 

Marina Lambrini Diamands, or Marina and the Diamonds, is a 28 year old Greek-Welsh singer and songwriter. She first discovered her talent in secondary school and eventually went on to to study at a dance school in London. Here she auditioned for many different things including musicals, with eventually being signed by a record label. 

Critics have characterized her as a DIY musician, and described her music as an alternative to mainstream pop music. She is often catalogued as a new wave pop artist. She herself stated that she was an 'indie artist with pop goals.' 

She has said she has been influenced by a wide range of musicians, including PJ Harvey and Britney Spears. This is useful for us to keep in mind, again in terms of styling our artist. She herself has said that Daniel Johnston was one of the most influential people for her. I think it would be worth while for us to look into him a bit deeper, especially when we take what she said about him into account:

He really opened me up to a whole new world of music and a whole new perception of what an artist is. For me, he really encouraged me because if you think of someone who has been spoon-fed pop, up until twenty-one years old, and you hear someone like Daniel Johnston you're like "God, this is terrible, but I love it." It sounds like a child has made it, like, the production is so all over the place. He's obviously got something very captivating here yet he doesn't fit the normal mould and people still love him. I thought "if he can do it then [so can I]," that's when I started to produce things myself and play live, even though I wasn't even great on the piano. It's all about emotion and if you have heart, people connect to that.

As well be noted for her music, she is also noted for her attire. She described her own attire in three words - Vintage, Cheerleader and Cartoon. She also has drawn her style inspiration from other celebrities including Gwen Stefani. Some influential designers for her include: Beyond Retro, Laura Mackness. This is useful for us as we can research these designers and discover a bit more about their style and apply it to our final product. 

New Wave

New wave music is an umbrella term for several late-1970s to mid-1980s pop/rock styles, with ties to 1970s punk rock. Initially – as with the later post-punk – new wave was broadly analogous to punk rock, before branching as a distinctly identified genre, incorporatingelectronic/experimental music, mod, disco and pop. It subsequently engendered subgenres and fusions, including new romantic and goth rock.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_wave_music

Daniel Johnston

Daniel Johnson is an American Singer Songwriter.  His work gained notoriety when he moved to Austin Texas.  From there is career grew with him gaining a place on a then MTV show for new artists
and with well known artists such as Kurt Kobain endorsing his products. (Kurt Kobain was spotted wearing a top with Johnston's album cover on the front. His music style was described as spotty but brilliant. There was a film made about his music career called The Devil and Daniel Johnston. It documented his life from childhood until present, with emphasis on his experience with bipolar disorder and how it manifested itself in demonic self-obssession.

By looking at the albums which Marina and the diamonds has produced, we can apply our findings to our production by taking certain methods she has applied. To date, she has produced 2 albums; The Family Jewels and Electra Heart.


I like this style of cover, with a more detailed background and very simple text and pose from Marina and The Diamonds, I like how the text looks like it has been written on as it gives it a more original quality. The colours that are used I feel are quite traditional to the indie pop genre. I like how she has been photoshopped in and obviously filters have been applied to her face which gives her an almost cartoon like quality. I think this would be good option for us to consider if we consider pursuing a song which is upbeat or girlish.

 Again this cover is very simple and quite similar to the above one for The Family Jewels. I however prefer the previous cover as I feel this lacks a professional touch with the font. The font is quite ordinary and does't have any unique touch to it. I do however think the colours in this cover were altered very well and make the cover look different to all people.







Overall, I feel these 2 covers are very girly, which is fair enough considering this is a female artist. I think the only thing we could take from these is that colour manipulation can be very effective, especially in the second cover which manipulates each persons view. I like the idea of using handwritten text, as seen in the first album ad this may be somewhere we would want to explore a little further.

Website

Like Lana Del Rey's website, again the theme and text employed in Marina and The Diamonds video is very simple. With a plain, texture background in very neutral colours and the text being the same that was used on her Electra Heart Album. However when I compare these 2 sites so far, I think I would prefer Lana Del Rey's as it still has that bit more extra to it. I feel this example is far to plain and almost boring and therefore would not hold our audience. So I like the idea of the plainer, neutral website but not so plain that it is boring. 


Audience

In terms of gender, the following graphic, obtained from Beluga by Groove shark, shows the division in her audience in terms of gender

This shows that Marina and The Diamonds has a bigger popularity amongst the female population. I would expect this considering her style and the fact that she herself is female. I don't males would be a sinterested in her music, they may be interested in her due to looks etc but not her music.

In terms of age, she is most popular with 18-24 year old females and less popular with 45-54 year old males. I understand this and would expect this, due to Marina and The Diamonds sound and style, which I believe is more suited and more tailored to a younger female audience, rather than the older male audience. I think she would possibly be a bit more popular amongst younger males, possibly within the 18-24 bracket, or under 30 for her appearance, but not necessarily because of her music. This is useful for us to apply to our artist because we now know how different factors can affect the different audiences we appeal too.