tool for gaining commercial success?
Introduction:
Throughout all the musical genres, styles, and audiences, most western artists have one desire in common; To express their artistic message with freedom, and with enough universality to share their creations with the people around them. The majority of musicians strive for success, and for the approval of others, which is supposedly measured in the popularity of their work. Within the contemporary mainstream music industry, accomplishment is measured by commercial success. However, as the competition increases and market becomes more selective, there is an increased pressure on the artists to reach this goal.
Within the past several decades, the expectations of the consumers have shifted, as the liberation of the modern society has popularized the sexual culture, resulting in a music scene dominated by commercialism and sex. This monopoly of the mainstream music industry has supposedly excluded artists who would prefer not to conform to the status quo.
Many famous artists hold a sexualised reputation, including a large proportion of what we see in around our daily lives, posing the question whether they deliberately choose to express themselves this way, or whether they are exploited by the industry. Furthermore, the existence of a correlation between popularity and sexualisation, would suggest many labels are deliberately encouraging this sexualisation, in order to promote sales and increase profit. It is important to clarify how this topic varies between the genres and genders of the artists in question, but in this dissertation, we will be predominantly focused on exploring the most widely listened to type of music; pop. Pop music is popular simply due to the fact it’s the favourite of the majority of people. The most well-known artists, modern and old are generally found within this category. It’s the music which surrounds us, it’s on advertisements, the radio, the television, it’s played in homes, workplaces, and shops. It’s almost impossible to avoid in the western society.
All of this is significantly important to the associations with music as an art form, as it influences what music is really becoming, as it evolves and changes with the generations. This dissertation will explore the extent to which western musicians can use their sexuality to gain commercial success, and in what ways this is a positive, or negative thing. It will consider the effects of the music industry on the artists, and its impact on the public, such as if it is a bad influence for the younger generations.
To begin exploring this idea, we have to first answer a question: How much does the music industry use sex?
The mainstream musical product composes of many different facades. There is the most obvious one, such as the music itself, which is defined by its flavour and atmospheric tone, as well as, if there’s a singer, then the lyrics. A large proportion of the current contemporary mainstream lyrics have themes, or connotations of sex and love. Album artwork is another element, that visually captures and defines the mood of the songs in one picture, and attracts the attention and intrigue of potential listeners. It is surprising how through the decades, there have been increasingly sexual or provocative photographs and images on these album covers. These bold and risqué pictures, can create iconic reputations, to go alongside the music its inspired from. Music videos are also one of the most successful forms of media that musicians produce to accompany their songs. In some cases, the music is even made for the purpose of accompanying the video. This is the space where the artists have the opportunity to combine their music with something visual, and moving. This combination allows the ultimate artistic expression, and it is here that the most ‘raunchy’ or sexual connotations are found. Other qualities, such as the clothes they wear, personalities and themes, also play a role in deciding how ‘sexualised’ something supposedly is, however it is always dependent on the individual song. These things are all subjective to the audience, and the decision by the artist to act in a certain way, or to do certain things, would appear publically acceptably in their opinion, hence why they’d do it in the first place.
In order to assess ‘How Sexual’ something is, it is necessary to create guidelines to distinguish between the levels of sexualisation. This is complicated thing to do, since it is subjective at all levels. As remarked by Charlie Hannah, a musician, “It is hard to say what one person’s moral compass says is right or wrong” (2018). The point cannot be emphasised enough, that in the eyes of one person, something seemingly innocent could be perceived as scandalous by another. Where does the balance lie in finding a universal measure of sexualisation? This was simplified by the creation of a scale from 1 to 5, allowing quantative data to be collected, for the comparison and analysis of the content within the current most popular music videos. This was the criteria created to decide the extent of sexualisation within music videos:
Level of Sexualisation
Defining characteristics
1
No or very little sexualisation, fairly modest and universal
2
Some provocative clothing and/or mild sexually suggestive dance moves
3
Provocative clothing and increasingly sexually suggestive dance moves
4
Very provocative clothing, little skin covered, the use of objects in a suggestive manor
5
Extremely focused on sex, with pornographic images
(Figure 1)
Inspired by Kaufman, 2011.
