Assignment #11

Reading this article was interesting especially having music and advertisement being involved. My internship is working at a music firm where we advertise artists, brands, and content creators. In the article, “It was born in a small community that shared proclivities for sex, drugs, and anarchic behavior—all threatening to the mainstream. Kindred visual artists, musicians, and designers developed means of expression that helped define the culture’s distinct characteristics. Psychedelic art was a distinct vocabulary, influenced by earlier graphic idioms, that overturned the rigid rules of clarity and legibility put forth by the once avant-garde moderns. Through its very raunchiness it manifested the ideals of the youth culture. For a brief time it was decidedly a shock to the system. But as it gained in popularity (like when it appeared on the cover of Hearst’s Eye magazine or the sets of nbc’s Laugh-In) it turned into a code easily co-opted by marketers.” Psychedelic is a new look in the art, music, and entertainment industry but some people didn’t like the idea of drugs or any “bad influence” being involved. But it speaks for the youth, it’s aiming for a specific target audience. When Psychedelic started going big, marketers decided to look for ways to advertise and make a profit from it. In my job, my boss and I look at trends and turn them into our own assets to advertise an artist. The publicity that the trend is receiving will help us boost our exposure for the artist.

“In turn, the record labels advertised and packaged these bands using the very codes that signaled “alternative” to the growing youth market.” In today’s generation (music industry), Psychedelic is still labeled as “alternative.” Artists that I listen to like The Marias, Melanie Martinez, Paramore, and Cannons, their identity has substances of psychedelic (colors, using drugs as metaphors, music, appearances, visuals, typography) and are under the genre of alternative.

“All it takes is the followers of followers to cut a clear path to the mainstream. Indeed the mainstream embraces almost anything “edgy,” although once the label is applied it is no longer on the edge.” The people have the power to make some content/song go viral. Also, when labels are not familiar with an “edgy” look, it is looked at as “unprofessional.” But when labels are open-minded or see that this “Edgy” look is going big on social media, they will decide to work with it because they’re going to make a profit from it. It’s a good and bad thing, it’s good because they’re giving artists a chance to light up their identity with their music, and bad because if labels don’t see numbers going up or are not willing to give the Psychedelic a chance, then it’s not seen as a “unique” style.