2. Katy Perry
She is known for her unconventional style of dressing. It is usually humorous and
bright in colour. She often uses fruit-shaped accessories, mainly watermelon, as part
of her outfits and her style has been described as "very colourful and vintage. Since
the release of her album Teenage Dream her style has shifted to being more
glamorous with more fruit shaped accessories. Katy Perry's transformation into an
artist began with fashion, inspired by American film actress Dominique Swain's
portrayal in 1997 film adaptation of the novel Lolita. Some of her fashion choices have
sparked some controversy in the past . In 2008 there was a publicity photo of her
posing with a switchblade which was criticized . The picture was an effort to give her a
"sexy, harder edge" In response to the criticism she mocked herself by posing with a
spoon. As a result of her wacky and colourful clothes she is in newspapers and
magazines daily, therefore she gets more publicity and everyone is talking about her
as people always want to find out what she is wearing. Her album cover for 'Teenage
Dream' she is wearing nothing lying on clouds of cotton candy and most of her clothes
are quite revealing this is showing the idea that "sex sells" as it draws more attention
and interest to her. Her image has been made so that the girls want to look and dress
like her and all the men want her.
3. Rihanna
New York magazine described Rihanna's early look as that of
a "cookie-cutter teen queen" and stated that that "she has
the ability to shift looks dramatically and with great ease". In
the beginning her image, videos and, music were criticised
for being too similar to Beyonce. Her image dramatically
changed during her release of her 3rd studio album 'Good
Girl Gone Bad'. She changed from her innocent, cute teen
look opting for a more sexual image. She revealed her new
image while headlining her first tour. This was a good way to
draw more interest to her as it was her first ever headlining
tour where she had a bigger audience to reveal this new look
to. This obviously worked as she has appeared in Maxim's
Hot 100 list for five consecutive years. Her image has become
more risque over the past year and this has resulted in more
media attention to her. Her image has caused some
controversy for example on the 27th of September she was
filming a music video for a single and a Northern Irish farmer
told her to keep her clothes on if she was going to film on his
land.
4. Rihanna (cont)
This made daily headlines as she was performing topless. This worked in
her favour as she became the center of media attention and it meant
that the public became aware she has a new song out and a new album
coming soon therefore more people might gone to listen to it.
Rihanna's tattoos have also drawn some media attention. These include:
a music note tattoo on her ankle, a Pisces sign behind her right ear, a
handgun under her right armpit, the word love on her left middle finger,
a, a trail of stars going down the back of her neck, a skull with a pink
hair bow, the phrase "shhh..." on her right index finger and a few more.
Some of her tattoos have also been critisied especially her gun tattoo. In
response to this the tattoo artist that tattoed the tattoo was quick to
explain his opinion that the image simply "represents strength and
power"
Whether people think that her image is bad, good or "risque" she still
gains a lot of media attention and everyone is always talking about her
and her record company have used this to their advantage as her music
videos, album covers etc are always This in return would mean that
more people will buy her albums and singles as she is always on our tv
screens, magazines and newspapers.
5. JLS R&B, pop boyband. The band
JLS (initialism for Jack the Lad Swing) are a English
consists of Aston Merrygold, Marvin Humes, Oritsé Williams and Jonathan Gill. Their
career started on the X Factor. On the show each member had a colour and they wore
at least one item of clothing with that colour all the time. The colours were yellow,
green, red and blue. They would wear shoes, tops and hats in their individual colours.
This was the band's star image and each member was recognised for the colour they
wore. They started releasing merchandise in those colours too, so fans could buy it to
support their favourite member of the band. Their album covers also consisted of
these colours so that their whole image would flow.
Recently there has been subtle changes to their image, for example they don't wear
those colours as often anymore. They now wear similar colours. For example if they are
dressing for a tv interview and they have to dress smart casual they'll all be wearing
the same colour but maybe in different a different shade or two of them wear the
same colour and the other two wear another Their individual colour thing still carries
on though in their album covers and their mechandise. I think that their star image is
interesting because it makes the stand out amongst other boybands who are in the
same market as them such as The Wanted, Take That etc.