The Official UK Chart (BBC Radio 1, 2018) is where we can find the nation’s current most listened to tracks, and is calculated not only by the number of sales, but also the amount of plays on the radio, video streaming and downloads. With the boundaries in the table above, primary research was conducted to look for a correlation between popularity and the level of sexualisation. Taking twenty random songs from the top charts, they were rated on the scale, and plotted on a scatter graph against the number of YouTube views.
(Figure 2)
The results showed that there was, to a mild extent, a connection between how sexual a music video is, and the number of views it receives. The spearman’s rank of correlation provided us with an R value of 0.50, from which we can say that the two sets of data show moderate, positive correlation (Maccery, 2018) The value of 0.05 is above the value of 0.47 for 97.5% certainty of a correlation. We can reject the null hypothesis that there is no correlation between level of sexualisation and the number of YouTube views, and accept the alternate hypothesis, that there is. From this, it can be concluded that to some extent, the general public is more likely to watch or listen to a song, if something about it has been sexualised.
In an article on Digital Music News, there was a study by Sapio, in which thousands of lyrics from the most popular songs across different genres were counted for individual mentions of specific topics. The study found that pop music had 24,312 mentions on the topic of love, which accounts for 19% of all ‘love’ mentions, and 350 mentions of sex, whereas hip hop and R&B were found to have 700 mentions of ‘Sex’. That was 23% of all the mentions of sex across 15 different genres, which is a significantly high proportion, with pop music having the second highest count of sex mentions at 11% (Resnikoff, 2016). This shows that within the contemporary mainstream music industry, sex is used far more than in other genres.
Why is sex in the media so popular?
The reason for this popularity of sexual topics and themes, could be due to myriad of reasons. The main one, is that it as a topic, it is universal. As stated by Charlie Hannah, “I can see why it’s such an inspiring topic. Everyone’s got sexual desires. It’s one of the reasons, love, sex, all that stuff. Its accessible to everyone.” (2018)
Most people have experienced love, or heart break, which is all closely linked to sex. When a person finds particular song or lyric that is relatable with, it can resonate with their own personal experiences, and provide a type of supposed comfort or reassurance. The emotions associated with love and sex are some of the strongest and most real feelings that humans get to experience, and hence, it makes sense that people express themselves through writing, or listening to music about it. Biologically, human brains are programmed to respond to sex, (Page, 2018) and it is something the advertisement industry has exploited for many years. There is lots of strong evidence linking sexual connotations in advertising, to better product sales. The majority of people are intrigue or morbidly fascinated about this topic, and cannot avoid having their attention sparked when they see someone or something they would consider attractive. This is one of the reasons why music videos with semi naked dancers receive so much attention. It is ingrained in our DNA to be drawn to things we find attractive or sexual, and it has been one of the most successful promotional tools in the product advertisement industry for a long time. It is no surprise that it is so commonly used in music. However, the line between being sexual enough, to being so sexual it causes offence, is blurry and difficult to dictate. Due to the sensitive and subjective nature of the topic, it is not uncommon for there to be conflicts caused by the disagreement of how much sex is too much sex. For example, many parents are anxious to let their children watch obscene or sexually suggestive music videos, whereas the producers and writers of the music are defensive that their creative expression is being suppressed by overly dramatic and uptight individuals.
As a consequence, the dynamics and demographics of a society also influences what’s the most popular. Different audiences have different preferences and tastes, with the older generations, perhaps being a little more conservative in their music preferences, while middle aged and younger people having more freedom and choice.
Why do artists choose to sexualise themselves?
The reasons why artists want sexualise themselves and their music is again, a convoluted and intricate apprehension, with many variables and personal influences collectively resulting in the answer, yet it becomes easier to comprehend when we simplify it into four different relative motivations: Self-expression vs. conforming to the demands of the consumers, and then talent, vs. commercialism.
