The Question is...
What type of audience do my brands strive to reach?
Without a doubt, the bands I follow (J. Cole, Jay Z, and Roc Nation for those who don't know) reach, for the most part, a teenage audience. Unfortunately my topics have had to deal with the "rap/hip hop is bad for kids" problem, because of the explicit lyrics sometimes found within their music. An article from the New York Times stated, " The average adolescent is exposed to approximately 84 references to explicit substance use per day and 591 references per week, or 30,732 references per year." That's a lot… But that argument is besides the point (I just wanted a reference to prove how much teens do listen).
Now allow me to be specific and answer this question! As for J. Cole, his music definitely reaches adolescents, although as an artist of course he wants to sell his art to everyone. But because of the "generation gap," that is the music biases the older generation has for rap this day and age, J. Coles audience is mostly teens that relate to his story telling lyrics. Unlike like other artist who only rap about drugs, money, and sex, Cole decided to rap about relative issues that most normal people can relate to, such as love, heartbreak, hard times, etc… On J. Cole's own site (jcolemusic.com) someone answered the question "what does J. Cole music mean to you?" The anonymous person said, "when I listen to J. Cole music its like poetry, something a little more than rap. His words teach me about life and everything in it, like women, fake friends, real friends and love.." To the whoever said that, we need to have a cup of coffee together, because that's how I feel about J. Cole's music. But don't get me wrong, Cole definitely also has those songs that go hard.
Jay Z targets a wider audience than J. Cole. Why you ask? Because Jay Z has been in the game longer. You can argue its about lyrics or style but since Jay Z is a father of rap, he also reaches out to an older audience. It's quiet hard to put a title on the way he raps. He doesn't rap about sex, drugs, and money too much either, but Jay Z has the talent to switch up his flow and still be hot fire on the mic. There is an audience out there who just appreciate the beats or music produces Jay Z brings to the table as well. He also does more than just rap, for example, JZ has his own clothing line Rocawear which targets the younger generation as well (T shirts, hoodies). Anyways, Jay Z is a genius when its comes to making good music especially because he really feels for his art.
"Artists can have greater access to reality; they can see patterns and details and connections that other people, distracted by the blur of life, might miss. Just sharing the truth can be a very powerful thing."
-Jay Z (I just couldn't not use this quote.. words from the wise)
Last but not least Roc Nation… Where do I begin… Roc Nation reaches an abundance of people. The company produces music from almost each music genre as well as representing some professional sports player such as Dwight Howard. Jay Z didn't hold back on his company, it's like he threw everything into the mix. If I had to choose a specific audience, I would still say the younger generation since the company is most known as a music label. It's big use of social media is more wide spread for adolescents, considering much of the older generations do not use new technology as much.
But that's it for today y'all,
be breezy.
Without a doubt, the bands I follow (J. Cole, Jay Z, and Roc Nation for those who don't know) reach, for the most part, a teenage audience. Unfortunately my topics have had to deal with the "rap/hip hop is bad for kids" problem, because of the explicit lyrics sometimes found within their music. An article from the New York Times stated, " The average adolescent is exposed to approximately 84 references to explicit substance use per day and 591 references per week, or 30,732 references per year." That's a lot… But that argument is besides the point (I just wanted a reference to prove how much teens do listen).
Now allow me to be specific and answer this question! As for J. Cole, his music definitely reaches adolescents, although as an artist of course he wants to sell his art to everyone. But because of the "generation gap," that is the music biases the older generation has for rap this day and age, J. Coles audience is mostly teens that relate to his story telling lyrics. Unlike like other artist who only rap about drugs, money, and sex, Cole decided to rap about relative issues that most normal people can relate to, such as love, heartbreak, hard times, etc… On J. Cole's own site (jcolemusic.com) someone answered the question "what does J. Cole music mean to you?" The anonymous person said, "when I listen to J. Cole music its like poetry, something a little more than rap. His words teach me about life and everything in it, like women, fake friends, real friends and love.." To the whoever said that, we need to have a cup of coffee together, because that's how I feel about J. Cole's music. But don't get me wrong, Cole definitely also has those songs that go hard.
Jay Z targets a wider audience than J. Cole. Why you ask? Because Jay Z has been in the game longer. You can argue its about lyrics or style but since Jay Z is a father of rap, he also reaches out to an older audience. It's quiet hard to put a title on the way he raps. He doesn't rap about sex, drugs, and money too much either, but Jay Z has the talent to switch up his flow and still be hot fire on the mic. There is an audience out there who just appreciate the beats or music produces Jay Z brings to the table as well. He also does more than just rap, for example, JZ has his own clothing line Rocawear which targets the younger generation as well (T shirts, hoodies). Anyways, Jay Z is a genius when its comes to making good music especially because he really feels for his art.
"Artists can have greater access to reality; they can see patterns and details and connections that other people, distracted by the blur of life, might miss. Just sharing the truth can be a very powerful thing."
-Jay Z (I just couldn't not use this quote.. words from the wise)
Last but not least Roc Nation… Where do I begin… Roc Nation reaches an abundance of people. The company produces music from almost each music genre as well as representing some professional sports player such as Dwight Howard. Jay Z didn't hold back on his company, it's like he threw everything into the mix. If I had to choose a specific audience, I would still say the younger generation since the company is most known as a music label. It's big use of social media is more wide spread for adolescents, considering much of the older generations do not use new technology as much.
But that's it for today y'all,
be breezy.
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