Andrew Huang - Coursework task (Version #2)

1. Andrew Huang
Coursework Task - Revision #2

2. Genre
Andrew 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.

3. 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.

4. Similarities / Differences
The ‘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.

5. Similarities / Differences
Star 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.

6. Target Markets
Demographics - 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.

7. Ideology / Motifs
It’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 diversity and oneness of
humankind at the same time.”

8. Style
In 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.