Social Media Research: Bands & Branding

     Hello, this blog post will examine the branding methods different bands use to promote their music on social media platforms, namely Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok. The bands I will be researching today are: Hong Kong Fuck You, Dead Butterflies, and Away With Words. Although all three of these bands fit into the vast hardcore genre of music, they have their own little niches and details that set each of them apart, reflected in their branding techniques on social media.

    If you take a look at Hong Kong Fuck You's Instagram, their branding becomes very clear. They know who they want in their target audience, and how to attract them.

A first look at Hong Kong Fuck You's
Instagram page.

    After taking one look at HKFY's Instagram page, one can discern their brand image as being one with an unapologetic and vulgar attitude, fitting for the punk ideologies the band spreads with their music. As much as I'd like to fangirl over their music, this post is about branding, and so, branding I will talk about. Looking at HKFY's branding, it's incredibly consistent, not only with stylistic choices such as the font, color scheme, and references to East Asian pop culture, but also with their captions and catchphrases. Every time they announce a show or tour, they start it off by saying "[LOCATION] IS FUCKED!" or something along the lines of "fucking" a location, feeding further into the previously aforementioned vulgar and punk attitude of their brand. Despite their raunchy image, all of these techniques make their brand memorable, and I suppose that is the end goal of all this, right?

 

Examples of HKFY's branding, showcasing what
I was talking about in the previous paragraph.

    All fucking aside, while looking through HKFY's posts, I asked myself: how can I take inspiration from this for my project? The whole purpose of this blog is to document my thoughts and progress with my project, so I might as well dedicate a paragraph to it. I enjoy the stylistic aspects of their posts, especially the consistent font and color scheme, so I may utilize that when I make my social media posts for Soshe. Since Soshe's logo follows a pink color scheme, I may use a big, bold font, like HKFY's, and just make it pink, since Soshe is still a generally hardcore band.

Soshe's current logo

A logo I designed for Soshe, adopting the
stylistic elements of HKFY's font choice

    Now, moving onto 7-piece Ft. Worth band Dead Butterflies, Dead Butterflies also does a lot of things to keep their brand consistent, but they do it very differently compared to Hong Kong Fuck You.

A first look at the DB Instagram Page 

    As you can see, Dead Butterflies goes for a more raw approach when it comes to promoting their brand – they promote their image more with videos from live performances, and rather than making their own flyers for shows like HKFY, they just let different artists make their flyers each time, making their page not look as consistent as HKFY's page. However, in the grand scheme of things, this doesn't really matter to their alternative target audience, since to be alternative is to not be consistent... or you can be consistent... it can be whatever you want, actually.

    Onto a more local band that's close to my heart, Away With Words is a screamo band from Miami, FL, and I have seen them live dozens of times. Despite having seen them so often, I still don't know how to describe their marketing style. They kind of just do... stuff. They're inconsistent but consistent at the same time, which makes no sense, but that's the whole point, I guess. Alternative people... amirite?!

    The South Florida scene has a strong sense of community, so I suppose the community surrounding Away With Words does the work for them. They book local photographers and videographers, and post their work on the official Away With Words Instagram, as well as rely on promotion for shows via word of mouth and flyers made by local artists.

The Away With Words Instagram page

A post made by local photographer @noizyvisuals
showcasing an AWW performance

More Into Depth: Sasscore

    I had dived slightly into sasscore and what it is in my previous post, but that was just the tip of the iceberg. According to WKNC, sasscore has "a kaleidoscope of influences — hardcore, post-hardcore, metal, new wave, disco, etc. — consistently infused with cheeky irreverence and borderline-effeminate vocality, sasscore is a truly magnificent musical monstrosity that spits in the face of hypermasculinity..." Sasscore is kind of like twee, but make it punk, pink, and unapologetic. The thing that sets Sasscore apart from its hardcore brothers and sisters, though, is that it seems to find its roots in its opposition to the hegemonic masculinity of the hardcore scene. The hardcore scene has always been very hypermasculine and aggressive, when it should be a genre for all gender identities to enjoy. Sasscore rejects this idea of hypermasculinity and invites those who have been victimized by the patriarchal attitudes of hypermasculinity in punk spaces. I could go on about the sociological implications of sasscore, but if I did that, I would completely stray away from the topic. Sasscore is the antithesis of the hypermasculine, and although many sasscore bands are led by men, they aren't scared to express their femininity whatsoever, dressing up in dresses and skirts, and being very public about their sexuality.

Art for Black Eye's self-titled album

Picture of sasscore band SeeYouSpaceCowboy performing

    

    In terms of sound, key stylistic features of sasscore include an "over-the-top, spastic edge, dissonant, chaotic guitars, synths, and blast beats." Sasscore is an acquired taste though. I vividly remember kind of hating it, but eventually it grew on me... or maybe I just got used to the sounds. Either way, sasscore has that "so-weird-its-almost-bad" kind of sound to it, but done well. It's one of my favorite genres of music now. 

    Of course, it wouldn't be hardcore if the subgenres didn't have their sub-subgenres. The kind of sasscore I listen to takes additional stylistic elements from more extreme genres such as mathcore and grindcore, forming a distinct sound people call "whitebelt." It's definitely an odd name, but it's a funny one. I usually spot other whitebelt listeners at shows if they're wearing a white belt. It's kind of an inside joke that if you wear a white belt, you're sassy. Thus, you listen to sasscore. 

Genre Research: Hardcore And Its Subgenres

     Going into this project, I wasn't sure what kind of music video I wanted to shoot, or what genre to choose, but I definitely wanted to choose something I liked. If you've been reading my blog posts, then you know I frequent local hardcore shows, and am in touch with several local and non-local bands! I asked around and then remembered Jade was in a band... and well. The rest is history. 

