Investigation Into Branding

8/4/2019 Investigation Into Branding

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Video: Album:

Artist:

Similarities between the music video, single cover and the album cover

Music video Single cover Album cover

There are many similarities between the music video and the singles and album cover. The album itself it named Bad after

one of the singles from the album, therefore the music video and pictures for the album reflect this image of Bad. Jackson

himself said Bad is a way of saying youre cool, youre tough. Not criminally bad. Therefore, the clothing he wears

reflects this, he is wearing the same clothes in each picture, so when people see the belt buckles, or the black jacket they

associate this with the song or album Bad. The text also shows this image. Bad is written in the same modern, graffiti

like red font and features in each of the pictures. Again, this enables the audience to recognise it is a product by Michael

Jackson, also the font itself reflects this image of cool and tough. Also, he has the same hairstyle in each picture and themusic video, again this is the look for the Bad image, which helps him to be recognisable and still have a tough look.


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Other music videos from


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Other music videos from

Out of the 10 music videos from Bad five of them (The Way You Make Me Feel, Dirty Diana,

Come Together, Smooth Criminal and Speed Demon) portray this bad, cool or tough image.Although the songs are different in one sense, this image fits the videos and so is carried out

through some of them. This Bad theme continues and the album flows and sounds like

they all fit together. However, the theme isnt carried heavily through to all the songs, for

example, Man in the Mirror, Liberian Girl, Leave Me Alone arent portrayed as tough or

bad because the songs and music videos send out a different message, therefore its

appropriate for the image to change in these music videos.

In Speed Demon and Bad, Michael Jackson wears the

same outfit and has his hair in the same style. This shows

his image staying the same which shows he is carrying onthe image of toughness and coolness. And, again, helps

him be recognisable to his audience.

In other music videos, where he doesnt

wear the same outfit, he takes elements

from the Bad outfit and incorporates it

into other outfits. For example, hes carried

on the theme of belt buckles and over sized

belts, and is even wearing the same pants

in some of the videos.

In other music videos where he doesnt

wear similar outfit like he does in Bad,

he still has the cool and tough element

added to his outfits or hairstyles. For

example he has a Jheri curl which was

popular in the 80s and his clothes are

seen as gangster or ghetto type

clothing adding to the cool and toughimage.


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Other (adult solo) album covers


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Other album covers

Off The Wall the first adult solo album Jackson released and this image is completely different to the Bad image that

the Bad album projects. The cover reflects the disco/pop/funk songs that are on the album. He is smartly dressed

and very clean cut as opposed to the tough image presented on the Bad cover. However, the font is similar to the

Bad album, as Michael Jackson, Off The Wall is written in a graffiti type font. Therefore, this image presented on this

cover, shows he has matured from a child star but still fits the audience and the songs from the album with the type

of font used.

Thriller, the album after OTW, still portrays the same kind of image that OTW shows, a clean cut image. However,

though Thriller came out before Bad, there are elements on the Thril ler cover, which suggest the theme of

coolness and toughness, for example, his hair. He got rid of the Afro and styled his hair with Jheri curl as this became

fashionable and cool and also his posture, hes relaxed , again showing a cool laid back persona.

Dangerous which came out after Bad is the first album that doesnt have a picture of Michael Jackson on the cover.

The only aspects of Jackson on the cover are his eyes and things associated with him; e.g. the monkey at the top

(Bubbles), the hand with the tape on the finger etc. This cover is much more mysterious and theatrical compared to

other album covers, again reflecting songs from the album, events in the world etc.

HIStory cover loosely goes back to this tough and cool persona, but perhaps takes it a step further and is

seen more powerful and perhaps still a bit mysterious like in the Dangerous cover. This shows that Jackson

is able to alter his image and then change it back to a previous image or take elements from past images and

incorporate it into his new image, so on the HIStory cover it doesnt just look tough but powerful and

mysterious also.

Invincible the last album made by Jackson, shows his image has changed again. The image does have Jackson on the

cover again, much like Bad Thriller and OTW, but its just his face. This is a much more simplistic image and perhaps

like hes starting again. It doesnt really give off a tough image like other covers have had elements of.


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Music videos from other albums

There are many other music videos in which Jackson portrays this tough and cool image,from videos before and after Bad.

