Stuart Hall says in his representation theory that in this day and age, stereotypes are generated through mass media, which is the biggest contextualising force in the world. Society sees hippies in two very stereotypical ways, the ‘new’ version of the modern hippie is viewed as a very free-spirited way of life, experimenting with drugs, being in touch with nature and spirituality also plays a massive part in this perception. The free-spirited behaviour from the band members was shown mostly through their facial expressions and body language. They were smiling a lot and it came across clearly that they were in their domain. They were always close to nature: in the wooden beach shack next to the sea and the wind was blowing in their hair and the moon was shining. The spiritual aspect was the clearest when the ‘aura shots’ came through. This represented them being in touch with their ‘higher self’ that could’ve been awoken through a spiritual awakening or through inducing drugs or hallucinogens, which hippies are stereotyped for. This representation here is used in a celebrated positive way despite the idea of drug use, because it is viewed as a spiritual practice. In today’s society drug experimentation is preserved as a very negative lifestyle choice. But in this case, it is. This campaign targets an audience that has similar interests/ views. It promotes a kind of liberal lifestyle and a sense of individuality and originality. This music video shows the audience the good sides of a ‘modern day hippie’ lifestyle, which is unconventional to most individuals. It supports creativity, spirituality, being ‘one’ with nature, carefree and non-conformity life while experiencing another level of living through the help of drug experimenting.
The social media of this campaign is representing the band in a slightly different way. The focus is to create a welcoming community of young creative individuals, that enjoy creating music through their friendship together. The emphases are on the friendships of the group, it reflects small communities of young people that are close friends and thrive of each other’s individuality and contribute to the overall creative process. They spend a lot of time together making music and creating content, but also make sure to have other interests outside the band individually and have their own identity.
The branding of this campaign was mostly contained in the digipak. Where the style and themes were closely linked to the same concept of the music video.
The colour pallet was inspired by nature and drugs, representing an enhanced reality. Blending the lines between what’s real and what is an illusion: the natural colour tones of brown and (most green) infused with neon red and green and turquoise. The writing on the is the front cover is the biggest ‘giveaway’ of the theme of drugs. The way the font is oozing, unfocused and as if almost melting around the band members. This is quite a repetitive type of branding, when it comes to psychedelic pop artists and their artwork. A good description link between hallucinogens and this text that comes through is ‘trippy’. This is a term that individuals that are interested in drug experimentation use when describing their experience while being intoxicated with a hallucinogen substance. The text was inspired by how people explain they see text while being under the influence. The meaning of the words also is inspired by certain slang used amongst social groups with similar interests, involving, experimenting with drugs, a stress-free environment, spirituality, nature, etc.
“Just Breezy” is the name of the band and is a clear link to nature and a carefree lifestyle, like ‘everything is easy’. The name of the album is “Slick Wind” which is another link to nature and stating that the band are ‘cool’. The track list again is selling the listeners the image of the band and what to expect lyrics wise withing each song, there are word references to spirituality, nature, drugs, encouraging society to be kind (“Let’s be kind”) all these words are presented with positivity, even in the drug reference it says, “HAPPY pill”.
As teenage musicians they are encouraging other young people to not be afraid to life their life to their fullest, appreciate and protect the world and be kind humans and self-growth as individuals. For this campaign it is important for the band to represent youthfulness, individuality, originality, creativity since they are dominantly targeting younger.
The photograph of the guitar sells the genre of the music, this way the listeners know what to expect, in this case they know that it will be music played on instruments and quite ‘chilled’ and calm. The photographs of one of the band members indicates to the young audiences that they are stylish and have a sense of individuality and this gives them an idea of the image the band have created.
The campaign engages with the audience and invites them to build a personal relationship through making them think they know the band. The bands Instagram account is a good way of building up that personal relationship between the band and the audience. We can see the bands individual personalities and style come through in the less staged photographs and captions under each photograph, plus the use of emojis. The Instagram allows the audience to see into the lives and music process of the band members. They post about what they do outside of just making music, this gives the audience another aspect to follow and focus on. It’s not just about the music on the Instagram account. The band is using this account to make an impression on the audience so that they would go and listen to their music, buy their merchandise and digipak. The more they post, the more likely it is they will connect with individuals across their platform. They are sticking to colour pallet on the feed so that the posts still go together as a theme. The Instagram shows the audience how they make music together, have jam sessions, do photoshoots. They leave short captions to give context to the audience of what is happening in the photographs. There is a big theme of friendship and creativity and it at times it focuses on the band members as individuals.
Another way the campaign is connecting with the audience is through Surveillance. They make sure they give the audience important information in a creative way of using posters, magazine covers, captions and teaser posts. They inform the audience about when they should expect new music, events or content from them. They use graphic design to make it more artistic and capture their audience’s attention. The most important information is written in larger text and stands out. The band’s name “Just Breezy” is always present on the posters.
The colour pallet is in a colourful theme that is across most of their content and all the content created by the band itself or their team (not a magazine for example) has some signet details for branding. Through these posters the band captures the audience’s attention and make them receive information about the band and be informed about any upcoming events that they are hosting. They make the designs reflect the information written on there and sticking to a theme so that the audience can recognise and identify their branding.
I conducted research to see if the campaign has followed the conventions of psychedelic pop products and it has proven that it indeed has. Especially in the music video and digipak. The music video has similar themes to the other music videos I have researched in the same genre. I watched several music videos, for example Riders of the storm by The Doors, White room by Cream, True Rhythm by The 13th Floor Elevators, etc. All these had a very similar feel to this music video. Nature is a big element as well as drugs, psychedelics, spirituality and a kind of liberal lifestyle and attitude. The biggest theme that joint all of them was the use of colours and overlays. In one of the ‘example’ videos There was a very similar idea to the ‘aura’ shots that this campaign has. They overlay colours over the main singer. Which creates a colour blanket and distorts ‘reality’.
The performance part of the band together is also another big part of each of these videos, they show the dynamic within the group. The second significant part is when only the main singer is seen on screen and all the attention is drawn to them, and this makes them into a kind of ‘leader’ of the group=the face of the band/campaign.
The music video in this campaign is clearly demonstrating the genre very well since all these elements are included in the video. I have noticed a pattern with bands that do psychedelic pop music, the colours are used in the video are very saturated, but still inspired by nature.
The digipacks that are meant for psychedelic pop bands are always showing either all the band members together in a staged pose, with trippy text that states the name of the band and album. These digipaks also have a cool digital design to represent psychedelics or a state of being infused by different kinds of drugs. They blend reality and enhanced reality (triggered by drug substances). The digipack created for this campaign is very much similar to these digipaks and use the same formula. It has the band together in stylised poses, showing off their personality and image as a band. It has text on the front cover that ‘drips’ around the band members, simulating and referencing a drug enhanced state. They use the same theme throughout the whole digipak design. The use of colours is in the same way they use it in the music video, The same aspect of enhanced reality and nature.
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