Sometimes it can be hard to distinguish whether or not a person has full control over the things they appear to independently choose. Within the commercial music business, there are many traps and pitfalls it is sometimes impossible for uprising celebrities to avoid, cobwebbing them in a metaphorical treaty. Some artists have described the music industry as something to which they’ve sold their soul in exchange for fame. Being lured into the utopia of idolatry is not unheard of in the multimillion pound industry, and the influence that the producers have over the artist often overshadows the wishes of the musician. This is an even more sensitive case when it comes to sexuality. This would suggest they use sex as a promotional tool by conforming to the consumer demands, and commercialism. However, this may not be the case across the whole spectrum. The concept of having the freedom to express themselves in the way they desire, paints the image that musicians are not subjected to need to sexualise their music for the profit and commercial success, but because they have the talent and confidence to not be held back by expectations. From a questionnaire, 50% of the participants felt that people were more likely to buy music if there was sexually provocative clothing or dancing in live performances or in music videos. This could be used to suggest that the main intention of an artist is to make sales and profit, by using sex as a promotional tool. However, the other 50% either disagreed or were unsure, reminding us that it isn’t always the case, and that other factors, such as the music itself or the general popularity of the artist were responsible for their commercial success. An article from the Guardian, involving a selection of opinions from different female icons stated “Pop performers – male and female – are often exploited by managers and record companies, but I don't believe that (Miley) Cyrus is being forced to twerk by her handlers.” (Empire et al, 2013). This shows us that whilst many artists are exploited by their record labels, not everyone is. This is an important thing to consider, it defines a clear line between self-expression and exploitation.
Who sings about sex the most?
It can be said that a difference exists between male and female artists in the type work that they produce in terms of how sexual is, however they are supposedly subtler than they first appear. While perhaps fewer female singers chose sex as the main theme of their music than the males, it’s still very noticeable that those who do, do so to quite an extreme level. Miley Cyrus’s ‘Wrecking Ball’ was a huge hit in 2013, (Wikipedia, 2018)
and it is an example of how far female performers push the boundaries on what would be considered acceptable. Similarly, when Olivia Newton John released her song ‘Physical’ in 1981 (Arts Columbia, 2017), it was hugely successful. This was one of the first official music videos, which featured women dancing suggestively in a gym whilst wearing tight fitting spandex suits. Other examples include Lady Gaga, Niki Minaj, Beyoncé, and these are just to name a handful of women who confidently talk, dance and sing about sex. However, amongst women, the theme of love appears to be the preferred song writing topic. In an online article, there was a quote from Adele, saying “Exploiting yourself sexually is not a good look. I don’t find it encouraging…To sell more records I don’t need to do that. I just stand there and sing.” (Lodhi, n.d.). This shows that not everyone who is famous and popular needs to use their bodies to gain attention from the public eyes.
Male artists, on the other hand, experience a different type of boundary in regards to self-expression than females do, particularly regarding the costume they can choose to perform in. If a man did decide to push the boundaries by wearing high heels, latex booty shorts and fishnet tights, would anyone be able to take it as seriously? Although he may not be belittled or ridiculed strongly for it, it would most likely stir a large fuss amongst the audience, and would be perceived as more of a parody than a serious and genuine show. While men cannot as easily express sex in their music through themselves, it is rarely questioned when male artists recruit female supermodels to dance on stage wearing frivolous clothing, to adorn them and decorate the stage. Mega famous male artists, like Chris Brown and Jason Derulo (Diggory, 2017) are renowned for this, and yet, no one seems to mind. It is just simply accepted as ‘The Norm’. “Male artists such as Eminem, Kanye West and most recently Robin Thicke have been targeted for objectifying women as well as perceived glorification of gendered violence in their lyrics and music videos.” (Hamad, 2014). This provides further examples of how it is viewed as acceptable behavior in the pop industry. However, the boundaries of how much is too much is interchangeable depending on the genre, as pointed out by Charlie Hannah during the interview, “If I was to make a music video, and it had ladies dancing in the background, everyone would be like, that’s super sexist! I wouldn’t do it. We are in a completely different world.” This highlights some of the dramatic contrasts between non-commercialised, alternative musicians, and the mega rich and famous musicians.
In 2017, only 16.8 % (USC Annenberg Staff, 2018) of the music in the top charts were from female pop singers, which shows that females only comprise of very small part of industry anyway. In hip hop, this figure is even smaller, with no more than 17 female rappers reaching the top twenty charts, since 2000. In comparison to the men, who have had 184 (Juzwiak, 2017).