These are some of the music videos in which

Jackson shows off a tough or cool image. This

is shown in several ways, for example in They

Dont Care About Us (prison version) he is shown

in a jail and wearing handcuffs, showing this

tough image, but more criminally bad image,

unlike Bad where its more of a cool toughimage. In other ways in which he shows this

cool or tough image is through things like his

clothes. For example, the jackets he wears in

Beat It, Thriller or Billie Jean are red or black

leather jackets, so the colours symbolise

toughness and coolness etc. Again, with his

actions and the way he dances, he dances in a

tough way, like pulling up his jacket collar or

making gun signs etc. Lastly, in Give into Me hesseen with Slash in his music video and Slash is

known for being cool and tough from the way

he plays guitar etc, so this adds to his elements of

coolness and toughness. He is able to carry this

image of toughness through to other songs and

albums because it reflects the type of songs that

he is singing.


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Brand image

Hair is styled in Jheri curl which

was the fashion during the 80s.

This adds to his image of

coolness.

The writing of Bad is in a

graffiti type font, again

adding to the image of

coolness. Also, the colour

red can add to this image

of toughness as red can be

seen as dangerous, evil,

bad etc.

The font his name is written

in is also written in a bold,

black font. The black reflectsthe colour of the outfit hes

wearing on the cover, and

also the majority of the

outfits he wears in his music

videos. The bold and black

text again shows this image

of tough and powerful image.

His face is very stern and

serious in the picture which

makes him look relaxed and

again cool. Also the fact hes

looking straight at the camera

helps the audience connect

with him and feel intrigued.

His posture also gives off the image of toughness and coolness. Hes holding

onto his belts and even had one hand clenched which shows hes tough, but

hes turned slightly to the side and looks relaxed and looks like he has an

attitude which is a trait of being seen as cool.

His outfit also contributes

to this image of toughness

and coolness. Hes all in

black which can be seen as

tough and cool because in

terms of colour

psychology black is the

colour of authority and

power, also black can also

be overpowering, or makehim seem aloof. Hes also

wearing a lot of buckles on

his jacket, belt and pants.

This shows him off as being

tough, especially seeing as

hes wearing a lot, because

buckles are hard and made

of metal, which is very

hard.


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How the image is kept the same Jackson keeps this tough and cool image through many of his products by mise-en-scene and the lyrics of the songs etc. So, like on the Bad

album, colours like black and red were dominant, and certain fonts were dominant, these are carried on right through to other songs and albumcovers.

Fonts:

Jackson frequently uses graffiti type font, or strong, bold type font, showing this toughness and coolness. Graffiti fonts sh ow this because its a

modern font, usually sprayed on walls or done illegally which adds to this element of cool. Likewise, the hard, bold fonts give off this image of

toughness because they look sturdy, hard and powerful.

Album names:

A lot of the names of Jacksons albums also keep this image constant; Thriller Bad Dangerous Invincible These names a re

strong, tough names. For example, Thriller gives off the scary tough image, and names like Dangerous and Invincible g ive off

the hard image. Invincible gives off this image, because it sounds like something that cannot be destroyed, and Dangerous

shows this image, because it sounds bad or like something youd want to avoid.


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Colours:

The main colour that Jackson is seen wearing in a lot of his music videos is black. Like I said previously, black can be the symbol of

power, and authority. Also, in films the bad boys or motorcyclists two groups that are seen as cool are often seen wea ring black, which

adds to Jacksons image.

Another dominant colour that he is seen to be wearing a lot in music videos is red. According to colour psychology, The most

emotionally intense colour. Red clothing gets noticed. Red is usually used as an accent Jackson uses red, mostly like the colour

psychology said, as an accent. However, there are times when he wears all red jackets (Beat It, Thriller) because it is fitti ng to the song;

i.e. wearing an all red jacket in Thriller would create the atmosphere to be even more intense and scary etc.


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Costume:

Jackson carries this image of toughness through to some of his outfits. He portrays it throughtwo main kind of outfits.Firstly, through the gangster and ghetto type clothing. The gangster clothing, which he wears in Smooth Criminal, consists of a

fedora and a white suit. This suit pays tribute to mainly Fred Astaire, but also gangsters Al Capone. Gangsters are seen as tough because

they carry and use guns, and theyre also seen as cool again because they use and own guns, have money and their clothes in general. All

of which adds to Jacksons image. Also the kind of ghetto image he portrays through his outfit like in The Way You Make Me Feel and the

beginning of Bad also adds to this image, because people who are from the ghetto are seen as tough, and have been through a lot etc.

