Negus - organic and synthetic acts in the music industry

Negus theory is all about the way artists are represented and constructed within the music industry and for the public eye of the audience.Negus wrote a book 'producing pop' in which explains how artists are shaped to either be synthetic artists or organic artists. An organic act would be acts such as the 'Foo fighters' and the '1975' in which they are allowed time to grow as an artist, they have lots of money invested in the belief that they will make a lot and last a long time within the music industry. This can easily be shown through images of them writing their own music and be natural when around a camera to show that they are actually talented artists rather then falsely made to look as if they are. Organic acts like these are aimed at a target audience of more mature audience members, so more like adults rather then teenagers. These organic artists are useful for their record labels as they are more likely to last longer in the music industry, so they are ensuring the label a larger amount of income for years to come, artists that you can rely on and trust to always make money for the label.

Where as a synthetic act is a band or artists that has been man made to look perfect and talented but are often known as a 'one hit wonder'. Some examples of this are Carley Rae Jepson, spice girls and one direction. This is because they have been constructed and they have their music written for them rather then writing it themselves. Their music stereotypically tends to be songs that are catchy and that make a lot of money but are forgotten fast and they never end up selling a whole body of work like their albums. Synthetic artists have a target audience of of younger year like 16 year old teenagers and this is because they are only shown what makes the artists look most desirable. The function that synthetic artists fulfil for record labels is a quick flow of money from one of their catchy songs that audience members are craving. The record labels don't have to spend much on production or investments on the artists because they are almost ensured to get fast cash but this never appears to last.

In class we all analysed the album cover of the artist 'Amy Mcdonald' which definitely showed that an organic image like hers can still be constructed synthetcially. This is because in the music industry nothing is completely real or natural.

Another organic artists album to look at is Ed Sheeran's 'X' album. This is an interesting album cover because it subverts any stereotypical album cover because is doesn't even show his face. This album cover doesn't show any detail to Sheeran's face or facial expression this shows that he is a generally real artist because it intrigues the audience to find out more about him as an artist and if they wish to do so they will have to listen to his lyrics and music. This makes his music and songs the most important feature of his album and artist appeal, showing he is talented and all about his music, bringing the traditional vies of music back into the updated music industry. However even organic artists can be synthetcially constructed and it is of no coincidence that he has used a similar mathmatical symbol, which was previously used in his first album cover when Sheeran used a '+' as his album cover name, this is so that audience members can follow the artists latest music and follow him.