The prospects of becoming a female hip hop artists are unlikely. In an article by Pitchfork, there was a quote from an interview on Power 105.1’s “The Breakfast Club show”, with Rick Ross, famous hip hop artist and founder of the Maybach Music Group label, explaining that he’d never sign a female rapper because it would be too easy for him to have sex with her. “You know, I never did it because I always thought, like, I would end up fucking a female rapper and fucking the business up… I'm spending so much money on her photo shoots. I gotta fuck a couple times.” (Pearce, 2017)
This demonstrate the amount of exclusion within the parts industry and immense complacency some male artists have, which they feel gives them the right to objectify women in this way, and prevent them from progressing in their careers due to their inability to resist temptation. It is hard for the majority of feminists to deny the audacity in the tone of comments such as that, and this is made even more hypocritical when female musicians, who call themselves feminists, buy into their male producer’s fantasies and continue to let themselves be exploited. For example, Nicki Minaj, who is a self-proclaimed feminist who aims to empower and uplift her sexuality, simultaneously objectifies not only herself, but all women by creating the standard that females are simply there as sex icons to eye candy for the men (Hamad, 2014). This could also be a cultural thing, with hip However, it is important to consider that this quote is only one example, and it needs to be remembered that most producers do not share that view. Of course, people have so many different stances on this topic, and it is a multifaceted and controversial issue, with many aspects to consider.
Are the effects of it positive or negative?
The extent to which the sexualisation of the music industry is a positive or negative thing, is complicated, as it is dependent upon the individual. For the artists, the use of sex in the music industry could be both positive and negative. Many people would claim that this liberation of self-expression is a step forward in society. The increasing amount of freedom to choose the ways in which we present themselves, is unattached to the fear of judgment. It has even been labelled as feminism, allowing women to be unrestricted in their censorship and build strong characters. This implies that it isn’t used purely as a promotional tool, and it is definitely not done purely for the pleasure and satisfaction of the audience. There are examples of artists outside of the contemporary mainstream industry, who use sex in their songs, and yet have no conventional accumulation of commercial success. But is this because they haven’t had the sufficient amount of promotion, or because the general public just isn’t interested in sex? These artists may not desire fame, or recognition. But they still use sex to express their musical ideas.
Supposedly, society has transitioned from a world where the choices of the artists, especially female artists, are growing more respected and have the power to make their own personal decisions. Before, it was harder to become established as an independent musician. Producers told the artists what to do, what to wear, and how to act, to the extent all freedom of expression was confiscated, at the consequence of losing status and financial support. However now, we are in an age where the intentions of female musicians are different. They are doing it because they want to, and they can liberate themselves sexually feeling empowered by their femininity. Lady Gaga stated “In the beginning, my record company wanted to tone me down. The Just Dance video is not nearly as naked as I would have liked. I said this in a meeting, ‘is this the only major label on planet earth that is asking a female pop artist to put more clothes on?” (McCornick, 2013). The impression is created that females do not mind taking their clothes off, and they savor the freedom and adoration they receive.
However, on the darker side of the music industry, more evidence is being discovered to suggest an alternative theory. Whilst the empowerment of women is being celebrated by the public, it has been suggested that ulterior motives exist. “What happens when you adopt feminism as part of your brand, but the industry that feeds you is one that’s still bogged down in the inequalities fueled by a long-brewing mix of sexism and capitalism? … Inspirational but over-broad statements about “empowerment” and “girl power” become exclusively personal, acts of independent saleswomanship that manifest as branding, rather than action” (Zeisler, 2016). Proclaiming that something is feminist to cover the fact that it is exploitative, misleads people to the belief it is acceptable. From an article on Billboard, it included a report released by the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism division, about females in the music industry. It stated, “Out of the study’s 651 producers, 98% were male and only 2% female.” (Pajer, 2018).
This is undoubtedly a shocking statistic, and makes us question the true intentions of the people who rule the popular musical culture. Terry Richardson (Hamad, 2014) is an example of a male fashion photographer, heavily involved in the music industry who has a been accused of sexual assault on multiple occasions by various musicians. This is not to allege all male producers with dangerous and predatory reputations, but the prospect that men get to choose what content is released, and how it is going to sell, particularly for male consumers, means they can easily manipulate how artists express themselves, in order to maximize the money, dilate their status and heighten their reputation. There have been numerous reports of abusive or assaulting behavior to women, which is so heavily dominated, providing strong evidence for gender discrimination within the industry. The majority of women, whether artists, sound technicians, producers or managers, clearly recognise the difference in numbers of males and females, and to some extent, will feel like inequality exists. So when a sexist male manager, who employs fewer women than men and pays them significantly less, encourages the women to start a campaign for their ‘girl power’, it’s not a surprise that doing it to get them to take their clothes off is possibly his primary intention.
