Institutional and Audience Context - Idea 2

In our group we have a created a band consisting of a boy and a girl – they are a two piece band with the girl, Malena on vocals and the boy, Thor on guitar. They are under the working title of Faulkes. The pair have been friends since a very young age, as they went to school together. They are from Sweden and went to Art School over there. They have always shared a love for music, they decided one summer to try and make it in the music industry. They wanted to be recognizable and show the world their talent; however the felt staying in their small town in Sweden was not going to make their dream come true. The duo decided to hit the road and travel through Europe promoting their music in the hope for when they arrive in the UK they will have built up a fan base and have a strong star image which will give them the opportunity of being signed. Thor is 22, and Malena is 21 and they had been on the road about 8 months before reaching the UK, however they have been performing together for about 6 years in local venues around their hometown and then performed all across Europe in the hope of becoming a success. They have a strong star image in the sense that it is quite unlikely to change as they pair have been together a while, Malena is mainly vocals and she is more the front man in the band. Also, there is this whole mystery on whether the duo or an actual couple or not, this concept keeps them current.
The genre of music they play is Alternative Indie, this helps shape their star image as they are both quite individual characters with a real Art School feel about the two of them, they both seem quite dark characters yet their music represents something more vibrant and happy – yet this contrast works well and helps gives them a concrete star image. The style of Faulkes is something similar to Everything but the Girl from the 80s, using this whole image of the woman being the main icon somewhat in the pair. However their music ability is something far different, something more like the Ting Tings or the White Stripes. When looking at the pair for the first time they will be portrayed as unique individuals with a sense of mystery however their music abilities are far different making them appeal to a wider audience. However, this could be seen as a risk as it could be seen as having commercial implications, although the genre is popular there is a lot of competition in the market at the moment. Nevertheless their strong brand image and the uniqueness of being a male and female duo act is somewhat different to the norm and therefore the commercial implications should be minimized.
Faulkes would be under Polydor records which is a subsidiary of the Universal Music group. Polydor was originally set up as an independent record label before become part of Universal, so it has to ability to handle more of an independent style band but to make them a huge success allowing them to have bigger budget for music videos, performances etc. Other acts signed to Polydor are a huge success in the UK, with acts under their belt like Girls Aloud, The Kaiser Chiefs, Sophie Ellis Bextor and many more. And it also is the UK label for American acts such as Gwen Stefani and Lady GaGa. This choice of label I think would be beneficial to Faulkes as there more relaxed approach will be taken upon and they would become more celeb like making them fit more into the industry but still allowing them to keep their unique approach. Also being a subsidiary of Universal Music Group will allow them to become more a synthetic act but still keep their organic principles.
Faulkes would appeal to both a male and female audience between the ages of 15-25. The target audience I think will be quite a middle class, Caucasian audience all with a higher education, being a band that originates in Europe the target audience have to be able to understand and empathize that they are from a different culture etc. I think, typically fans would listen to chart music but also really enjoy unique acts they have found themselves from browsing on MySpace for example, I think there fans have a real mix in taste of music – seeing as the band have an Art School influence, many of their fans will also come from this background and are able to appreciate them more. Even though they are mainstream they have a real individual context to them.
The visual image for the band is quite different, both Malena and Thor are quite individual in their style and quite dark and mysterious yet their songs and the imagery used for posters and magazines etc. is quite vibrant. The contrast is effective and captures the eye of the target audience. Also the image of Malena being more the front man in the duo – with the careful placement and structure of the images makes their style very unique but work really effectively. Faulkes have not actually made a music video yet – although they have been performing for a while and have wrote more and more songs a video has not yet been created. So this video is the bands promotion, it will be somewhat of a similar quality to its competitors in the same genre. The video would be exhibited on popular music channels such as MTV2, BoxHits and NME TV. We want the music video to be a real representation of the band – really showing their unique quality of this contrast between dark and mysterious and vibrant.