Having A 'Niche'

This is what Heather McDonald wrote in her book ‘your guide to music careers’ about finding a niche. “The sad truth is, every writer, radio station, website or fan for that matter, you are trying to reach is likely being bombarded with info from other music hopefuls. You need a reason to stand out. Try to find something that will make people more curious about you – give them a reason to want to know more. Being elusive worked wonders for Belle and Sebastian at the start of their career and people write about Marilyn Manson for being, well Marilyn Manson.”

The spice girls had a clear niche. They were different at the time for being a girl group very set on ‘girl power’. Their famous alter egos, baby spice, sporty spice, ginger spice, scary spice and posh spice got them recognised globally. The girls played on their niche, by having constant reminders in their videos of who they were, they dressed for their appropriate character and on promotions and tours developed themselves to a performance level of the characters. This niche is one of the most famous and the ‘character’ names of the girls are still used today, Victoria Beckham for example is nearly almost called ‘Posh’.  

Voyeurism by artist has been used in music videos to get attention. It has been argued that the male viewer’s gaze at the screen and this is geared to notions of voyeurism in that it is a powerful controlling gaze at the objective female on display. In music videos the female on display has become a reoccurring element. Now however, artists have to think differently about this staple element to find their own niche. Artist Lady Gaga shows the voyeurism in her videos differently by using, a system of screens within screen and charcters shown watching performers or others on television.