It is difficult to judge, without the potential for false accusations, the extent to which an artist is repressed and exploited by their producers. Furthermore, this is one of the most subjective areas, as what one musician may view as a supportive and enthusiastic investor, another may see as abusive, disrespectful and exploitative of their talent for the benefits of their own profit.
From a different perspective, the general public have a much narrower scope into this topic, and hence are often oblivious to what happens behind the scenes. On a personal level, most people are open minded and liberal enough to accept the majority of their entertainment media. There are only a handful of demographic groups who would potentially take offense to the sexual nature of contemporary mainstream music, highlighting that for the most part, it is accepted as the norm. In a western society, the elderly are becoming more and more accepting of the behavior they see in the media that they would consider lewd and salacious in any other context. The main concern, which has been arising with the surge of sexual exposure in the media, are the effects it has on the younger generations.
The youngest of our society, are supposedly the most vulnerable, as their impressionable nature leads them to notice the world around them in great detail, and be easily influenced. Protective parents often worry about the media that their children consume, and how it affects they view themselves and the people around them. Many studies have suggested that children and young people try to imitate what they see, as they want to feel accepted and liked in the world they are growing into. The questionnaire shows us that 75% of the participants, felt that sexual exposure in music media is a bad influence for the younger generations, with 8% who disagreed, and 17% who said maybe. With more and more younger people finding role models in celebrities, who mimic and recreate their behavior, it becomes a concern to parents that their child is struggling to be themselves. With so much exposure to unrealistic beauty standards, which infiltrate music videos with models, actors and dancers, a large proportion of young people experience identity issues and body dysmorphia (Obiora, 2018). However, whilst the contemporary mainstream music industry is often accused of being the cause of this, there are also many attempts by artists and musicians to remove this unhealthy stigma. For example, Alessia Cara, Meghan Trainor, CupcakKe and Adele, are female artists with a reputation for spreading body positivity messages. Elyssa Goodman wrote “As much as CupcakKe is known for her raunchy, boss-babe lyrics, she’s also endearingly self-reflective and body-positive… she urges not just herself but everyone to look past the airbrushing and be kind to their bodies and themselves.” (2018) This serves as a reminder that the world is not as artificial or fake as the media sometimes makes it seem, and that there is still strength in authenticity and originality.
To conclude, the extent to which contemporary mainstream artists use sex as a promotional tool to gain commercial success, is a complex idea to investigate, which is dependent on the individual musician. Whilst most musicians all want to be successful, whether through the accumulation of happiness, or of fame, there are many variations in opinions towards sexualisation. Across the array of genres, commercial success is the ultimate measurement of accomplishment, predominately within the contemporary mainstream popular music.
There is evidence that there is a lot of sex in the music industry, and strong scientific evidence to support its ability to sell. There is even a correlation between the amount of sex and popularity. This supports how easy it is to use sex as to sell other products, and the fact that it such a common thing in the media, and across our music scene, only further supports its role as a promotional tool. It creates an easy path for artists to use, to gain commercial success by taking off their clothes. The awareness that using sex could increase fame and success can help the artist reach their desires. From this dissertation it can be concluded that it is the difference between the intentions for using sex in music that dictates the extent to which it is used for promotion. There are people who use it purely to gain commercial success, either willingly or less willingly, and then there are people who use it for their creative and artistic expression. The other factors, such as gender and genre influence this in other and more abstract ways, such as female artists being subjected to more sexualisation than male artists. Similarly, within genres, such as popular R&B music having over twice as many sexual references as mainstream popular music, due to elements such as cultural differences and expectations. We have seen a variety of musicians, some of whom enjoy the freedom of being able to use sex in their music, such as Lady Gaga and Miley Cyrus, and those who feel on the opposite side of the spectrum, such as Adele, and all those in between. The diversity in opinions and intentions when it comes to using sex in music, clarify that it is only used as a promotional tool as much as the artists allow it to be. Whether or not they wish for commercial success, or just to enjoy writing their music, they have the choice to present it in the way they want. However, this does not dismiss the truth that there is still a huge amount of exploitation and sexism within the industry.