Andrew HuangCoursework Task - Revision #2

GenreAndrew Huang creates music in a wide variety of genre, but his work can generally be sorted into the umbrella of ‘independent pop’.

Andrew’s output is crowdfunded, meaning he relies on a small community of supporters to pledge small but regular dollar amounts (for example $1/week) to provide him with a steady income.

Andrew subverts the traditional mainstream indicators of success that include star image and recognisability. Instead, with his videos Andrew aims for share-ability and virality (essentially a video’s potential to go viral).

In order to grow his fanbase, Andrew creates videos with interesting and attention-catching premises that people are likely to share with their friends.

Andrew doesn’t rely on star image or name recognition. You will notice that his name is missing from most of his video titles.

Similarities / DifferencesThe ‘YouTube musician’ is an ever-increasing type of popstar. Acts like Troye Sivan (pictured) have achieved radio play and star power by creating music videos through YouTube, and many have gone on to massive international success.

Sivan, a 20-year-old South African/Australian relies heavily on the ‘star image’ part of his marketing. He stars in most of his music videos as well as making regular ‘vlogs’ to further his brand and make his face ubiquitous.

Similarities / DifferencesStar image is not a prerequisite for the success of a musician. One example is the 40-year-old Sia, an Australian singer/songwriter who chooses to avoid the public eye and conceals her face in music videos and live performances.

Although the artist’s face is one Google image search away, she has managed to avoid recognisability, avoiding prejudices that come with it (for example many do not realise Sia’s age).

Andrew Huang is a bit different, as he appears in most of his videos, but the underlying commonality remains that neither artist aims to succeed based on recognisability.

Target MarketsDemographics - Andrew Huang as an artist appeals to a wide range of audiences. Much of his music is designed to have a mass appeal (this comes with the shareable nature of his videos), but his content would be especially interesting to those in the 10-30 demographic as his music often focuses on charting pop hits and much of his success is through social media.

Psychographics - Andrew’s music generally has a ‘feel-good’ quality to it. His videos are mostly light and entertaining, and generally non-controversial. This positive attitude is a common strand through his output and it is clear what kind of person this would appeal to. His content also caters to those with modern social-media-inclusive lifestyles, as most discover him through YouTube.

Ideology / MotifsIt’s hard to pin down Andrew Huang to certain ideologies. Generally he inherits the ideologies of the artists that he is inspired by with each piece of music he releases. Occasionally he will release songs/videos with specific messages that he wishes to convey, often these are motifs of interconnectedness and positivity.

The song pictured here is called ‘We Are One’. In the description Andrew explains:

“I wrote "We Are One" a few years ago, at a time when my news feed seemed filled with tragic stories of suicides, shootings, bullying, racism, sexual assault... I hoped that I could say something to encourage anyone who had been hurt by someone else, to let people know that it is GOOD to be themselves, and celebrate both the divers i ty and oneness of humankind at the same time.”

StyleIn our marketing campaign for Andrew Huang we’ve decided to create a more abstract video based around creative applications of colour and lighting.

We would incorporate existing images of Andrew (that we would modify to suit our campaign) as well as heavy use of abstract art like the ‘Flume’ image to the right. As our artist relies less on star image, photos of the artist himself are not a necessity, nor would be Andrew’s presence in the video.