However, this type of costume is kept mainly in the music videos from the album Bad, as this is the main image its projecting.

Secondly, as I stated in several slides, jackets are also Jacksons main type of costume which is seen through out many music

videos (again not so much after the Bad album, but in public appearances/tours etc hes seen wearing them)

Other common accessories that Jackson wears through many of his music videos, which add to this recurring theme are arm

braces and the type of shoes he wears. Arm braces look very much like something boxers would wear, and it adds to this tough image as he

wears them usually in his rock type songs, like Black or White. His shoes also add to this image, like in Smooth Criminal where he

invented shoes which made him be able to lean at a 45 degree angle add to this image off coolness.


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Content of songs;

There are many songs that also support this idea of toughness, and they do it in many different ways.

Some songs adds to this image through the genre; for example they belong to the rock genre, rather than the pop genre. Or it

could be the lyrics themselves which add to this theme.

There are many songs done by Jackson, that apart of the rock genre. Many of the songs from the Bad and Dangerous

album would be classed as rock songs. Here are two, 10 second clips of Beat It from Thriller and Dirty Diana from

Bad. Listening to the guitars used, the type of drumming, the speed of the song etc, you can easily tell that these songs fitthe tough, rugged, hard sounding genre like the rock genre.

These two other 10 second clips of Dangerous from the Dangerous album and This Time Around from HIStory also

sound rocky (even though they do not belong to the rock genre) yet they give off this tough image through the lyrics rather

than the genre itself. The songs uses, what could be seen as either negative or positive, post-modifiers to describe whomever

hes singing about, words like bad, dangerous. These two words by definition are troublesome and people who are bad or

dangerous are usually seen to be tough or cool. Likewise, This Time Around uses colloquial terms, like swear words; Im

taking no shit. Swearing is informal language, and as a child youre taught that swearing is bad, which makes the person

swearing look tough and cool, like theyre not following the rules.


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Why did he choose this image? There are several reasons as to why Michael Jackson chose this brand image, to portray himself as bad, tough and cool.

Firstly, Jackson himself said that this is different to anything Ive ever done before, anything Ive ever written before. So it

shows that he was being creative musically, and trying out new things. He had done rock songs in the past, but not to the

extent that the Bad album takes this tough, rock image. Also, he chose this image, simply because it reflects the song and the album. The song Bad was all about being tough

and cool therefore he needed an image to show this idea off, otherwise it wouldnt have made much sense. For example,

it wouldnt be appropriate for him to be singing Bad whilst in the same kind of costume he wears in Rock With You

(sparkly jump suit). His image needed to be made much harder to reflect the song.

Every single artist will have some sort of brand image associated with them. An artist needs a brand image because it helps

promote them. When having adverts or promotional shoots, if they show off this certain brand image people will start to

associate them and link them with this certain image. Therefore, if an artist uses a particular colour, or wears a particular

type of clothing people will always think off them first and therefore it makes promoting the artist much easier.

Some artist keep the same image through out, whilst others, like Michael Jackson are constantly changing or updating their

image. For example, Jackson kept some things the same; like the tough and cool image was projected in several

albums/music videos and he wears the same kind of accessories (the fedora, the glove, the ankle length pants, ray bans etc.)

The glove particularly adds to the image of cool as Jackson said The glove was just I thought one was cooler than two.

This helps him to be recognisable and are traits that are related to Jackson only. However, it is also important that his image

keeps changing. It helps to reflect the type of songs that hes singing or the type of album hes promoting. Changing his

image helps him to be more creative, innovative and also it keeps the audiences attention and makes him interesting. This is

why you dont see the kind of jackets Jackson wore in the Thriller/Bad eras , as he wanted to keep changing and developing.

Jackson himself also said But I dont wear that look anymore. Its sad to get caught up in the past. This is showing that hefeels its important not to keep everything the same for the whole of his career.

Jackson was constantly changing his

branding image, from his clothing to his

hair. It shows he felt it was important to

keep altering his image.

He did keep some things the same like hisiconic glove.

Investigation Into Branding

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