Blog Post 7: My Pop Artist or Band

A pop artist's star persona often complements or contrasts their music in ways that engage and interest audiences. Their 'offstage personality' also contributes to their overall image - fans often see this side of artists through their personal social media pages. Two artists that I looked at to research this are Lewis Capaldi and Rex Orange County:

Lewis Capaldi's music and website is moody and serious in tone

(Dark colour palette. Blood-red wash over focal image. His huddled position

and grave expression). His songs are known for having big 

vocal moments of emotional outpourings.

Capaldi's Instagram on the other hand is

quite down-to-earth, posting home-videos,

pics with friends, updates to fans etc.

Lewis Capaldi's star persona and his 'real' personality contrast greatly. Outside of his music, he is presented as a hugely likeable and most importantly funny guy. He often posts unflattering photos of himself, wears silly costumes, makes jokes about himself being fat during live shows, and carries a very carefree demeanour about himself. This is very disarming for audiences and makes the emotional moments of his music hit that much harder when fans see and hear the usually smiley and jokey Capaldi 'get serious' and express his troubles and pains in his music.

Rex Orange County:

Website Homepage. Rex is presented as mild-mannered and daydreaming.

Colour palette is light, bright, simple and easy on the eyes and the white

connotes purity and innocence.

Instagram Post thanking fans after the release of his

latest album "Pony"

Rex Orange County is also an artist who gets very emotional in his songs but in a different way to Capaldi (who's style is more gravelly and aggressive). His star persona and 'real' personality has less of a contrast, yet is still very effective. He is presented as a gentle and kind person, as seen through his wistful smile, looking off into the distance as if daydreaming. The white jumper is laid-back and casual, while also connoting innocence. This is his signature look for his album 'Pony', and synergises with his Instagram post, which is captioned with a personal and heartfelt message thanking his fans for their support over the years, which is signed "love from Alex", Rex's real name.

My pop artist will be called 'Vince', a stage name shortened from his full name 'Vincent Wan'. His music is energetic and vibrant, which will match with his colourful fashion sense and personality. He always wears a signature pair of pink aviator sunglasses, and his outfits are quite "retro". He is often seen hanging out with high-profile Hollywood celebrities and is close friends with Leonardo DiCaprio and, like Leo, is a passionate environmentalist and supporter of Earth Alliance, which DiCaprio co-founded.
Enigma is an effective way to generate interest, so Vince doesn't share much about his private life except through his songs and music videos (e.g. Grace Kelly is about a toxic relationship he's been in) and is rarely seen without his sunglasses, adding to the coding of mystery. Additionally, his socials would be minimalistic, usually just posting stills or promotion for projects he's working on, with a short, snappy caption.
A way for audiences to get to know Vince, however, would be through a Q and A feature on his official site, where fans can send in questions and every once in a while, Vince would answer some and post them publicly.

The initial moodboard for my star persona. Pastel/Retro colour
palette - bold, smart and stylish.

Flat plan for my star persona's signature
outfit

Flat plan for my star persona's secondary
outfit

Me 'before'

Me 'after' putting on the costume

Researching these two artists and creating my own has taught me a lot about how pop stars are packaged and presented to their audiences, particularly in relation to their music; whether their personality contrasts or amplifies it.