Why New Music Artists Have To Subvert Social Norms

‘All Publicity is good Publicity.’ Why do new music artists have to subvert social norms to stand out? I will create a music video that subverts social norms and hegemonic values in order so that the artist featured gains attention by shocking the audience. In April 2008, an unknown artist’s first ever single went straight to the top of the charts in over 5 different countries, sold 419,000 digital downloads in one week, spent the next 5 months in the Billboard Hot 100 and to date has sold over 7.7 million copies. Lady Gaga’s single ‘Just Dance’ propelled her from a ‘no one’ into a star known across the world. She is now the most followed person on twitter, with over 50 million followers, and has over 10 million friends on Facebook
These are three things a Marxist would disagree with as it shows social competition, capitalism and the desire to be better than everyone else. In a capitalist society, these are all things that we are encouraged to strive for, which is why music competitions like the ‘X-factor’ and ‘American Idol’ are so successful. But getting into these post-modern programs is very difficult and whilst competing on the show the artist’s style and music is changed as Matt Cardle (X-factor winner 2010) said he had to “massively compromise himself”. So if you want to sing your own music and get inside the industry as your own person then you have millions of others to compete against. In a survey on MySpace.com in 2008, there were a total of 8 million music artists registered. Add that to the thousands of newly created bands in the last three years and the world is suddenly full of millions of artists no one has ever heard of. Out of all the aspiring artists in the world, only a very few become famous and get their songs in the charts. These artists have to find a way of standing out and getting public attention. One way that has helped many artists get noticed is by going against social norms and so separating themselves from a crowd of people all following society’s expectations and so blending into the background. One artist that has appeared from nowhere, and stood out from the crowd is Lady Gaga. It can be argued whether her popularity is based more upon her fashion sense than her music, but nevertheless she sells albums and makes money in the music industry. Lady Gaga is well known for her wild, exaggerated outfits, like the dress she wore to the MTV Music Awards made of meat. Photos of her appeared in the newspapers and many people argued on online forums and chat rooms over her reasons for wearing the dress. All this brought attention to Lady