Let’s Repeat and Continue…
There are four main components to a musician’s career. Without even one of them, your professionalism plummets. If all of them are present and highly developed, you’ll thrive and reach the next level.
You must be aware of these components to understand why something isn’t working.
2. Musical Image
The most striking example of image is a candy.
All the candies are the same (covered in chocolate icing, not always of high quality, as a former icing specialist, I can assure you) and if they were sold without wrapping, we simply wouldn’t know how to make a choice and which candies to buy for tea.
When we see a package of candy that we like (not many people, but just us) – we buy these candies. Because of the packaging!!! After we unwrap the candy and taste it, we understand whether the taste matches our expectations or not. And here it’s all simple: either we like it and then try more, or we don’t and we look for something else.
It’s the same in bands!
All bands are the same. Everyone has musicians, bass players, drummers, vocalists. Those. Those people who simply know how to play instruments. They’re our outer shell (the icing).
Well, a group is a group, so what?
But it turns out that there are bands where appearance alone plays a significant role. Sometimes you look at posters or photos of various bands and, without even listening to their repertoire, you form your own impression.
If you like a band’s appearance, then you can “try it out” a little, listen to what they play, how they perform, what their main idea is, and so on. If you don’t like a band, I won’t listen to even their most popular hit. It doesn’t matter what’s “inside.”
It’s clear that when creating a band’s appearance and musical image, you can’t please everyone. And you don’t have to.
A little breakdown of the components will help you understand how to create a musical image. Packaging, content, and concept. Many have already understood that everything starts with the concept, then we move on to the content, and only then we package our “candy.”
It is often possible to notice that groups act with the same precision, but in reverse. At first, they create a community on the Internet, begin to create musical material and only then, for some reason, think about the main concept.
2.1 Concept
Answer the following questions to understand the main concept of your project:
— Who will you be making this for?
— How many people are there, and what is the size of your potential audience?
— Age, gender, social status?
— What do they like?
— What don’t they like?
2.2 Content
Prioritize and resolve the following issues:
— Is the lyrical theme specific? What should it be?
— Specific music? What will it be?
— Musical instruments (we use the above as a starting point when selecting instruments!!!, not musicians)
— What will each musical instrument convey in each individual part and in the song as a whole?
2.3 Packaging
Consider the packaging and answer the following questions:
— Logo. What kind of logo would be acceptable to your audience/listeners? What does it represent? What colors would you choose? Why these colors? A logo is your “face.” No logo means no face. A quality logo means a quality audience. Attract the right people, repel the others.
— Social media group. On which social media platform, what kind of group, what purpose will it serve, how will it be portrayed, and who will be responsible for it?
— The appearance of the musicians. How many musicians are needed, what functions will they perform, what musical role will each musician play, what will be the image of the group and each musician individually?
— Show elements during performances and concerts. Do you have a plan for developing the show? Is there someone working on it? Do you need to learn anything, from whom, or from someone already successful?
Of course, these aren’t all the questions you need to ask yourself and your partners before starting your project. At the very least, this will provide clarity and let you know whether you really need this or if you’re just playing around with “The Beatles.”
It’s serious and challenging work, but incredibly interesting and promising.
