[Make sure to check out my song!]

REPORT

I continued my research. I focused on creating the fictitious artist, came up with a back story detailing the artist's career so far. I decided to go with a hip hop artist. For my English speaking audience’s sake, I chose the setting to be both the American and Hong Kong music scene. After I have created the artist, I start to think about the album. I listened to many mainstream rap songs to find out what is popular. I compiled a list of ten songs and composed one song to work with. Then I researched about album packaging and came up with the contents for the album packaging. I chose to exaggerate the packaging to bring out the parody effect.

BUILDING THE CHARACTER

Emcee Hao is a Hong Kong hip hop star, song writer and producer. He has been one of Hong Kong's most commercially successful musicians since the late 1990s. Emcee started his music career with the Cantopop boy band called Heavenly Kings in the mid 90s. The band was an one hit wonder and achieved only a little bit of success. In 1999, Emcee left the group and started his solo career while the other Heavenly KIngs eventually left the music scene. Teaming up with big names in the HK hip hop world—DJ Tommy and MC Yan, Emcee's first single was an instant hit. By early 2008, Emcee became the best selling male artist of all time in Hong Kong. With his success riding high, Emcee will try to expand his fan base to an international level by releasing his debut English album in the winter of 2008, simultaneously in Hong Kong and America. The album will be produced by both DJ Tommy and Emcee himself. Snoop Dogg, Jay Z, Three 6 Mafia, and many more American hip hop artists are set to make an appearance on the album.

MAKING THE ALBUM

Style
mainstream rap songs with catchy tunes
Selling points
ridiculous amount of guest appearances, deluxe packaging, a bonus DVD with music videos and behind the scenes footage, access to exclusive contents online.

The TracklistCD   

1. Juicy
   
2. Big Ass Booties
   
3. Money Money Money (feat. Snoop Dogg)
   
4. One Night in Pure (feat. Usher)
   
5. Hello, Kitty (feat. Paul Wall & Mike Jones)
   
6. Straight Outta Canton (feat. Jackie Chan)
   
7. HK Hoes (feat. Three 6 Mafia)
   
8. How We Do (feat. Jay Z, Snoop Dogg, & P Diddy)
   
9. Chinese Gang$tar
   
10. Luv Will Let You Down (feat. Outkast)
   
11. Big Ass Booties (Mega Booty Mix)

DVD   

1. Big Ass Booties (music video)
   
2. Juicy (music video)
   
3. Money Money Money (music video)
   
4. Behind the Mic (making of)
   
5. Interviews with guest stars (Snoop Dogg, Usher, Three 6 Mafia, and Outkast)

ALBUM COMES WITH   

1. 24"x18" poster
   
2. photo booklet
   
3. secret password for online site to download 9 more remixes and unrated versions of the music videos

VIRAL MARKETING

I started working on the MySpace page. Opened up a musician account.

TO DO LIST

   
• Photo shoot for album arts
   
• Package design
   
• Poster
   
• Billboard
   
• Online interface
   
• Social media promotions

Shit son, school started already? Where the fuck did my summer go? Oh right, I didn't have one. Now onto the biggest project of my life: degree project. I need to pass this to graduate so it'd better be good. Damn good. Here's the first draft of my topic.

SELLING CRAP

In today's Hong Kong music industry, a no-talent hack can sell more albums than a true musician. What the fuck? How is this happening?

There are still talented musicians in the HK music scene but they are not ones who are selling. Majority of the sales come from shitty artists who can barely sing. These artists have behind-the-scene musicians writing songs for them. And the songs are usually trendy and catchy. They range from pop, RnB, to mainstream rap. Once the artists have the songs, they will rely on the marketing team to do the rest. The HK music audience are mostly in the teen and pre-teen age. They are easy targets because they will buy whatever is considered "cool" or "in".

There are a couple tricks the marketing does for these artists, one is selling the image. If the artists have good looks, the marketing would have them appear sexy because sex always sells. Other than sex, they can also sell cuteness. Young HK people are suckers for anything cute. Also, if the artist has some connection with other famous people, the marketing would use that as the biggest selling point.

Another trick the marketing team would use is overly excessive album packaging. A typical mainstream album would come with tons of added values. It's never packaged inside just a jewel case. It usually comes in an irregular size. And the extras stuff that comes with the packaging range from bonus dvd with music videos and behind the scene clips, posters, clothings, action figures, to LP records. Also, more usual than not, an album comes out in a number of different versions. Each version with different design and extra stuff. It's double dipping, but people are still buying.

I want to apply these marketing tricks to my degree project. This is what I want to do: Create a marketing campaign for an up and coming ficticious artist’s debut album. The artist has no musical talents but has good looks/image and marketable songs/formulaic guaranteed hits written for him. The artist is not an unknown. He has gained a small following by acting in TV shows for a couple of years. The designer must promote the artist by mentioning anything but his musical talents. The marketing materials should utilize a variety of mediums which include billboards, posters, album packaging, online downloads/sales, and social networks.

I hope to apply humors to my project and parody the marketing for HK mainstream music.

Example of HK no-talent hacks:

Hey peeps, if you like my designs, you should check out this page. Hope you can help out a starving artist. :)

Neil Patrick Harris rules!!! Watch this and laugh your ass off!

NPH as Dr. Horrible

People/things come and go, some are worth holding on to, some are not. New ones come and old ones go away or be forgotten. There are certain ones that will always be around, either physically or in my heart. Those are the ones I love, and they love me back. The ones who don't shall be forgotten and should have never encountered them in the first place. I shall be wise. Make better decisions. :)