    Even though I know in depth what hardcore is and what its different aspects are, my beautiful blog readers don't! Let me educate you guys then. Hardcore, or more specifically, hardcore punk music (also abbreviated HxC) is a broad genre of music made up of multiple sub-genres, all consisting of faster-paced, more aggressive music. HxC isn't about the music as much as it is the mindset and views a person has. Hardcore lyrics often express ideas regarding anti-establishment, anti-authoritarian, anti-militaristic, and pro-environmentalist sentiments. Opinions and views in hardcore communities all tie into generally left-wing views, several bands taking stances on ideologies such as anarchism and other varieties of socialism.

    More onto Soshe, it's hard to say, but judging by their drums, vocals, and guitar-playing styles, I would say they fit more into the metalcore, sasscore, and mathcore subgenres of HxC. What exactly is sasscore, metalcore, and mathcore, though? Allow me to explain: metalcore is the broad fusion of hardcore punk and heavy metal, with one of its subgenres including mathcore, which is exactly like metalcore, but includes complex and varied rhythms in songs with irregular time signatures, etc. Some of my favorite mathcore bands are Converge, The Dillinger Escape Plan, and Skycamefalling. Then... there's their weird cousin: sasscore. Sasscore is it's own thing, honestly. It's so niche that it doesn't even have it's own wikipedia page and you have to go under the "sass" subgenre under the Screamo wiki to do research on it. Basically, sasscore is a fusion between hardcore punk and the sound of the San Diego screamo scene in the early 2000's, with bands such as Tower of Rome, Daughters, SeeYouSpaceCowboy, and The Jonbenet being some of my favorite sasscore bands. I forgot to mention this, but some good metalcore bands are On Broken Wings, A Long Winter, 7 Angels 7 Plagues, and Sleeping With Sirens.

Below are live performances from a few of the bands I had mentioned.

Metalcore band On Broken Wings performing "Like Starscream"

Sasscore band SeeYouSpaceCowboy performing "Silhouettes in Motion"

Mathcore band Converge performing at one of their first shows

The art of scheduling

    Scheduling, O, scheduling, where do I even begin?

    Putting together a schedule for this project is probably the closest I will ever get to living in hell. It's been rough, but somewhat manageable. This is the ideal schedule... not everything may go according to plan but I'll definitely try.

 Week One (2/18-2/22) – plan out the portfolio project; what I want to do, who I want to work with, etc.
 Week Two (2/23-3/1) – find out a date where we can film the music video with the band, put together the social media, start on storyboards for the MV and draft a digipak design for the band's EP coming out soon.
 Week Three (3/2-3/8) – Dedicate this week to doing research on other bands, artists, etc. to get inspiration and just to get a general feel for what I want to do.
 Week Four (3/9-3/15) – Put together a filming schedule, put together a final draft for digipak.
 Week Five (3/16-3/22) – Dedicate spring break to filming the music video and editing it.
 Week Six (3/23-3/29) – Reflect on everything, start thinking about what I'd like to do for my CCR.
 Week Seven (3/30-4/5) – Same as week six.
 Week Eight (4/6-4/10) – Finalize everything. Double-check everything. Hell, even triple-check it.

So... what now?

    Now that we're finally beginning the portfolio project in my A Level Media Studies class, we've been given a few options on what we could do for our film. We were given four options: music promotion package, documentary package, film promotion package, and a short film package. I chose to do the music promotion package for a multitude of reasons -– mostly due to experience and skills, as well as connections.

    I'll go more into detail – in my life outside of school, I'm very involved with the local hardcore music scene. I often go to shows with friends, and being at these shows, I make even more friends and connections. One of my friends, Jade, is a friend I made last year in my junior year, and they have their own band up in Orlando, however, they often come down to South Florida to see friends and to go to shows here, since our scene is infinitely better than the Central Florida scene (totally not biased). I reached out to Jade about my project, knowing they'd be understanding since they were also a student of Ms. Stoklosa last year, and they agreed to help me out!

    That was just the introduction of what option I chose for this project. I also chose the music promotion package for various other reasons, a big one being the fact that I am just built for this. In my free time, I design digipaks and often manufacture CDs for local bands to sell at their shows, so to me, this is just a walk in the park. The only real struggle I may face throughout this project is putting together a schedule, since Jade and their band are based in Orlando, and have to make time to take the Brightline down to South Florida to film the music video. We are working it out though! Everyone's on board for this music video and once filming is complete, it's going to be a piece of cake.

    I'm very excited for this project, especially since I'm doing what I love for it. I look forward to making more blog posts!

A very goofy and silly picture I took of Jade
and I at a local music festival few weeks ago

Beginning of the A Level Portfolio Project

 Hello. It's good to be back. From this point onward in my blog posts, I will be documenting and blogging the process of this year's portfolio project. This post is meant to be used as a reference point.

Documentary Reflection #1

     We recently started learning about documentaries in A-level. We watched a documentary called "American Promise" initially, which followed two young boys and their lives at an elite school called The Dalton School. In addition, after watching "American Promise," we watched another documentary called "Exit Through The Gift Shop" that follows an eccentric French shopkeeper throughout his journey discovering and filming different kinds of street art throughout the world.

    Throughout both viewings of the documentaries, our class often took pauses to discuss and analyze each element of the documentaries. We spoke of the effects, composition, shots, etc. However, we got into a deep discussion regarding the symbolism of several things and their meaning. Each discussion was extremely insightful and gave me many perspectives and lenses to view the documentaries from.