6. Blink 182
Blink-182 is an American pop punk band consisting of vocalist and bass guitarist Mark
Hoppus, vocalist and guitarist Tom DeLonge, and drummer Travis Barker.. Since their
formation in 1992 they have sold over 27 million albums worldwide. Blink-182 songs are
known for their simple melodies, teen angst and occasional lyrical toilet humor. This is
also reflected in their music videos which are often quite humorous. All of the band
members are heavily tattoed. The band can be recognised by their logo which is a smiley
face with X's for each eye and five arrows on the left side of its face. The logo was created
to support their self title fifth studio album. The cover only features the logo and the
band's name. According to the drummer Travis Barker, the logo originated at his clothing
line, Famous Stars and Straps. He stated that he wanted to brand an icon for the band.
Since then the logo has been how people recognise them and it has become their brand.
Their sound and style has influenced many other contemporary pop punk bands that
came after them such as All Time Low, Paramore and Fall Out Boy and record labels such
as Fueled By Ramen who sign artistst in this genre.
7. 30 Seconds To Mars
30 Seconds to Mars are a rock band from Los Angeles. They formed in 1998 and the
band consists of actor Jared Leto, his brother Shannon Leto and Tomo Miličevid. To
date, they have released three studio albums. The band can be recognised with
their mythological and philosophical logos. Their first logo is the phoenix logo which
they named "Mithra". which also has the phrase "Provehito in Altum" which means
"Launch forth into the deep" which is also the band's motto. The logo was originally
used for promotion of the band's debut. However they created a new trinity logo
consisting of three skulls and three arrows pointing inwards, along with the band's
name and motto. With the release of their third studio album titled "This Is War"
they introduced a new logo, known as the Triad, which refers to "group of three",
hence the three sides of the triangle.
8. 30 Seconds To Mars (cont)
The band also has a street team called The Echelon who help with putting up
posters, posting to band forums or related bulletin boards online, voting for the
band in official award nominations and some other promotional work for the band.
The band can also be recognised for the 4 glyphs which appear on all of their
albums. Nobody really knows what they mean or what they stand for and fans
have come with different theories for them. Some people think that they represent
each member of the band, others think that the four glyphs represent the four
terrestrial planets, Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars, others also think that they
stand for the bands name. The band have never confirmed the meaning of the
glyphs and this holds suspense and more people keep on coming up with theories.
9. Iron Maiden
They have won numerous awards for their work such as the Ivor Novello Award for
international achievement in 2002. They frequently use the slogan "Up the Irons" in their
disk liner notes and the slogan is also used on their official merchandise. The slogan is a
paraphrase of "Up the Hammers" which refers to the football team West Ham United of
which Steve Harris the founder of the band is a fan of. They also have a mascot called
"Eddie the Head" He is a perennial fixture in the band's science fiction/ horror
influenced album cover art and also their live shows. Eddie is also featured in the band's
video game "Ed Hunter" as well as this he is featured in numerous books, and any band
related merchandise. In 1982 the band released their most popular and controversial
album "The Number of The Beast". The art work and the title this led to Christian groups
in the United States branding the band as Satanists, encouraging people to destroy copies
of the release. The band's manager, later commented that Christians initially burnt the
records, but later decided to destroy them with hammers through fear of breathing in
the melting vinyl's fumes. Contrary to the accusations, the band have always denied the
notion that they are Satanists. Furthermore the band's drummer, Nicko McBrain, has
been a born again Christian since 1999.
In October 2007 Iron Maiden started using their own private jet as transport for their
"Somewhere Back in Time World Tour". The aircraft was named "Ed Force One" after a
competition in the band's website. The jet was flown by the band's lead singer as he is
also a commercial airline pilot for Astraeus.
